Malawi Government Shocked by MCC Aid Withholding Decision

Presidential spokesman Heatherwick Ntaba says the July anti-government protests were peaceful in most places

Malawi’s government said it is surprised by the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s (MCC) decision to withhold $350 million worth of aid package to Malawi because of recent deadly clashes between police and anti-government protesters.

The MCC, the U.S. government’s agency that assists development countries, announced Tuesday that it was concerned about the Malawi government's use of force and restrictions on media reporting of the demonstrations.
At least 18 people were killed last Wednesday and Thursday as police battled street protesters in three Malawian cities.

But Heatherwick Ntaba, spokesman for President Bingu wa Mutharika, said the demonstrations were peaceful and became violent only when protesters began looting and throwing petrol bombs at police.

“What we can say on our side is that we are surprised they (MCC) or made such an announcement before hearing the facts on the ground because the demonstration in the country per se happened peacefully. There was no violent incident whatsoever. However in places far away, there were people looting, breaking into stores and banks. And this was not part of the demonstration,” he said.

At least 18 people were killed last Wednesday and Thursday as police battled street protesters in three Malawian cities.

Ntaba said the 18 fatalities were looters and not demonstrators.

“18 people were killed during riots on the following day in places quite far away from the demonstration cite. These are facts that can be verified. Now, these were not demonstrators; these were people who were looting banks and burning shops on the 21st (of July) away from the demonstration area,” Ntaba said.

The Millennium Challenge Corporation is designed to reward developing countries that protect human rights and practice the rule of law.

Its decision to withhold $350 million worth of aid package to Malawi followed Britain’s decision recently to cut its economic aid to Malawi in the wake of a diplomatic row between the two countries after President Mutharika deported Britain's envoy for describing the president in a leaked cable as "autocratic and intolerant."
Ntaba said President Mutharika is not “autocratic”. Instead, he said the president follows laws enacted by Malawi’s democratically elected parliament.

“That’s a matter of opinion. I think they would make claims like that to justify some of their demands. The president is consenting to laws that have been passed by a democratically elected parliament,” Ntaba said.

A coalition of up to 80 civil society organizations and religious and student groups organized the demonstrations on July 20 in three main Malawian cities to protest shortages of foreign currency and fuel, poor economic conditions and increasing repression by the government of President Bingu wa Mutharika.

Ntaba said President Mutharika is aware of the civil society organizations’ demands. But he said the group has yet to respond to the president’s call for dialogue.

“The president and the government are aware of the demands that the civil society people are making. That’s why on the 20th of July the president called them all and said let’s meet. He said if you are ready and put your team for discussion together in three days, I’ll be ready to meet you. But so far the civil society has not presented their team for these negotiations,” Ntaba said.

Source: http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Butty-Malawi-MCC-Aid-Withholding-React-Ntaba-28july11-126306108.html

Iran gives Malawi $50m mining aid

2011-07-28 21:18

Blantyre - Iran has given $50 million in aid to develop Malawi's mining industry, the two countries said on Thursday, two days after the United States suspended an aid package following a deadly crackdown on protests.

"We have had very strong diplomatic relations and it is our obligation to support developing countries such as Malawi," Iran's charge d'affaires Bahman Ahmadi said in a statement issued by Malawi's development ministry.

"In total, the Islamic Republic of Iran has committed $400 million of development assistance to developing countries, of which $50 million will be given to Malawi," Ahmadi said in the statement.

Malawi's small mining industry is dominated by a uranium mine in the north of the country, owned by Australia's Paladin, which accounts for about five percent of gross domestic product.

"For a long time, Malawi's economy has relied heavily on agricultural production but our economy needs to diversify if we are to experience further sustained economic growth," development minister Abbie Shawa said in the statement.

"Challenges were being faced in areas of training of geological and mining experts, development of databases to store data and information that is crucial to mineral identification, exploration and processing," Shawa said.

The Iranian aid was announced two days after the United States suspended a $350-million grant for Malawi's energy sector out of concern over authorities' crackdown on street protests that left 19 dead last week.

Protesters accused President Bingu wa Mutharika of mismanaging the economy and trampling on democratic rights, but he accused the opposition of attempting a coup.
Britain, another key donor, also suspended aid to Malawi this month out of concern over economic management and governance.

Iran's uranium enrichment programme is at the centre of a bitter row between Tehran and major world powers, with the country under UN sanctions as well as tougher measures by the United States and European Union.
- SAPA

http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/Iran-gives-Malawi-50m-mining-aid-20110728

Statement by the Leader of Opposition in Botswana

Statement by the Leader of Opposition, Botsalo Ntuane,
delivered on Tuesday 26 July 2011 in the National Assembly
on developments in Malawi and how the Botswana government should respond.

The Opposition Collective in the Parliament of Botswana joins the rest of the democratic community in condemning the cold blooded massacre, on 20th and 21st July 2011 of 18 demonstrators by the government of President Bingu wa Mutharika. This terrible act of violence against unarmed civilians, protesting the escalating cost of living, fuel and foreign exchange shortages, as well as repression and violation of human rights, is unprecedented in the history of Malawi. We note that even during the one party dictatorship of Hastings Kamuzu Banda, nothing on this scale was ever visited on the civilian population by the government. The economic problems in Malawi which precipitated the demonstrations have been authored by a stubborn President Mutharika whose deteriorating human rights record has forced donors to cut off much needed aid.

As the Opposition Collective, we can rightly proclaim we saw this coming.

The nation will recall that on 1 April 2011, the Chairman of the Botswana Movement for Democracy(BMD) and also Member of Parliament for Lobatse addressed a press conference in the precincts of Parliament announcing a boycott of the official opening of the Lobatse Stadium facility by President Mutharika. Hon Modubule’s stance which reflected the indignation of the Opposition Collective was premised on well founded concerns at a disturbing trend of developments in Malawi.

In a pattern of behaviour which suggested that state violence will soon be perpetrated against the citizenry, President Mutharika has in the past incited the youth cadres of his Democratic Progressive Party to assault opposition supporters who dared criticize him.

Another consideration which informed our boycott of President Mutharika was his display of intolerance to critical views, when he assented to Section 46 Penal Code Amendment Bill which grants the Minister for Information the power to arbitrarily close down publications, outside due process. To us this assault on the press, which we consider a critical guardian of democracy and good governance was unacceptable.

The delinquent conduct of President Mutharika knows no bounds. We noted with concern the sustained attacks on the Non Governmental Organisations, leading to some activists fleeing into exile because they fear for their lives.

Like the proverbial bull in a china shop, immediately after his departure from Botswana, President Mutharika expelled the ‘British High Commissioner for describing him in a diplomatic cable as ‘autocratic and intolerant of criticism”

We contend that President Mutharika is being aided and abetted in his campaign of repression by the government of Botswana which continues to treat him like a distinguished statesman when many in the international community are shunning him. It should be a source of shame that President Khama, in a display of bad judgment, and against our counsel, invited this dictator to our country. In its unbridled contempt for the Opposition, this government disregards all our advice, the consequence of which is a situation where our country is today associated with rogues like President Mutharika. It is shocking to many that a government with a predilection for playing to the international gallery on issues of democracy and human rights has remained silent in the face of the unfolding tragedy in Malawi. To us this silence means the government of Botswana condones the deplorable actions of President Mutharika.

