Some Development Issues and Debates

The article on tips to the president as it appeared in the Dailytimes. Note, the name is Matchaya NOT mattchaya. that was a typo at dailytimes tips to the president part1 and Tips to the presdient part 2

(A draft of what appeared in The DailyTimes- malawi, Thursday, 3 May 2012; pp 18 and 26) Dr Greenwell Matchaya (Economic Expert) Introduction Now that all seems to be in order and JB has taken control of national affairs, it’s the appropriate time to offer economic development counsel to the president before it is too late as time is really not on our side. The President ought to realize that she inheriting this country at a time when we are at the lowest point in history, socially, economically and politically. Our relations with the outside world are not the best, our relations within the nation are soured by tribalism, and the economy is mauled by absence of radical changes on the supply side, poor donor relations and deteriorating human rights situation. These should be the very first tasks the new government should consider addressing to put the nation on a right track while seeing that we get moving forward. While the importance of reduced corruption, international relatio...

Gc matchaya, phd I think jb shd exercise care in accepting defectors lest she provides cover for hyenas who will work to bring her downfall . Presumably she was being supported by some dpp mps such as kalinde etc. those should be her first priority and then,she should seriously consider working with opposition as one way of encouraging politics of inclusion,. Those who have pledged their support already shud be considered seriously . In fact a government of national unity would be desirable. She should also seriously note that her strength and long term success are dependent on public opinion which itself is a function of people's perception of what she does. Things like bowing down to pressure from tribesmen to lead a tribal grouping are simply in discord with the tenets of survival in multiparty politics in a country with a myriad social fault lines. So should anyone for example approach her privately to try AND convince her that she is more of a certain tribe or religion ...

by Dr G C Matchaya When the news of the demise of the president Bingu wa Mutharika broke out, I was taken by surprise. I did not expect his death to come this soon and just soon after some prophets had predicted it to be very close. Of course the amazement did not last too long as I started pondering on the question of succession. Was it going to be the legitimate successor (the then VP JB) or was it going to be someone else? If it were to be someone else whom then would it be, the Speaker Chimunthu Banda or someone from outside those ranks? No matter how much I tried to think of other possibilities, I was convinced that the presidency was constitutionally JB’s. Now that all seems to be in order and JB has taken control of national affairs, it’s the appropriate time to congratulate her and wish her good luck. So Congratulation and good luck Madam President, this is not a simple achievement and neither is it a simple task. Madam President, you are inheriting this country at a time ...

Should the sad news coming from Malawi be real, the political land scape will change critically and odds will be in JBs favour in 2014 as the stat machinery will be controlled by someone who doesn't have too much 'bads' on her side. The fight however, will be one of PP versus another party in unison with UDF off-shoot. If MCP were to be alive by then, it could as well be a 2 party face off. MCP-vs PP. A match to death , if MCP marries UDF that is. But would be a walkover in case of pp versus mcp without UDF ....alliance with mcp. PP would simply win.

what led to the MCP disaster in 2009? read on at an International Relations journal| IPSA Abstract In this article, an attempt has been made to explain the performance of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) in the general elections by focusing mainly on the 2009 presidential and parliamentary elections in which the MCP lost overwhelmingly. Specifically, the role of sectionalism of a regional and ethnic nature on the MCP’s national level performance was examined. Different kinds of data from the Malawi electoral commission and news media are used in the analysis. Descriptive statistics are used to summarise the effects of different factors on the party’s share of votes. It is found that a complex combination of factors such as district and regional sizes, education level of voters as proxied by district and regional level data, party level policies and organisation, incumbency, campaign expenditure, individual leaders personal characters and past legacy, party conduct in parliament am...

I was shocked by the way events unfolded in my loved country (Malawi) yesterday. Order appeared to be slipping away and the country seemed to be treading toward some of social and political schizophrenia. Things were indeed falling apart and we were quickly losing the oneness and love that was heavily promoted in the past. I felt very angry, very upset and very resentful about all what was happening. I knew people were going to die and so some of them indeed died. We are with them in prayer and may their souls rest in peace. We also pray that the families left behind will have God’s protection and grace as we forge ahead. Some important questions about this is, how did come this far? Did we have to? How did we let this happen? Going forward, it is imperative that we do serious soul searching and leave all the blame games, concentrate on finding out the root causes of our problems at the moment, address them and forge forward. The issues of the rule of law, economic and social advanc...