Friday, March 30, 2012

Nationalism

Disclaimer: I have only ever lived in Malawi though I have attempted to break beyond the barriers of boundaries by engaging with various writers' works. Any ethnocentric views are totally unintended even though in a broader sense, and as post-structuralist argue, there is no way to be in control over the meaning any text will eventually render.

Malawi remains a country that is hard-pressed on several fronts. The number of these fronts, in my humble opinion, rest mostly in a lack of a compelling idea that defines what it is our country values and wishes to achieve. This void obtains itself from a colonial background (though this excuse no longer appeals to me anymore) as well as a severe deficiency in the practise of our politics. Our politics in Malawi remain politics of exclusion, of division, of subjugation and of rewards and punishment. Our politics never allow any particular way of, call it, progressive thinking to materialize into a way of life or a culture so to speak. Definitions about anything that has transcendental value such as life, dignity, rights, freedom and other lofty ideas of a modern world remain in flux as they are only deployed in order to sustain and enhance powerful interests, and to dampen public conciousness by systematically creating groups of people with or without priviledges.

The argument then might be, would this not then denote a State that was intelligently deployed a propaganda that has moved people to respond as they currently do. I would say to that question that the secret lies in the overpowering wealth and institutional might resident with government as an organization to whom all people from various strata in society look for their daily bread be it in the millions or the cents. The government of Malawi continues to be the life-line for all manner of businesses both directly via tendering, as well as indirectly, via its spending. The private sector remains small which means it is unable to sustain itself with its own business networks. The private sector must remain small as well in order for government or shall we say State to remain strong. On the lower end reside the poor, whose main concern is food for today, for tomorrow and for next year. Rural and even urban life of the economically marginalized is characterized by the troubles of finding food as well as shelter (in the urban setting), and not necessarily with the naive view of food for today, but with the long term view of food for next year. Much of the formulae for finding food banks on the direct intervention of government.

Nationalism, in such an environment, is therefore a term that remains in flux. It only becomes action along the backdrop of political rhetoric so that power is consolidated. However, any government must remain in control regardless of whatever political regime it adheres to. This further denotes that the very integrity of a government requires a retention of power so that it can hold together over time. Add that inherent nature to a situation where life at every level is has a direct link with government and you quickly begin to envisage a society in which the national agenda is really an aggregation of individual needs that are not tied to an abstract overarching definition but to a very raw, very base translation of what a prosperous country should be. In our case, a prosperous country is a country whose government is able to meet the exact need that I am struggling with.

This is not to say that Malawians in general are a people who lack innovation. On the contrary, they are tireless and resilient in there efforts. However, there innovation, in my opinion, is primarily for survival in which case they do not see how their efforts come together alongside other people's efforts into a national agenda. Innovation is not linked to nation building. It is linked to survival, and then for those that do make it, success, and then reward. The reward of having made it in an extremely daunting environment. The national agenda is therefore deliberately made obscure in terms of popular participation so that the Ngwazi, the Savior, The God of Malawi, might be crowned as the only one who, through his superior intellect, has a handle on the extremely complex topic of nation building and unification. This manifests as empty rhetorical praise on Malawi Broadcasting Corporation, which by the way, has praised every government it has found itself under since its inception.

Politics in Malawi do not have the maturity to translate innovation in the public domain so that it becomes something that unities us. Politics in Malawi require divisions so that power can be maintained and enhanced. Even when a landslide victory is granted to a presidential candidate, they will run their office in such a way as to ensure that the landslide victory does not translate into a massive, unified vote of Malawians as a whole. But rather the specific interests of groups, ethnicities, regions, communities mandating an individual to rule for meeting their specific struggles. Malawi never speaks, therefore, together with one message. We speak as factions with different views of the same message. We speak as distinct interest groups from within the public. Country functions a collection of political parties so to speak, with everyone attempting to out-screw everyone else.

In recent weeks and months, I might argue that my theory might be proven right. We have seen a gross inability to think of human rights violations by the current government in a general way that is all inclusive. But rather our efforts turned into (a) lawyers demonstrating for the judiciary to be re-opened as it has threatened "their" right to economic activity (a human right), (b) CSOs organizing sit-ins for the unfortunate and deplorable torching of "their" colleagues houses by state agents, (c) Courts striking for "their" employment package amendments that were enacted by parliament as long ago as 2006, etc. All of which speak of a government that sees itself as not bond neither by any law nor any need to be accountable to citizens. At the end of the day, Malawi failed to realize that we were in fact all suffering from symptoms of that same ailment. And we each went on to fight our symptoms primarily from our own standpoints, and lost the war altogether as a nation.

In religion, particularly Christianity, which is one religion I feel competent to comment on, we see the over-personalization of Jesus as Lord and Saviour has espoused by the evangelical movement further destroy the sense of community and togetherness. In Jesus, people now look to their situation and their Savior and rarely beyond it, and develop the latent attitude that says, "as long as Jesus is watching over me, and providing for my needs, then I am alright" even if the police are outside shooting other citizens who are only fighting for the same aspirations that you pray to God for. We find ourselves with a Church that refuses to develop a theology that is Malawi specific, and devotes its energies to prescribing dresscodes for women and empowering people to be powerful but only as individuals. We find a church that never falls short of messages for Sundays and Saturdays but fails to formulate a stance on what is just and unjust in an ailing society. Again, government is present everywhere, and it is in the Church's interest to accord government its due respect lest it loses out its priviledges in the current arrangements. I will dare to say that Christianity as advanced by the mass tele-evangelists of the USA is an extension of capitalism and the recurrent themes of prosperity and success find their roots in the American dream, dating back to the founders and their formulation of that countries constitution. At best I can only say that their Christianity is based on a theology that is relevant to them, and perhaps not relevant to us nationally.

A lot has been said, and arguably a lot has been done, but at the end of the day, we see how as a society we have failed to recognize our struggle as universal. We have only conceptualized it as a bar to one's own progress in life. The void is that we have not yet come to see and think of ourselves as a nation. We are more like people who live within the boundaries of this geographical place called Malawi, in which are role is to develop our individual selves at whatever cost to the country we find ourselves in.