We pose this question, how different is President Mutharika from Muammar
Gadaffi in Libya, Bashar Al Assad in Syria, Omar Al Bashir in Sudan, and all the other dictators that have attracted the sanctimonious wrath of the Botswana government over rights violations and atrocities against their own citizens?

The deafening silence, which can only be ascribed to the embarrassment felt by the Botswana government, amounts to a betrayal of the people of Malawi, particularly victims of the state sponsored violence. Indeed contrary of the grandstanding characterizing previous statements about how the Botswana government sides with the people against repressive regimes, the simple truth is that these expressions of support are mere lip service; and just like those it condemns, the Botswana government practices double standards, and will side with its friends in power, hence the tacit support given to President Mutharika on account of the ‘see no evil, hear no evil’ posture.

To this end the Parliamentary Opposition Collective demands the following from the Botswana government;

1. An unequivocal statement condemning the actions of the government of President Mutharika.
3. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hon Phandu Skelemani to summon the High Commissioner of Malawi to Botswana for a meeting at which he will convey the statement of condemnation.
4. To demand an immediate end to the ongoing harassment, detention and torture of opposition and civil society activists; many of whom are now in hiding.
5. To support an investigation by the International Criminal Court on the killings in Malawi, and for such support to be extended to prosecutions that will follow.
6. To apologise to both the people of Botswana and Malawi for hosting President Mutharika in April 2011.
7. To undertake to listen to the counsel of the Opposition Collective in future and undertake not to invite any dictators to Botswana.

Failure to do any of the above will give true meaning to the idiom that we judge you by the company you keep.

Botswana and the international community should henceforth judge this government by the friends it keeps in the form of President Mutharika and his murderous regime.
End.

Malawi on the Brink: The July 20 Movement

Posted July 21st, 2011 by PT Zeleza

Yesterday, July 20, Malawi was engulfed by protests and riots against
President Bingu wa Mutharika's increasingly bankrupt regime, which
left several people dead and many others injured. There was also
widespread destruction of property across the country's major cities.
The immediate causes of the growing popular disaffection include
deepening authoritarianism and arbitrary power reflected in the
passage of draconian laws against civil liberties; worsening economic
mismanagement as manifested in shortages of fuel and foreign exchange,
power outages, rising unemployment and inflation; the dangerous
mobilization of ethnicity as evident in the redistribution of jobs in
the public sector to favor people from the president's ethnic group;
and desperate attempts to manipulate the president's succession for
his brother, a former law professor at Washington University in St.
Louis, Missouri.

The protests and riots of July 20 are fundamentally about governance
and development, the enduring desire among Malawians for the
establishment of a sustainable democratic developmental state. It
underscores the fact that economic growth without development is not
enough. Over the last five years Malawi's growth has averaged 7%,
peaking at 9.8% in 2008. But the benefits have gone to a few as
poverty remains rampant. Also, this growth hardly put a dent in the
country's reliance on foreign aid, which accounts for up to 40% of the
national budget. As Dambisa Moyo has demonstrated in her controversial
book, Dead Aid, aid has certainly not provided a reliable recipe for
sustainable development in Malawi.

Contrary to stereotypes about the docility and peaceful nature of
Malawians, Malawi has a long history of mass protests going back to
the colonial era including the struggles against the Federation of
Rhodesia and Nyasaland that saw the demise of the federation and the
country's independence in 1964. In the early 1990s, mass protests
culminated in the collapse of President Banda's iron-fisted
dictatorship in the multi-party elections of 1994. As with the "first
independence" from colonialism, the heady hopes of progressive
transformation hit against the sturdy structural blockages of the
postcolonial order rooted in the deeply entrenched deformities of the
colonial state.

The next ten years were marked by fitful advances and setbacks under
President Muluzi's lackluster regime. As in much of Africa undergoing
democratic transitions it became increasingly clear that the road to
democratic consolidation and development would be long and bumpy.
Africa's wily dictators and unimaginative political class seemed keen
to frustrate popular demands and hopes for the "second independence"
from postcolonial authoritarianism and stagnation. After failing to
extend his rule for an unconstitutional third term, President Muluzi
thrust the relatively unknown international technocrat Bingu wa
Mutharika upon the nation as his successor. Predictably, the two men
fell out as President Mutharika sought to consolidate his power. He
bolted from the United Democratic Party still chaired by former
President Muluzi and formed his own party, the Democratic People's
Party.

During President Mutharika's first term, a strong opposition prevented
this political comedy turning tragic. Held in check by the opposition
and surrounded by some competent ministers, the country registered
remarkable economic growth and made noticeable democratic advances. In
the 2009 elections, the DPP was rewarded with an overwhelming victory.
That is when the problems started and the political gloves were
removed to expose the entrenched structural instabilities of Malawi's
political order and the deep insecurities of the president himself.
Malawi, like many postcolonial African countries, suffers from age-old
processes and patterns of uneven development that intersect with wide
regional, class, gender, and generational disparities, which
politicians are adept at mobilizing and exploiting.

Above all, as Frantz Fanon noted in his searing indictment of the
postcolonial elite in The Wretched of the Earth, the commitments of
Malawi's craven political class is more towards ‘primitive
accumulation' than a national project of broad-based development and
democracy. President Mutharika embodies the contradictions of Malawi's
political system and the crassness of Malawi's political class. Like
so many other so-called ‘peaceful' African states, such as Senegal,
the country has yet to make a generational transition in its top
leadership. Thus, while many sectors are dominated by the
post-independence generation, the president is an octogenarian
autocratic who should have long retired from public life as he clearly
is out of tune with the aspirations of his relatively young nation.

President Mutharika, 77, belongs to the nationalist generation that
brought the "first independence" while the vast majority of the
population was born after 1964 indeed 45% of the country's 15.2
million people are below the age of 15. To them the president's
nationalist anxieties and preoccupations with colonialism and
admonition of Britain, the former colonial power, whose ambassador was
expelled from Malawi several months ago for referring to him in a
leaked embassy cable as "ever more autocratic and intolerant of
criticism", are outdated and irrelevant.

Added to this is the president's apparent megalomania evident in his
love for titles including unearned academic titles. For someone who
never received a PhD from an accredited institution and never taught
at a university he insists on being called His Excellence Ngwazi Dr.
Professor Bingu wa Mutharika. He fancies himself an economist and
mister-know-it-all. He has removed competent people from key economic
ministries and institutions. He increasingly bases economic policy on
his misguided understanding of Malawian, let alone African, economic
and political history as is clear from his ill-written 700 page book,
The African Dream: From Poverty to Posterity, published by his
daughter and launched to great fanfare earlier this year.

