Contract with Malawians: A reflection

Honouring Contracts and enforcement is lacking across the breadth of the Malawi society. We have not respect for contracts. It starts from Plot No. 1 where President after President fails to honour their side of the contract. They sign a contract for 5 years to defend the constitution and to be a servant of Malawians. Within days of signing the contract all hell breaks loose. A similar pattern is adopted by Ministers, Members of Parliament, Judiciary, public servants and the whole society including "themu-themus" (house workers) follow the leaders in dishonouring their side of the contracts. Shall we call it "organised chaos" to quote one Goli Mwanza? Maybe as citizens we have to take the lead and show how we can honour our side of the contract. Now that there is some wage adjustment in the civil service, let the civil servants honour their side of the contract. Deliver and increase your productivity. Malawi public sector productivity is one of the lowest in the world. Yes I don't have scientific evidence but from education results, health delivery and public services, we surely must be competing at the bottom. Here is the deal, come Election Day, those that don't honour their side of the contract, should be booted out. The challenge is that not all consumers are civil servants. What about the millions that are not part of the famous 60 percent and thus continue to struggle with everyday life? We can only assume that since there is a little bit more money in hands of civil servants, they will be able to spend more and thus give the economy a stimulant. We can assume that the so called Economic Recovery Plan will take care of the rest and get us back on track. Of course the reality is that this is plain psychological. Malawi's economy is in bad shape and there is "organised chaos" among those that are trying to implement the Economic Recovery Plan. They have a contract with Malawians, but they don't intend to honour that contract because simply it is not in their nature and they don't care