The conspiracy is clear by now. The ACB (anti corruption bureau) is being stifled through underfunding: the allocated money is simply not transferred by a government that shows its dedication to its own corruption. The promised report is not published, and the prosecution of the Cashgate Criminals is not being done, save for a token few on a lower level. How many get convicted, how much of the stolen money is recovered? We don’t know. But the story does not look rosy. So far we may have thought that, as a population being robbed by its own ruling class, we could have had an ally in the donor community. They always talk about Good Governance, conditionalities, rule of law, and a dedication to helping the poor. Beautiful words, and really a worthy cause, a life’s fulfillment they could be proud of. They could, I write, and I mean they could if they would walk the talk. But do they do that? Do the donor community support us, the poor, the middle class, the working, the farming, the average Malawian? NO, NO, THREE TIMES NO! We are being betrayed, not only by our own ruling class, both political and top civil servants, as well as the tenderpreneurs that connive with them to rob us of the development funds that are rightfully ours. That we know, and that is bad enough. But the donor community with all their talk, they do not follow up with action. Read the Nation on Sunday: Alexander Baum, the man who had such strong words against the mis governance of the Mutharika Administration. He turns and wriggles and talks in mysteries, but in fact what he says is: I cannot wait to disburse more funds, Cashgate, or no Cashgate, I want to finance this same group of people that stole the previous allocation of development money. He just wants to go on business as usual, which means: we get robbed, and the donors get robbed and some rich people get richer and the poor get poorer and the economy stays in the same vortex it always was, and no programmes are implemented in a meaningful way, and Alexander Baum and the whole donor community are OK with that. If they fulfill their tasks, disburse the funds and submit the (cleaned up) reports, they can move on to another post in another country, continue their career, and be comfortable in their life, knowing that they enjoy good governance in the European Union, or other donor country. But we, the population of Malawi, we are stuck with a criminal ruling class, that steals our money, and keeps our economy at next to zero, creates no jobs, and hinders wealth creation. We cannot move on, because we live here and we must stay, and try to make something of our country. It would be nice if the donor community would use the donor funds for their intended purpose, which is development, and not for financing the Cashgate Class that ruins our beautiful country.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Feb 2014 08:37:08 +0000