It is the president's outdated fidelity to the nationalist politics of
the 1960s that partly explains his myopic admiration for Malawi's
founding president, whose policies and even dress he tries hard to
emulate. The two presidents also share another commonality: they came
back to rule after decades spent in exile and exhibit deep disdain for
their people. They represent the ugly face of diaspora politics, its
modernist conceits, its superiority complexes. President Mutharika's
contempt for Malawians is evident in his condescending speeches and
his shock that the people of Malawi are not grateful for his
leadership. In a bizarre juxtaposition on July 20, while people were
demonstrating around the country, the president was giving a rambling
"public lecture" on the country's political independence, sovereignty,
good governance and the economy. The gods showed their wrath and
ironic humor when power went off for thirty minutes as the professor
president was pontificating.

Like President Banda, whose thirty year dictatorship came to an
ignoble end, President Mutharika is assured of being cut to size by
the people he despises and has come to take for granted. Indeed, of
Malawi's three presidents to date, he is arguably the worst. He
combines President Banda's authoritarianism without the competence of
his government, and President Muluzi's corruption without his
government's tolerance for democracy. The way President Mutharika has
bungled the country's economy and politics boggles the mind. He badly
mishandled the July 19 protests, first banning them and making
threats, then allowing them to go ahead, before orchestrating a court
injunction to stop them on the night of July 20, which only inflamed
the crowds that gathered the next morning and ensured the violence
that ensued. Perhaps the worst mistake he has made is deploying the
military to patrol the streets and re-establish order. African history
shows that governments that come to rely on the military to maintain
civil order create the very conditions for their ouster by the
military.

President Mutharika has unleashed a beast that will consume his
regime. The longer the impasse continues, the more both the military
and masses will feel emboldened. The danger lies in the military
taking matters into its own hands. The best scenario would be for the
military to step back and allow the political process to take its
course as they did in the aftermath of the 1992 referendum that
introduced multi-party democracy. Having overthrown President Banda's
dictatorship, the people of Malawi can take care of President
Mutharika's bankrupt regime by themselves sooner or later.

The regional and international community can assist them by isolating
the regime. This might include imposing targeted sanctions at the
president and his coterie of key advisors and beneficiaries. In the
meantime, human rights activists must keep score of the state
perpetrators of violence against peaceful demonstrators and opponents
of the regime for eventual legal accountability whether in the
country's courts or even the International Criminal Court.

At the time of this writing, the international media is reporting that
at least 18 people have been killed by trigger-happy police and some
thuggish elements from President Mutharika's ruling party who were
instigated and called upon prior to the demonstrations to "deal with"
anyone demonstrating against the government. President Mutharika's
moral bankruptcy and failure of political leadership has been revealed
in his reaction to this tragic turn of events. In a brief, rumbling
address to the nation delivered on state controlled radio and
television, he failed to show any real understanding of the root
causes of the problems that have brought ordinary Malawian citizens to
the streets. Instead, all he could offer by way of explanation is the
bizarre claim that the demonstrators are enemies of the country who
have been instigated or are led by Satan. More tragically, in his
speech President Mutharika failed to do what any decent political
leader would do in such a situation: the basic act of offering
condolences to the families of the 18 individuals killed over the last
twenty-four hours. He simply failed to acknowledge or mention these
innocent deaths. Malawi, or indeed any other country, does not deserve
such leadership.

First Written July 21, 2011

Demo Post Mortem by Rajik Hajat, IPI

I am proud to report that Civil Society in Blantyre had no hand in the riots, looting and violence that ensued during our 'peaceful' demonstration.
It was provoked by Political parties who seized the opportunity to hijack our peaceful march and turn it into a battleground by misdirecting the crowd,

I also hold the following people responsible because:

a) Chiza Mbekeani who applied for the injunction to prevent us from demonstrating for reasons best known to himself;

b) The lawyer who applied for that injunction was later found to be unregistered in Malawi and thus not eligible to apply for injunctions; This should be investigated and punished!

c) The Judge (Kachale) who granted the ex parte injunction at night without checking into the salient facts and/or the eligibility of the applicants; This should be investigated and punished!

d) The Police - for setting up road blocks in various locations to deter people from coming for the demo thereby raising temperature from the start.

e) The Police - for preventing the pickup carrying our PA system from entering into town - thereby denying us the means with which to communicate with the crowd and exert control;

f) The Police - for keeping us bottled up on Victoria Ave for 5 hours in the hot sun without food or water, because of an alleged injunction which did not bear our names and was never served on us. As a result the initial good humour of the crowd soon turned ugly and uncontrollable;

g) The Political Parties - who tried to hijack the peaceful demonstration by whipping the crowd into a frenzy and misdirecting them into a confrontation with the Police that soon became a battleground; It was a disgusting spectacle and visibly demonstrated to me why our beloved country is suffering in this way. There will be no hope unless these parties cease to be 'personality driven' and change their modus operandi completely. Otherwise, we are well and truly doomed to another 50 years of the same treatment we've suffered for the last 47 years and our children will chant the same litany - hunger, disease, envy, and the inexorable dehumanization that has robbed us of our dignity.

Today I have been keeping track of the incidents taking place in Bt, and I can truthfully swear innocence for the despicable acts that have taken place. It appears that these 'thugs' have been incited by the DPP to destabilise Malawi into such a sens of insecurity that the President can declare a state of emergency and thus continue to rule with even more powers than he can presently wield. What a tragedy!

Which goes to show that the demonstration was not an end in itself, but rather the beginning of a long turbulent, tiresome, trek to regain the human dignity that has been lost by every Malawian!
--
Rafiq Hajat
IPI

Malawi: Arab Spring Spreading South of the Sahara?

Written by Steve Sharra

It's winter in Africa, south of the Equator, but the temperature in Malawi feels more like Spring - particularly that of the recent Arab pedigree. The Malawian air is rife with tension and anxiety over what is expected to be a clash between civil society and the Malawi government on Wednesday July 20, 2011.

Civil society activists have set that date as a day for the beginning of a series of mass demonstrations aimed at expressing their displeasure with the Malawian leadership.

Rife with tension
Malawi is currently undergoing a severe fuel shortage, which began at the beginning of June, one of a recurrent number of crippling shortages since 2009. The country has had severe foreign exchange (forex) shortages, at a time when it is supposed to have plenty of from tobacco sales, currently in season.

On Thursday, July 14, the British Government announced [2] it had stopped giving budgetary support to the Malawi government, citing concerns with the suppression of demonstrations, the intimidation of civil society organisations, and an injunctions bill that prevents citizens from obtaining court injunctions against the government.

The British Government also said Malawi’s currency, the Kwacha, was overvalued, resulting in chronic forex shortages “which are having a serious impact on the Malawian private sector’s ability to drive future growth. There are now daily fuel queues, tobacco exports have deteriorated and Malawi is off-track with its IMF programme.” The IMF has also suspended its support to the Malawi government.

The political landscape has been tense since December 2010 when the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) expelled [3] the Right Honorable Joyce Banda, the country's vice president, for what is widely believed to be a ploy for President Bingu wa Mutharika to pave a political path for his brother, Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika. The vice president has since formed her own party [4], although officially she remains in her government position.

