It is pleasing to learn that leader of opposition and Malawi Congress Party (MCP) president Lazarus Chakwera appreciates the suffering Malawians are going through in view of the prolonged power outages.
In his public address yesterday, Chakwera acknowledged the state of hopelessness Malawians are embroiled in as there seems to be no end to the blackouts and other economic problems plaguing the country.
Chakwera rightly states that President Peter Mutharika is either inept at leadership and is completely clueless on what his cadres are doing in destroying the country or he is complicit to these nefarious schemes.
While we commend Chakwera for speaking out on behalf of the majority of Malawians, we feel MCP can do more as a government in-waiting.
It is a well-known fact that businesses, especially small enterprises, are always vulnerable in this situation as they have to thrive on their small capital, which is not generating returns.
We feel that as a party, MCP should speak out more about what they stand for on such pertinent issues which can give us an idea of what they can do to remedy the situation once ushered into government.
Indeed, Chakwera has raised pertinent issues as no economy can develop without electricity, and government’s optimism on growing the economy despite the power outage is, to say the least, a sign of denial.
What Malawians need at this point are solutions on how best to go about this situation. The issues Chakwera raised in his speech are real but as a government in waiting, MCP needs to offer more than that. What we want at this time is for the MCP leader to clearly outline his party’s policy choice on energy—policies that should differentiate the opposition from government and give Malawians reason to vote for them in 2019. So, to our leader of government in-waiting, what we want to hear from you at this juncture is not just criticism, but also the advice and solutions that you would offer to government!