One of Malawi’s longest serving human rights and governance advocates, Ollen Mwalubunju, has called for serious investment in mindset change interventions, warning that failure to do so will plunge the country in deep trouble.

In a press release shared on Thursday, Mwalubunju, who was among founders of the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR), observes that things have steadily been deteriorating ‘in an unacceptable manner for the last 30 years of our multiparty democracy”.

“As a concerned citizen and an eminent Malawian in the governance and public policy sector, I cannot be sitting down when our country has been deteriorating in an unacceptable manner for the last 30 years of our multi-party democracy. I am, therefore, issuing this press release to raise concerns and the need to stand up together in finding meaningful and practical solutions, before the situation gets out of hand,” he begins his statement.

Mwalubunju says it is painful to note that the country, which has not been at war or faced with major calamities in the past, except with the recent cyclones, is among the poorest countries in the world.

He observes that since multi-party democracy, the country’s successive governments’ leadership have failed miserably to turn around the country’s economy to prosperity.

“Worse still and shameless, each successive government’s leadership, instead of reflecting on its achievements and failures, and identifying solutions head on, they have instead been concentrating on blaming each other and complaining with so many senseless excuses. While, we can put the blame on our leaders, it would also be unfair to wholly blame them, because, where these leaders come from, in our communities, we have a challenge of “mindset change.” Therefore, our leaders are a reflection of the very society they are coming from.

“We are therefore, at a juncture in our nation’s history. Either we change our mindset or we perish. To overcome our challenges and build a prosperous future, we must adopt a mindset shift, attitude adjustment and behavior change. We must embrace patriotism and a sense of pride of our country, we must work hard, and we must embrace a culture of a strong work ethics and discipline, we must shift from dependence to self-reliance by recognizing that only our efforts will yield rewards towards building a united and prosperous Malawi,” he emphasized.

Mwalubunju has challenged and call upon Malawian citizens and the government, as a matter of urgency and priority, to invest in mindset change programs at all level. He recommends that the Government of Malawi must prioritize and invest heavily resources in mainstreaming mind-set messages in civic education; public and community media programs.

“The government must integrate mind-set change messages in all safety net programs and mainstream self-reliance rather than dependence syndrome; engage faith-based organizations to mainstream mind-set messages in their pastoral work and educational institutions. It should also engage MACRA to lobby all communication institutions to mainstream mindset change messages as part of social responsibility component,” he recommends.

Apart from being part of the front-liners in the struggle for the respect of human rights for Malawians, Mwalubunju also served as the first Executive Director for the National Initiative for Civic Education (NICE) Public Trust until three years ago when he retired at the institution.