Incase you missed it in the Sunday Times... IS IT JUSTIFIABLE FOR PRESIDENT MUTHARIKA TO HAVE QUITE A NUMBER OF AIDES/ADVISORS? By Greyson Chapita. Mutharika: Doesnt believe in a one mans show This week the talk in town was about the presidential advisors that President Peter Mutharika has hired to help him in stirring up the agenda for Malawi. Thus far, the significance of having these presidential advisors cannot be over exaggerated. However, it is the quality of criticism that is making rounds on the advisors that is so bewildering and incomprehensible. For a start, the critics were all over peddling lies that President Mutharika had hired about 20 advisors. They claimed this was way of stuffing up the space that Mutharika’s 20 member cabinet created. But nay, this has been clarified with facts. The Ministry of Information released a statement that listed the hired advisors and the number is coming to seven which to me is so manageable. The statement even puts to rest the argument that seemed to have been well crafted alleging that the Advisors will be getting the perks similar to those of cabinet ministers. They went further to brand the move as a total waste that will end up masticating our tax money willy-nilly. Contrary to the claims, what we have now is news that the out of the seven the three Chief Advisors are carting home a gross salary of K402, 441 per month while the four Special Advisors are getting K352, 910 apart from some controllable benefits befitting the nature of their job. You even wonder where the individuals were getting their information from. Let’s not get obsessed with this business of picking on our leaders at will. It’s even laughable to note that the critics were including the Presidential Press Secretaries, Press Officers and the Presidential Assistants on the list just to rationalize their case. Some of these things just need common sense. To me it seems like some people would rather have a dictator of a president than have a president who consults and makes two-pronged decisions. They fancy a one man show at statehouse, anybody who comes near the president it automatically becomes a total waste. What kind of philosophy is this? In simple words, the criticism lacked substance but only exposes the mania that some people have in opposing and criticising everything that comes from Statehouse. They don’t even care as to whether they have facts or not. They are busy looking for faults in the current administration even when there are none. It seems like President Mutharika is playing them very smart, coupled with plenty of confidence in his dealings that they are even struggling to raise issues against him and they are now picking on some trivia. All they are doing is to create stories from nowhere just to satisfy their new found trade of criticising. Not that the president cannot make mistakes, we are all humans and prone to some goofs here and there, but that doesn’t mean that we should restrict ourselves to a fault finding corner. There is plenty of encouraging and immense work being done at the moment. Talk about the historical Civil Service reforms currently underway. That’s what we as a nation needs to be talking about. President Mutharika outlined his developmental agenda during inauguration, at parliament and at the 50th Independence celebrations. I think it would do us better if we all get together and work to make sure that the face of Malawi is transformed per the wish of our leader because this will be an achievement credited to Malawians not Mutharika as an individual. Imagine this, of all the reasons that one can give in criticising these appointments, I just read on Nyasatimes that CAMA’s boss John Kapito said we should do away with these advisors because all they do is gossip at State House. Are we serious? So far President Mutharika has clearly demonstrated that he is aiming at nothing but fulfilling his campaign promises. He did not preach about austerity as a political rhetoric but it is evident now that he is walking the talk. This is noticeable in the lean cabinet that he recently appointed and the seven advisors that he has just hired. Instead of condemning everything that comes from statehouse the best we can do is wait and see whether these advisors will deliver or not. Once we notice so many goofs from up there that’s when we will know that the seven are nothing but passengers in the statehouse bus. I remember from the time of Bakili Muluzi, Bingu Wa Mutharika and Joyce Banda, we all moaned and groaned when we felt the advisors were not doing our former presidents a very good job. Meaning, we all can agree that each president needs good advisors around him. Knowing Mutharika as an experienced politician and academician, I believe he gave it a careful thought before picking these advisors, no doubt about that. Presidential advisors are very useful. As people who are specialised in a particular field they can therefore offer timely advice to the president for timely decisions. These are the people that have access to the president without encumbrance even more than cabinet ministers. They are the people that shape up the president’s agenda and help in directing policy. Advisors become the eyes and ears of the president. As experts in their field, they are there to do research on behalf of the president and guide him accordingly so that he should be able to sell such ideas to his cabinet ministers. However, it should be known that presidential advisors don’t take over the role of cabinet as the main advisory body, but these are the people that work close to the president as political and professional counsellors. There are some decisions that the president needs to make, he will need some facts on the ground to inform such a decision and will rely on the experts to give him advice. If the president goofs somewhere, the advisors are there to do some pep talk based on specifics. We can’t even start negotiating the fact that President Mutharika needs advisors to help him carry out his duties effectively. This is not a new occurrence, it happens everywhere. For example President Jacob Zuma of South Africa which is one of the economic power houses in Africa has a team of advisors. President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria has close to 20 advisors at statehouse. All over the world we have heard of presidents picking advisors. Talk about President Barrack Obama of the United States. The case is the same. Why should it be different with Malawi, a country that is still trying to get itself out of poverty? The president needs more heads, diversity in thinking and a vibrant resource team to move things around. This political journey doesn’t need a Mr Know-It-All. This is a democratic system of government where the needs of people should always be prioritised. The office of the president is not an ordinary office. This is an office that is so overwhelmed with state matters; therefore it needs systematic structuring and a practical framework that will drive policy at all levels. At the rate we are moving, one day we shall find ourselves demanding that we do away with cabinet ministers because we have Principal Secretaries as technocrats in the ministries. From there we shall demand for the removal of our Members of Parliament by claiming that their work can easily be done by ward councillors. We shall even start asking for the abolition of the office of the president and propose that traditional leaders take over. What I have noted is that the critics are only arguing on the point of over spending not on the roles and responsibilities of these presidential advisors. Running government is a serious business and spurring development needs great investment in all sectors. You invest in human resource, capital, machinery and many more. President Mutharika believes in that. He has demonstrated that he needs more hands to help build the best of Malawi. The best we can do is offer advice to the Presidential advisors that they shouldn’t turn themselves into hand clappers and cheer leaders. greysonchapita.blogspot/2014/07/is-it-justifiable-for-president.html
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 11:28:10 +0000
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