Global Policy Forum

It would seem Malawians have lived through the many years of the IMF and World Bank indirect rule and their unbridled structural adjustment in vain. The hardships we are going through are primarily a consequence of the resounding and irreversible failure of an economic and political conception imposed on Malawi, and indeed the whole world: neo-liberalism and neo-liberal globalisation.

And these economic and social hardships our people are forced to endure are totally being blamed on political leaders' corruption, extravagance and lack of priorities. Yes, these have some truth in them but they don't tell the whole story - there's much more to it. Attribution of all our economic and social problems to these factors could only be made out of ignorance or as an attempt to hide the real cause - the resounding and irreversible failure of IMF and World Bank indirect rule in Malawi.

While it cannot be denied that some traces of corruption, extravagance and lack of priorities have considerably aggravated the situation, we should not forget that these factors are a product of this whole system - they are inherent problems of these policies. Some IMF and World Bank policies breed corruption, extravagance and lack of priorities in our leaders and indeed our people. These problems feed off one another.

And the failure of the IMF and World Bank's indirect rule and their policies mean the aggravation of the major problems that our people face and that are far from being solved: poverty, hunger and disease which kill thousands of our people every year; illiteracy, lack of education, unemployment, and the exploitation of thousands of children through child labour and prostitution; the trafficking and consumption of all sorts of drugs; money laundering; the lack of clean drinking water; the scarcity of housing, hospitals, communications, schools and other educational facilities.

Clearly, the basic rights of the great majority of our people are affected. This is despite the fact that our leaders have the political will to bring to an end the miseries of the people. For instance, President Bakili Muluzi and the ruling UDF party have been saying repeatedly that Malawi can end its hunger by subsidising agricultural inputs. Surprisingly and disappointingly the World Bank and the IMF have been rejecting Malawi's request. The outcome of this stance taken by the Bretton Woods institutions, have resulted in Malawi producing insufficient harvest to feed its 11 million people.

We are certainly paying a premium for the stupidity of foreigners, those who thought they can improve our country's economy by levelling everything to the ground; those who foolishly thought the world was a perfect market where privatisation and unbridled economic liberalisation was the solution to a nation's problems. They, out of mere ignorance of the real situation in Africa, have been insisting in the sweet fruits, that IMF and World Bank's structural adjustment programmes bring to those countries which religiously follow them.

Even in countries whose leaders have been boasting of kissing Structural Adjustment Programmes in the morning, at noon and in the evening, probably hoping they would become darlings of the IMF and World Bank and win more and more favours from them. Many countries, including Malawi, are still suffering on many fronts because of their strict adherence to IMF prescriptions. And despite having liberalised its markets, as dictated by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, Zambia has still not started benefiting from it.

What the country needs now is to think through its strategies and that primarily involves freeing itself from the IMF and World Bank indirect rule and start to direct the affairs of this country in the best interests of our people, and not the major shareholders of these institutions. We are stating this with the full awareness of what has been happening in the world to those who have renounced more progressive policies, policies based on social justice which protected all the people, and implemented neo-liberal policies.

At the beginning of the 90s, or at the end of the 80s, progressive policies had suffered a terrible blow. Today, the terrible blow has been dealt to ideology of neoliberalism, through a profound economic and ideological crisis which has matured for all to see. Experience counsels that instead of being bewildered by these gigantic problems for which there appear to be no solutions our leaders act with great realism - but not pragmatism - in these circumstances so as not to lose their balance, re-establishing their sense of the future, renewing their historic optimism.

The success of IMF and World Bank policies over any alternative model of social development is a matter of propaganda than fact. If humans prevail, alternative policies to the IMF and World Bank's programmes will be found and implemented. The main thing is to have a political leadership that has a clear understanding of today's neoliberal world and can stand firm.

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