President Bingu wa Mutharika has recently signed law bills that have been met with widespread criticism and resistance, including one empowering the Minister of Information to ban any publication [5] deemed not to be in the public interest. A more recent law makes it impossible for individuals to obtain a court injunction [6] and seek judicial redress against the government.

The University of Malawi [7] has had two of its constituent colleges, Chancellor College and The Polytechnic, shut down [8] since February 2011 when lecturers started refusing to enter classrooms for fear of spies. The saga started in February this year when the Inspector General of Police, Peter Mukhito, summoned a Chancellor College political science lecturer, Dr Blessings Chinsinga, to question him for mentioning the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt during a lecture.

The University of Malawi governing council is currently engaged in a court battle with the Chancellor College Academic Staff Union (CCASU), who are challenging the Council's firing of four Chancellor College lecturers, including Dr Chinsinga and Dr Jessie Kabwila-Kapasula, the union's acting president.

Fear of violent protests

There are fears that the July 20 mass demonstrations may turn violent. Supporters of President wa Mutharika and the DPP have announced a counter-demonstration on the same day. There are reports that 800 police officers are being specially trained to stop the demonstrations “with zero casualties” according to online newspaper Malawi Voice [9].

On Thursday July 14, the United States Embassy in Malawi issued an alert to US citizens in Malawi about about the demonstrations and the possibility that they could turn ugly. Titled “Emergency Message for U.S. Citizens – Possible Demonstrations”, the alert first appeared [10] on the discussion site Nyasanet on Friday, and later on the online newspaper Nyasatimes [11].

One member on the Nyasanet forum observed [12] that the mere fact that the US Embassy issued such a statement meant that there was something serious brewing underground:

The Statement from the US Embassy means that the Chief of Station (Head of the CIA in Malawi) has done his/her homework. They are rarely off target.

As the air grew tense with the countdown to Wednesday, there were reports on Sunday [13], which first surfaced on a Google forum, that a vehicle belonging to Zodiak Broadcasting Station [14], an independent radio station, had its windows smashed by men wearing face masks.

Much of the news of the demonstration has appeared online, whereas the government's response has used state media with government spokespersons holding press conferences on television and radio stations. A Facebook event page [15] has been created for the demonstrations with the title ‘DEMO YA TIYENI TONSE PA 20 JULY', roughly translating as a demonstration of one and all on 20 July. As of writing, 2,422 people have indicated they will attend the demonstration; the date on the event's page says 20 October instead of the July 20 event that everyone is talking about.

The Facebook page gives a detailed description of when and where people should assemble for the demonstrations, a programme that has appeared in other online newspapers [16] and in print newspapers. Comments on the page range from the biblical to the profane.

A Bible-quoting commenter writes [17]:

There4,let us follow aftar the things dat mek 4 peace & things by which 1 may edify another” Roman 14:19

One bordering on the profane goes [18]:

It's our right to demonstrate, that is the only way we can ring a bell in to an obstinate and gullible this stupid fool called ngwazi. Let us show him that Malawi does not belong to one tribe neither his family, gogogogogo! DEMO.

Another comment sounds rather militant [19]:

It Has to be done…Malawians Stand Up and Be Counted! No One Should Abuse Our Hard Fought For Freedom!

A more reflective commenter quotes [20] Nelson Mandela:

It always seems imposible until its done-Nelson mandela.

Interest in the impending mass action appears to be spreading outside Malawi. A Malawian landing at Kamuzu International Airport on Sunday posted on their Facebook page [21] about a group of foreign journalists aboard the same plane they were on:

Had a contingent of foreign media in the same flight this afternoon coming into Lilongwe, looks like the Demos have attracted the attention on the international media!” One passenger even asked a question the Malawian chose not to answer: “Some one asked me, is it true Malawians are changing regime on 20th July? I didnt give hima any answer.

But an observer of Malawian politics posted on Twitter about there not seeming to be a lot of international media attention on the looming demonstrations: “still nothing shows up in international news feeds on upcoming #Malawi demonstrations #20July”.

The Twitter hashtag for the demonstration is #20July [22], says @chiume [23].

Response from the top
President wa Mutharika appears to have been aware of the mood amongst many Malawians, and has been planning a response. On arrival from a trip to the United States towards the end of June, he announced that he was going to give a public lecture, in which he would address the many concerns Malawians are expressing.

No date was set for the public lecture, but immediately as the organizers of the July 20 demonstration announced their date, government announced the same date of July 20 for the public lecture. Government spokesperson Honorable Vuwa Kaunda, Minister of Information and Civic Education, and presidential spokesperson Dr Heatherwick Ntaba held a press conference, urging Malawians not to go to the demonstration, but to the president's lecture instead.

Among the many reasons the two cited as to why Malawians need to listen to the president, Hon. Vuwa Kaunda performed his trademark praise song to President wa Mutharika, listing the many achievements of the DPP-led government. Hon Kaunda has become known for rattling off, in rapid style, President wa Mutharika's achievements: an end to chronicle food shortages, new tarred roads across the length of the country, six new universities being planned for the next ten years, new parliament building, a new five star hotel and international conference center in the capital city Lilongwe, and Nsanje World Inland port connecting Malawi to the Indian Ocean, among others.

Up to until his re-election to a second term in May 2009, President Bingu wa Mutharika enjoyed broad support locally, and wide admiration abroad. Civil society activists held demonstrations in support of his policies against a majority opposition which was seen as only bent on frustrating his development plans. He introduced a farm input subsidy, which is credited for having turned Malawi from a food importer to a food exporter. He was Malawi's first president to become chairperson of the African Union for the year 2010, a development that added to his international credentials which earned him attention on the front pages of major newspapers in the United States [25], Britain [26] and elsewhere [27]. There was renewed hope and pride amongst many Malawians, and President wa Mutharika was seen as the new face of a new Africa.

Compared with the mood in the country today, a lot has changed in a space of two years. A Malawian development economist observed [28] on Nyasanet in May this year:

I was at the world economic forum last month. Only two years [ago] bingu was a hero. Now Malawi was a source of bewilderment.

In an attempt to dissuade Malawians from attending Wednesday's planned demonstrations, the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation has carried news bulletins, on three consecutive evenings, claiming that Malawians are being duped about the demonstrations, whose real aim, the state broadcaster claims, is to show support for gay rights, for which civil society groups have received millions of kwacha. The bulletins have been saying organizers of the demonstrations want to use photographs of demonstrators to show to donors that Malawians support gay rights and same-sex marriages.

Reactions to the government's story have been derided as bordering on the desperate. One reaction posted on Twitter [29] said:

Malawians urged not to listen to MBC TV & Radio on 20 July - coz of its tendency to misinform in news coverage

Another tweet [30] sought to identify a possible irony in a television anchor's attire:

MBC TB news anchor, Nyang'wa in a red tie - maybe in some dress rehearsal for the July 20 demo (dress attire is red)

On February 14 earlier this year civil society organizations planned a demonstration to protest against fuel shortages, but it was stopped by police. According to online newspaper Malawi Voice, the demonstrators were hugely outnumbered by the police [31], who were over 250, against a few dozen protesters, numbering about 30, according to print newspaper The Nation [32].

