OF PRESIDENTAIL ASPIRANTS IN MALAWI

By Andekuche D Samalani Chanthunya

The constitutional conference of 2007 agreed that presidential candidates must posses a minimum of a first degree This many believe will help the nation as people with such qualifications will find it easy to understand complex issues that frequent the presidential in tray.

Many people, me inclusive, believe that university education grooms you to be able to present and argue as well as pursue ideas in a coherent manner. It is also tailored to make one understand and look at a picture in a broad perspective and this works to the advantage of those with such high qualifications..

We have a good example here in Malawi, where our first head of state had a PhD. Though he was a brutal dictator, others continuously argue that his economic drive was sound and result oriented. Our second president, a non graduate, is said, and rightly so, that his understanding of anything policy wise was terrible. His successor, an economics PhD graduate has so far proved that he is visionary and has a passion of concrete policy.

It is understandable therefore to conclude that graduates will obviously perform. Some people give an example of John Major as a reason not to barr non graduates from aspiring for the high office. But everyone who knows British politics and the politics of the conservative party will tell you that Major is the prime minister Britain should never have had- talk about Black Wednesday. But you will also be told that Oxford graduates like Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher and Atlee made serious reforms that built their nation economy strength by strength.

Arguments about whether a presidential aspirant should have a degree or not usually go in favour of those that support the argument. And it’s perfectly understandable that such should be the case because in every society, education is valuable. Good jobs, nice cars and good lifestyles are always an incentive that teachers from primary through universities promise students.

However am a great believer in Social Justice its values. Social justice is about fairness. It is about bridging the equalities gap between the poor and the rich; the educated and the illiterate; the privileged against those who never had the opportunity. Social Justice is about facing reality no matter how dull or bright it looks.

The only argument which must be advanced is that barring non graduates from running for presidential office is against the principle of social justice and that consequently undermines the theory of democracy which we should be promote promoting.

As a nation we need to understand that unless we are able to create a scenario where all our children have an opportunity to go to university or get a degree this policy will always be discriminatory against the poor. We should also be able to provide a second chance to those who did not have the opportunity to go to university.

At the moment we have free primary education. Technically the most we can say is all presidential aspirants must poses a primary school leaving certificate. Since secondary education fees are quite high and government does not provide bursary for it, it will be unfair to punish those who did not manage to go to secondary school. What’s worse is that this policy also sidelines the thousands of school leavers who do not manage to go to university, not because they are dull, but because the intake at the University of Malawi is low. The policy being proposed can only come into play if, and only if, our university is able to accommodate everyone with promising results.

As I argue this, I have in mind a relation who got 22points at MSCE but didn’t make it to university. Had his parents not been able to send him abroad for further education he would never have had his degree and therefore would never have qualified for presidency. Can this be fair?

Many people are able to go to private institutions like the Malawi College of Accountancy, Shareworld and the other universities which have sprung up over the past decade. It can be argued that parents who send their children to these institutions foot huge tuition and examination fees. Only a small fraction of these people are from the middle class, the rest are the rich. The losers are obviously the children of the forgotten majority workless class in this country.

To the extreme even if a man is a drunkard and his wife a lazy good for nothing woman and due to this they haven’t educated their children. And among those children one grows to be charismatic and in tune with the needs of the people and is broad enough to stand against the forces of darkness, should the nation really just abandon them even though the people are on his side?

Many people who support barring non graduates from contesting for the presidency have got their judgements affected by their dislike or hatred of Bakili Muluzi. This issue should not be trivialised by personalities, it should be about the idea to be fair to everyone who is willing to be a brick in the building of the Malawian destiny. Ofcause some will argue that we cant all be winners and that life isn’t fair, and they are right, but our constitution should be fair, it’s one of the most important reasons why it exists.

Malawi should be watering its democracy to grow and not building barriers of privilege to divide ourselves, especially if that division is over classes. Anyone, graduate or not should be allowed the opportunity to serve our nation in that great office because who ever will do us a great service will not be identified by the certificates they have, but the works of their hands and the trails of development they will leave behind. After all to be a good leader you need two things, to be a good listener and be able to identify people with talent and skill to do a good job.

I am a progressive, I have made my stand, I want a fairer nation, its time you make yours.

The author is a student at Nottingham Trent University, UK.