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| Opinion |
| Remove some of the holidays |
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by
Aleke Banda, 08 July 2006
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05:58:44
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Malawians were taken by surprise by Tuesday’s lunch-hour announcement that government had declared Wednesday, July 5, and Friday, July 7, as additional holidays to July 6, the country’s National Day.
The declaration was received with as much amazement as dismay because of various factors, including the sudden nature of the announcement and the adverse implications of the decision on the country’s economy.
Published reports have quoted captains of industry as putting the cost of the three-day rest to the economy at a staggering US$15 million. I consider this a very conservative figure that has only looked at losses in production. The real cost to the economy could, in my view, actually be much higher.
To its credit, government listened to these concerns and reversed its decision by saying Friday would be a normal working day. I have to say, however, that this was too little, too late because damage was already done.
I have no doubt that many of our corporate executives might already have been at the lake when the reversal was being made. It may well be the case that some had even flown out of the country or were planning to do so. Indeed, foreign business partners who were planning to come into the country had probably already cancelled their flights by the time government was reversing its unwise decision.
What has been done cannot be undone but my hope is that we are all going to pick the right lessons from this fiasco and avoid a repeat of the same in future. To do that one has to look at the thinking behind the initial declaration of the two extra holidays.
The only event taking place on July 5 was the national service of worship which, most likely, involved less than a thousand people for a period of about three hours. The only event which was scheduled to take place on Friday 7th July, was the luncheon which would, probably, involve about three hundred people. Did it make economic sense, therefore, for the whole country to grind to a halt because of those two events?
Even if you include the fact that some people were travelling to Lilongwe on Wednesday and returning to their bases on Friday, would that be enough justification for declaring holidays on the two days considering what that would cost our already struggling economy?
In any case, even if a holiday could be justified, it is not right to declare a holiday at a day’s notice. People, businesses and all institutions need to plan and this cannot be done within a few hours.
Actually, as far as I am concerned, instead of increasing the number of holidays in Malawi, we need to reduce them. There is just so much to be done to develop this country that we cannot afford to rest even for a day. Any holiday that we must have, therefore, has to be very necessary.
This country seems to have adopted the thinking that any big occasion needs to be commemorated with a holiday. Is that really the way to go if one considers the overall vision of all Malawians — that we need to urgently move the country towards some semblance of prosperity?
I feel time has come for the nation to sit down and scrutinise all holidays on our calendar and see those that require a holiday and those that can be commemorated in a more productive way. For example, does it really make sense to have a holiday on Chilembwe Day and another on Martyrs’ Day when the two days have the same theme?
June 14 is an important day in the country’s history because it is when Malawians cast their vote in a referendum to decide the destiny of this country. But does the importance of the day really require a holiday?
Similar inquests could be made on various other days declared as holidays in the country but the principle should be the same that only where a holiday carries indisputable significance should we really close down.
Without attempting to limit powers of any President, I also strongly feel that a way has to be found to regulate how a day can be declared a holiday. We should remember that there was also a time when a holiday was declared in this country just to welcome a visiting head of state!
In the name of participatory democracy, the country has to come up with a system where holidays are declared by consensus and not whim. This will not only avoid the costly mistakes that have been made in the past but also enhance our national cohesion.
There is also this tendency where, if a holiday falls on a weekend, a holiday is then slotted on the following Monday. Does that really help this country in any way? I would like to propose that this should be scrapped so that we devote more energy to the huge task of eradicating poverty.
The proposals I am making might seem revolutionary but I have the strong conviction that a country with our levels of poverty deserves nothing less and it is my belief that government and all Malawians of goodwill will give them serious thought and consideration.
Most of the aspirations that Malawians keep expressing will not come on a silver platter. They will require a lot of hard work from everyone, everyday of the year. An unnecessarily huge number of holidays are certainly not the way to go.
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