The leader of that foiled demonstration, Mabvuto Bamusi, has since made a 180 degree turn. He is now frequently invited on national television to provide analysis and commentary that supports government and lambasts his former colleagues in civil society.

Article sourced from Global Voices: http://globalvoicesonline.org

URL to article: http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/07/19/malawi-arab-spring-spreading-south-of-the-sahara/

URLs in this post:

[1] Image: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=169916843073956

[2] announced: http://www.dfid.gov.uk/Media-Room/Press-releases/2011/Government-to-suspend-general-budget-support-to-Malawi/

[3] expelled: http://globalvoicesonline.org/2010/12/21/malawi-citizens-take-on-vice-presidents-dismissal/

[4] her own party: http://www.nyasatimes.com/politics/malawi%E2%80%99s-vp-socialist-party-launches-in-march.html

[5] ban any publication: http://www.misa.org/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?category=2&id=1303122817

[6] court injunction: http://www.nationmw.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22790:bingu-signs-injunctions-bill&catid=1:national-news&Itemid=3

[7] University of Malawi: http://www.unima.mw/

[8] shut down: http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/04/14/a-blog-post-that-closed-the-university-of-malawi/

[9] Malawi Voice: http://www.malawivoice.com/latest-news/800-police-officers-undergoing-special-training-to-counter-20th-july-demonstrations-as-mdf-waits-in-wings/

[10] first appeared: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?A2=NYASANET;abb904c6.1107C

[11] Nyasatimes: http://www.nyasatimes.com/national/americans-warned-of-malawi-demo.html

[12] observed: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?A2=NYASANET;47f3ca3.1107C

[13] reports on Sunday: http://www.nyasatimes.com/national/zodiak-car-smashed-by-bingu-thugs.html

[14] Zodiak Broadcasting Station: http://zodiakmalawi.com/zbs%20malawi/

[15] Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=169916843073956

[16] online newspapers: http://www.malawidemocrat.com/national/programme-of-july-20-demonstrations/

[17] writes: https://www.facebook.com/penjani.gondwe/posts/172021052863535

[18] goes: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=172046599527647&id=100000106964805

[19] militant: https://www.facebook.com/Ngwizzy/posts/172039956194978

[20] quotes: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=171942982871342&id=100002368908313

[21] posted on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10150234330889094&id=522839093

[22] #20July: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=+%2320July

[23] @chiume: https://twitter.com/#!/chiume/status/92695188207706113

[24] Image: http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/07/19/malawi-arab-spring-spreading-south-of-the-sahara/malawi1-4/

[25] United States: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/world/africa/02malawi.html

[26] Britain: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/81059fb4-0e02-11dc-8219-000b5df10621.html

[27] elsewhere: http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol22no3/223-harvest-of-hope.html

[28] observed: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?A2=NYASANET;96c316cc.1105D

[29] posted on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/Malawi2014/status/92645360350146560

[30] tweet: https://twitter.com/#!/Malawi2014/status/92658583682031616

[31] outnumbered by the police: http://www.malawivoice.com/latest-news/malawians-not-keen-on-fuel-protest-police-out-number-protesters/

[32] The Nation: http://www.nationmw.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14460:malawi-police-foil-fuel-protest&catid=1:national-news&Itemid=3

MCTU add their support to the 20 July CivSoc Demonstrations

Below is a press release from MCTU in support of the Demonstrations by Civil Society scheduled to take place tomorrow on the 20th July 2011. In this Press Release they have justified the reason for this decision.


PRESS ISSUE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Dated: 18th July, 2011

MALAWI CONGRESS OF TRADE UNIONS (MCTU), a federation of 22 trade unions in Malawi which represent workers in all sectors of the economy, is hereby calling all workers in Malawi to join the civil society organizations and the noble citizens of Malawi in the peaceful demonstrations nationwide scheduled for the Wednesday 20th of July 2011.

The participation of workers in the peaceful demonstrations is of their constitutional right as members of the general public to express deep concerns regarding the socio-economic crisis facing Malawi ie Chronic fuel and forex shortages; Unilaterally hatched Zero deficit budget; Lack of good governance; infringements of human rights; Worsening of diplomatic relations etc. All these have had a bearing on the welfare of the workers and the general public at large in a number of ways which include:

• Declining of productivity due to acute shortages of fuel and forex for the private sector. This is compelling the private sector to lay off or retrench workers.
• Introduction of Value Added Tax (VAT) under the unilaterally hatched Zero Deficit Budget has resulted into the price hikes thereby eroding the purchasing power of workers and the general public.
• Ordinary citizens and the private sector have been severely sanctioned with taxes and fee hikes for public services amidst the withholding of aid by some development partners in light of critical human rights and good governance issues.

We have issued various statements to the government to express workers’ views and concerns on the above mentioned issues and other related matters. It is very unfortunate that as of late the Executive and other branches of government have failed to listen to the voices of reason from the civil society, workers through MCTU and other key stakeholders. This then justifies the need for all workers across the country to participate in the peaceful demonstrations to express our points of views to the government as enshrined in the Republican Constitution.

All workers and noble citizens are asked to converge at the Community Centre ground in Lilongwe; Kamuzu Upper Stadium in Blantyre; and Katoto Freedom park in Mzuzu in the morning, and then march together to the City Assemblies to present the official statement of concerns. There are also demonstrations which will take place in all the districts country wide.

To this effect, Malawi Congress of Trade Unions (MCTU) humbly requests employers across the country to allow their employees willing to participate in the scheduled demonstrations to be excused for a few hours in order for the workers to dully exercise their constitutional right.


SOLIDARITY FOR EVER AND EVER!

Signed

ROBERT MKWEZALAMBA
SECRETARY GENERAL

Programme of July 20 demonstrations

This is to inform all Malawians that Concerned Malawians and various stakeholders have organised peaceful demonstrations to take place on 20th July 2011 in all the regions of the country.

The peaceful demonstrations have been organized as part of our constitutional right to express alarm regarding the current economic and democratic crises facing Malawi, with the aim of calling for an end to the current poor economic and democratic governance being advanced by the current administration.

These demonstrations are the first phase towards the grand mass demonstrations set for 17th August 2011 national wide.

The Theme of the Demonstrations is: Uniting For Peaceful Resistance Against Bad Economic and Democratic Governance – “A Better Malawi Is Possible”

Outline of the Demonstrations is as Follows:-

SOUTHERN REGION

Starting point:-: – Blantyre District Office through Kamuzu Highway to Kamuzu Stadium to Civic Offices

We are calling all Malawians from Ndirande, Chilomoni, Chilobwe, Bangwe, Zingwangwa, Machinjiri, Mbayani, Chileka, Ludzu and all areas to join the demonstration on 20th July.

CENTRAL REGION

Starting Point: - From Community Centre Ground through Old Town then Kasungu Highway then to City Centre.

We are calling all Malawians from Area 25, Kawale, Biwi, Mchesi, Chitsapo, Area 23, 33, 49, 39, Bunda, Likuni,Mugona and all areas to join the demonstration on 20th July.

