adminshow they are struggling to restore the country’s ties with its Western donors. This is understandable considering that the country exclusively relies on foreign aid to cover 40 percent of its budget.
But what is most worrying is that the people seem to be oblivious of the folly of depending on foreign aid to sponsor their economy. Recently their economy nose-dived after foreign aid donors unceremoniously withdrew their assistance when the country’s late president got embroiled in a diplomatic tiff with Britain.
As a result, the former colonial power decided to immediately withhold its essential aid to the donor dependent Southern African nation and simultaneously triggered similar punitive actions by its European allies and the United States. These punitive measures precipitated acute foreign currency shortages that resulted in severe shortages of fuel, electricity and other basic supplies in Malawi.
To a discerning eye, the vindictive actions by the Western powers were a mere showcase of their successful stranglehold over the Malawian economy in particular and the whole country in general.
The snooty imperialists were brazenly showing that through their disempowering aid, Malawi was now practically under their control. In other words, they have managed to successfully subvert Malawian sovereignty and territorial integrity. The imperial powers have managed to use their economic clout to literally force Malawi onto its black African knees.
What was needed against such conceited imperial actions was a show of defiance and nationalism from the Malawians. This was squarely provided by the late Mutharika who stood his ground and refused to grovel to these shameless imperialists. As the plot thickened, the late president took the fight to another level and actively begun to seek measures to embolden the country’s self determination and self-dependency.
Nevertheless, his sudden death brought his entire Pan-African efforts to a sudden stop. Within days of his death, his successors were impetuously trying to dismantle the entire Pan-African infrastructure he had set up. That the new leaders were tenaciously grovelling for the restoration of foreign aid is regrettable. It entails the opening up of their economy, which is euphemism for surrendering their country, to the US and its neo-colonial allies.
At this juncture, it became apparent that like a drug addict to cocaine, the Malawians have become so addicted to foreign aid that they have found it hard to function without the timely dosages of the foreign sourced alms.
Even though the Malawians were experiencing difficulties spawned by their over reliance on foreign aid, they would not think of anything else but to ingratiate themselves to their erstwhile donors.
Just as the drug addict would remain unmoved by the corrosive side effects of cocaine, Malawians could not imagine living without donor handouts despite paying a steep price in political servitude.
Malawians have hopelessly become addicted to foreign aid and will dutifully do anything to keep the aid flowing. It should fully be noted that the Malawians and other developing nations’ addiction to foreign aid is not a coincidence.
The crafty Westerners have not designed foreign aid purely out of benevolence but as a shrewd way of retaining their stranglehold over their former colonies as well as protecting their sprawling world-wide imperial interests.
No matter how many pats they will presently get on their backs, the new Malawian leaders will rue the day they decided to slide back into the greedy hands of donors from the West. Many countries in the world have trodden this donor and IMF padded route but have found it impassable; it is littered with debt traps and eventual loss of sovereignty.
Globally, no country has successfully implemented these structural adjustment programmes and it is therefore sheer folly for the new Malawian leaders to back pedal towards that route. They are trying to embrace economic blueprints that other sovereignty-conscious countries are frighteningly running away from.
Such misguided servility to Western aid will perpetuate the country’s “poor country” tag and rob its citizens of their inalienable right to self-determination while delivering them back to neo-colonial servitude.
Mindful of these regrettable developments, it is equally disheartening to realise that in Zimbabwe we have similar politicians who believe that the country cannot effectively function without the guiding or is it the misguiding hand of Western donors and their debt spinning institutions of IMF and World Bank.
It is instructive to these donor addicted African politicians that Zimbabwe has managed to tame her addiction and now stands proudly on her feet despite an unprecedented donor flight triggered by the successful implementation of its land reform programme.
l Tendai Moyo is a researcher and social commentator
Online Reporter
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