NORTHERN REGION

Starting Point: - From Katoto Ground through Town to City Assembly Office.

We are also calling on all Malawians from Zolo Zolo, Katawa, Chiwanja, Mzilawayingwe, Chasefu ndi all Areas to join the demonstration on 20th July.

Colour: – We are appealing to all Malawians to put on anything RED on 20th July wherever they are.

If you can’t join and you’re a Chief Executive Officer, Managing Director , in the Police, Army, and a Civil Servant please release your house servant/gardener on that day.

Note: This is a peaceful demonstration and we would appeal to all Malawians to be DISCIPLINED during the demonstrations. Lets us show the authorities that much as they are oppressing us we are peaceful and constructive Citizens.

This is your chance to make the difference by being heard and be counted on 20th July. COME ONE COME ALL!

ITS A RED ATTIRE DAY FOR JULY 20 DEMO

Viva Democracy! Viva Struggle for Freedom!

Mukhito, protect Bingu's people

Written by RAPHAEL TENTHANI

WHY do some Malawians want to be more Malawian than others? Why do some Malawians think their way is good and everyone must follow them?

I am posing these questions because of a shadowy group dubiously calling itself 'Concerned Citizens' that wants to disrupt peaceful demonstrations members of the civil society, joined by some religious groups and opposition parties, are planning to hold across the country this Wednesday to register their dismay at the many problems Malawi is currently facing. The issues range from the twin problems of fuel and foreign exchange (forex) reserves to the dwindling rule of law.

This is nothing criminal in a democracy. In fact protests are the bedrock of democracy as citizens use them to awaken elected leaders who seem to be sleeping on the job. On June 14, 1993 Malawians voted to regain their freedoms. Nearly 20 years later no one should be allowed to unmake what some people risked their lives for.

What the so-called 'Concerned Citizens' are planning to do is a recipe for trouble for the two sides are likely to clash. If our police is truly professional this is time to act. Peter Mukhito, whom President Mutharika dubbed as the best police chief ever, has to rise above politics and reign in these people who want to bring chaos in Malawi.

If the 'Concerned Citizens' disagree with the planned demonstrations they have all the rights to express their views. But, if they want to express their views through demonstrations, they should choose another date for July 20 has already been booked. Otherwise what they are planning to do is criminal.

I believed Bingu when he said Mukhito is the best police chief ever. Let the police chief prove the president right by making sure Bingu's countrymen freely express themselves in the streets without anybody hijacking their democratic right. After all nobody will be breaking any law for protesting against things they think are not right. Those who are planning to disrupt them will fall afoul of the 'Conduct Likely to Breach the Peace' laws and I know my good police chief, Mukhito, will be alert to stop that.

Disability activist Chitimbe dies at 53

BLANTYRE--Disability rights activist and former banker Susan Chitimbe died on Saturday and was buried Sunday at her Lunzu home in Blantyre.

It wasn’t clear what she was suffering from.

Chitimbe was presidential assistant on disability affairs in the Pres Bingu wa Mutharika admin until her death.

Before this appointment, former president Bakili Muluzi picked her as minister of state responsible for persons with disabilities.

She once worked for the National Bank of Malawi as a telephone operator and later for Disabled Women in Development.

Chitimbe was 53.

Source: Maravipost

Does Bingu not believe in the rule of law?

Written by RAPHAEL TENTHANI

It seems President Bingu wa Mutharika is trying to redefine our form of government. Malawi chose multiparty democracy on June 14, 1993 but it seems Bingu is experimenting on a mish-mash of some wacky form of democracy that is teetering between democracy and autocracy where some fundamental principles of democracy are not respected.

There is one word for that: ANARCHY.

Look, we all know Bingu has not hidden his disquiet at the way the judiciary is conducting itself. He has this paranoid feeling that the judiciary is out to get him; that it has issues with him. He is on record as having pleaded for dialogue with the judiciary as if anybody had told him that somebody on the bench had scores to settle with him.

Our good president has made it clear that he does not like the way injunctions against government are being granted in Malawi. He believes Malawi has the largest per capita injunctions in the whole of the SADC region. But he conveniently forgets that he is still President today courtesy of the very injunctions he is frowning upon now.

Perhaps before he raises the ruckus at the way the judiciary is issuing injunctions he should take a sober look at why such is the case. The many injunctions the courts are granting against his government means his government is not conducting its affairs well. Look at the way Bingu fires people; remember Ralph Kasambara, Gustave Kaliwo and Ishmael Wadi, three young men he proudly dubbed his "three young bright minds"? He expended them like used condoms with complete disregard that they might have saved his very life.

So is asking for an injunction in such circumstances a crime?

Bingu can chide the judiciary the way he likes but disregarding its rulings is going beyond the Rubicon of good governance.

Look, there is an injunction stopping him from assenting to the infamous 'Injunctions Bill' which some sober minds in his own party have boldly described as a 'bad law'.

For him to go ahead and assent to the same is very, very scary. Not once but twice did Bingu swear to not only uphold but protect and defend the Constitution. What he did by assenting to the bill runs counter to that solemn oath.

From the time he was elected president in 2004, Bingu has shown traits that he hates acting within the set laws of the country. During his first term he defied several court rulings but we ignored him because we understood the opposition was vengefully out to get him. But this dangerous trait becomes pronounced when we gave him an overwhelming mandate to rule in 2009. Within months after getting the overwhelming mandate he created some new laws whose purpose were suspect.

Take Section 46, for example, where a minister can wake up one morning and ban a publication he or she does not like. With the Protected Names and Emblems and Defamation laws still intact one wonders why such an undemocratic law was necessary.

Despite the public outcry, Bingu still went ahead and made the amendment to Section 46 become part of our laws. But he was not done. After making sure that the irritant media was now at his mercy, he crafted another law that made him the sole decider of whether or not to hold local government elections. From the beginning Bingu has not hidden the fact that he loathes ward counselors. Why he hates them nobody knows. That notwithstanding he created laws that empowers him to pick and choose whether local government elections are held or not and - if they are to be held at all - when.

To show that the only reason why he tinkered with the local government laws was that he hates counselors he changed the laws again to make sure that if we are ever to hold the elections it should be when he is out of State House in 2014! Now Malawian cities have this queer uniqueness of having no mayors!

Back to Bingu's phobia with the judiciary, simple civics tells us that our government comprises the Executive, which is composed of the President and his cabinet, Parliament where the Speaker rules the roost, and the Judiciary where the Chief Justice is the boss. All these arms must complement each other. Anything outside this arrangement smells anarchy.

If he did not like the injunction on the 'Injunctions Bill' Bingu should have asked his Attorney General to try to stay or vacate it. Disregarding the injunction militates against the oath he took. Unless he is trying to abolish the judiciary, what he did by assenting to a bill that had an injunction hanging over it is an impeachable offence. Bingu is president of a democratic Malawi. He does not have the luxury to pick and choose what aspects of our democracy to respect. He is the president, yes, but no law empowers him to outlaw any arm of government.

UK Government to suspend general budget support to Malawi

UK Government to suspend general budget support to Malawi

Malawi will no longer receive general budget support from the UK Government, Andrew Mitchell announced today.

The International Development Secretary took the decision after the Government of Malawi repeatedly failed to address UK concerns over economic management and governance.

General budget support, which is used to allow governments to deliver their own national strategies for poverty reduction against an agreed set of targets, has been suspended indefinitely.

On governance, demonstrations have been suppressed, civil society organisations intimidated, and an Injunctions Bill passed that would make it easier for the Government to place restrictions on opponents without legal challenge.
On the economy, the UK is concerned that Malawi’s overvalued exchange rate has created chronic foreign exchange shortages which are having a serious impact on the Malawian private sector’s ability to drive future growth. There are now daily fuel queues, tobacco exports have deteriorated and Malawi is off-track with its IMF programme.

The Development Secretary’s decision is in line with international concern over Malawi’s current position. The World Bank, the European Union, the African Development Bank, Germany and Norway have all suspended or ended general budget support to Malawi.

Andrew Mitchell, Secretary of State for International Development, said:
"The UK provides development assistance in order to help communities lift themselves out of grinding poverty, whether that’s through getting children into school, ensuring women survive childbirth or helping farmers grow enough food to feed their families and communities.

"But poor people in Malawi and British taxpayers alike have been let down. In these circumstances I cannot justify the provision of general budget support for Malawi.
"In the meantime we will use other means to ensure that programmes to protect poor Malawians, amongst the poorest people in the world, and deliver basic services like health and education are able to continue.

"The UK has a long and deep commitment to the people of Malawi and we are keen to see the country resume the good progress it has made in recent years. I remain willing to reconsider our approach as and when our concerns are addressed."

The UK has helped improve food security in Malawi for over seven million people a year by providing them with high yielding maize and legume seeds via the Farm Input Subsidy Programme.

UK support to strengthen the health service has helped save the lives of 3,200 pregnant women and 40,000 children since 2004. UK funding has built over 3,200 primary school classrooms and 4,800 toilets since 2001, helping keep more girls in school.

This comes as the Government reduces general budget support across the world by 43% and tightens up the principles on which budget support agreements are made.

All budget support is tightly monitored against a strict set of expected results and can be reviewed by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact at any time.

The passing of yet another heroic HR Defender

Malawian human rights activist Harold Williams has died at the age of 71 after a long illness.

His step son Peter Makwana said Williams died of cancer Monday night at Mwaiwathu private hospital in Blantyre.

Harold was active in the fight against the one party dictatorship and helped in the establishment of multiparty democracy in the country.

Williams also worked with local human rights movement in 2003 and helped to campaign against the infamous third term presidential bid of Bakili Muluzi.

He remained active in the fight against human rights violations in the Bingu wa Mutharika administration.

Williams has also been blogging - Malawi Concern – critical articles against the oppressive Mutharika regime and recently he had been encouraging Malawians who are saddened with the dictatorship to be inspired with the Egyptian and Tunisia revolutions.

“I admit that my blog under the title Malawi Concern has been deliberately provocative. As one who fought hard for democracy and human rights in Malawi I have become increasingly concerned at the manner in which the current Government is over-riding our rights and attempting to abolish them by dubious legislation,” Williams told Nyasa Times recently.

“Those who fought with me for change for the better put their lives in danger. The sacrifices that were made by the few for the benefit of the many should not be allowed to go to waste. We need to be eternally vigilant and be prepared to put our lives on the line again, if necessary, to defend our rights,” he added.

Williams was also vice chairman of Association of Secular Humanism.

Human Rights Consultative Committee Chairperson Undule Mwakasungula paid tribute to Williams’s courageous fight for rights, saying Malawi has lost “one of the most inspiring and dedicated human rights defenders.”

Meanwhile, the body of Harold Williams has been donated to College of Medicine for research–Nyasa Times

47 years young: Racing backwards together in chaos and confusion

Written by RAPHAEL TENTHANI

OUT of all the eight Independence Day speeches he has had to make since lodging in State House some seven years ago, I guess last Wednesday's was the most difficult for President Bingu wa Mutharika. I mean, what was there to celebrate when truck-loads of ruling DPP loyalists failed to make it to Mzuzu because there was not enough fuel to take them there? Indeed what was there to celebrate when ESCOM is warning us of six continuous months of extensive load-shedding?

If truth be told, we should have been mourning on July 6, 2011. How does one celebrate when companies are silently retrenching workers because production has ground to a halt not only because of lack of fuel and electricity to power the production machines but also because there is not enough foreign exchange (forex) reserves with which to procure raw materials? Tobacco, the sole reason most of the rural folk smiled for at least a couple of weeks in a year, has now become a source of sorrow. Growers rue the time they leave the auction floors because they know they cannot face their tenants and other creditors for their leaf is not even fetching money enough for a bit of simple merry-making at a Chibuku bar at Kasiya.

The Mutharika administration is also forcing the genie of freedom back in the bottle. Seventeen years after we thought we had unshackled ourselves from the bondage of oppression we are now required to pay huge sums of money even to just exercise one of the most basic of freedoms: the right to complain or celebrate. Even the right to academic freedom is something a quartet of university lecturers must join the unemployment lines for. Even the right to hold an opinion and immortalise the same in a newspaper will attract the wrath of an excitable minister who will slap you with some undemocratic piece of legislation.

Judges too are not immune from the onslaught; wither separation of power!

So how can we cheat ourselves that we are in a celebratory mood when our civil servants cannot protest delays in the payment of their already miserable salaries? How can we make merry when university dons are forced to give mundane examples in lecture halls for fear of the omnipresent Big Brother? How does anyone expect Malawians to celebrate when dad and the boys sleep at service stations waiting for fuel that will not arrive anyway while mum and the girls cannot watch their favourite soaps because there’s no electricity?

How can we be happy to be 47 years old when the Judiciary has to 'reconcile' with the Executive - especially the guy who sits at its helm - for a non-existent dispute? So when courts stop ruling against government we must know the 'reconciliation' appeal has worked? God save us!

Nothing is working in Malawi. Things are bad, so terribly bad that one wonders which country Bingu is president of to have the audacity of dubbing Malawi 'a success story'. If we are ever successful at anything it must be clinging to suicidal policies that banish the majority of us to the jaws of debasing poverty. Bingu made an impassionate case for patriotism. He called upon his critics, especially the opposition and the civil society, to offer suggestions about how to make our country better other than just bashing him left, right and centre.

But it is not as if Bingu has ever suffered a drought in free advice, no. The problem is he has adopted a 'Mr-Know-It-All' stand that he has stuffed cotton in his ears so much that he cannot even hear the advice of an advisory council he himself assembled. Take, for example, the needless deportation of Her Majesty's envoy the other day. For weeks patriotic Malawians, including his advisory council, implored him not to declare Fegus Cochrane-Dyet persona non grata because doing so would certainly have dire consequences. London even directly warned him not "to go that route" but "just work on the concerns" the good diplomat outlined rather than frothing at the mouth at being told the naked truth.

But, like a suicide bomber, Bingu selfishly dared the consequences and sent the poor Brit packing. The result? Not only Great Britain but many other major donors voted with the feet leaving us with a monster of a budget that would make us poorer than we were last year.

By the way, Bingu is right; 47 years after independence we really should be able to stand on our own. But we would have been patting ourselves on our back if the 'zero deficit' budget was not forced down our throat by circumstances. If you think I am lying ask Bingu why with one corner of the mouth he says Malawians must celebrate internally funding their own budget while with the other he is crying to the donors not to abandon us. It is not a secret that government had no choice but to experiment with its people's lives because someone over-priced his pride that he made us throw away the baby with the bath water.

And, politics aside, does it make any economic sense to cling on to an over-valued kwacha even when it buys us next to nothing? Some of Malawi's best brains when it comes to finance and economics matters advised the president that by not devaluing the kwacha he is only chewing on an empty pith whose sugary liquid had already been suckled. But what does he do? He scares us that devaluing the kwacha will hit the poor hard for all prices of goods and services will shoot through the roof. But is he not aware that most commodity prices and service costs have already hit the rafters because the economy has stagnated for reasons already outlined above?

Our over-valued kwacha is only succeeding in making imports very cheap while making it almost impossible to export anything profitably. The poor the Big Kahuna is ostensibly trying to protect will still end up losers as industries are not producing anything therefore they can’t employ people they can’t pay. Economists do not see sense in the Kwacha maintaining its present value. Bingu is just trying to live out his challenge that on his watch the kwacha will not be devalued. But do we run a national economy based an individual's unrealistic ambitions?

It is high time we held Bingu's feet to the fire until he returns to the job we employed him to do. He must admit that his trial and error style of managing the affairs of state is hurting us. He has tried playing tough with tobacco barons by even expelling some of them. But they called his bluff by buying the leaf at ridiculously low prices this season. He wanted to be a macho man with the donors; he is now running back - tail between his legs - begging for deliverance. He dissed the West and courted the Chinese but our new friends from the Orient say they are unable to help us balance our books.

Bingu should stop ruling us and start leading us. He wants us to take whatever he thinks is right for us whether we like it or not. These 'one man' decisions are taking us from the 'Promised Land' of growing at the impressive nine per cent back to the 'Egypt' of failing to buy enough fuel just because some 3, 000 new vehicles are being added monthly on the roads of Malawi. But our cousins in Zambia are importing three times as many vehicles and yet you never hear Rupiah Banda cry blue murder!

If he stopped ruling us and started leading us Bingu would truly walk the talk of this year's theme: "Moving Forward Together with Peace and Stability". But as things currently are, I am afraid the honest theme for our mis-timed celebrations should have read: "Racing Backwards Together in Chaos and Confusion".

Some crazy policies

WHAT part of the brain do those we entrust with coming up with policy directions use when making some of these crazy policy decisions we are hearing of nowadays? I mean, take the folks at MERA for example; one day they say you need permits to buy fuel in jerry-cans or other containers; the next they say we just cheated you of your money; those permits will land you in jail for we have banned the buying of fuel in any other mode other than directly into the tank. C'mon, good people, I think Ken Kandodo should revise the budgetary allocation to the Ministry of Energy for MERA must employ toughies that must carry vehicles that run out of fuel on the roads, tractors, graders, fork lifts, earth moving machines and such like.

And did MERA not get ESCOM’s memo which said we are going the Zimbabwe way of four hours of power a day from now until New Year's Day? Unless someone was sleeping on the job, I think ESCOM must have consulted - or at least informed - MERA about the massive rationing of power for the last time I checked MERA were supposed to be regulators in the energy sector. You do not need to be an economist to know that generators will become the next gas-guzzlers after Bingu's Hammers during these 'dark ages'.

So how do the good people at MERA hope these generators will be supplied with fuel? Or are they engaging a village of plumbers to be uprooting these generators to cart them off to the service stations? And we have boats and diesel maize mills...

Maybe the good people at MERA realised that this fuel crisis is taking a toll on Malawians and thought they should lighten up the situation as this crazy policy directive is too nonsensical it can only be a joke.

How govt loses billions through the Farm Input Voucher System

By Rodgers Luhwago

If someone asks you to mention countries that are now good exporters of food crops, especially maize in the SADC region, definitely Malawi would be in the list that it may probably top.

Malawi has made tremendous strides in the agricultural sector after introducing a special arrangement of subsiding agricultural input such as fertilizer and seeds known as Voucher System.

In the late 2000s, the Tanzanian government sent its agricultural officials to Malawi to pick hints on how the system operated and introduce it to Tanzania, after changing some of its aspects to suit the local situation.

Under the system, selected farmers in a particular village are asked to contribute a certain amount of money in purchasing a package of agricultural input that can be applied into an acre of a farm.

In most cases a selected farmer gets a bag of 50 kilograms of sowing fertilizer, seed and another bag of 50 kilograms of dressing fertilizer at a half price of the market value since the government covers the remaining half of the market price.

The government has designed a special arrangement with farm input agents who upon delivering the agricultural input to the needy, a selected farmer would be required to submit the voucher to such an agent including a certain amount of money to top up the difference.

The Vouchers bearing the amount of money that the government subsidizes each item are distributed from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives to the regions before being taken down to the districts, wards and villages.

Despite the system being good, its implementation that officially started in the 2008/2009 farming season has recently been plagued by massive irregularities.

According to interviews that The Guardian on Sunday with conducted with some MPs in Dodoma, the government may have lost billions of shillings in the course of implementing the system.

An MP for Mbozi West (Chadema) David Silinde told The Guardian on Sunday that most of Village Executive Officers (VEO) have been registering names of either the dead, students or ‘ghosts as beneficiaries of the system in various villages.

He said they, at one time, arrested some individuals in his constituency and the cases are on-going in courts. According to Silinde, the ministry should carry out a research to find ways to improve the system.

He said cases of the selected beneficiaries colluding with agents were also rampant. He said under this irregularity the agent gives the beneficiary a small amount of money, say Sh5000 or Sh10,000 in exchange for the voucher.

Godfrey Zambi (CCM – Mbozi East) registered similar complaints when he spoke to The Guardian on Sunday over the weekend. Apart from supporting Silinde’s observation, the CCM legislator said some vouchers were disappearing in the course of being transported from the Ministry to the region, from the region to the district, from the district to the ward and finally from the ward to the village where beneficiaries live.

In March this year, the Rukwa Regional Consultative Council (RCC) urged the government to devise new ways of subsidizing agricultural inputs, different from the present voucher system which the council said enriched unscrupulous businessmen and agents.

During the meeting, Rukwa Regional Commissioner Daniel Njolay told RCC members that they had discovered a foul play in the implementation of the system.

He informed RCC members that 26 unscrupulous businessmen and greedy agents had been suspended after they were discovered to have stolen subsidized agricultural inputs.

In the 2010/2011 farming season, the government had allocated vouchers of subsidized fertilizers worth over Sh12 billion for Rukwa Region alone while in the 2009/2010 season, the region received vouchers of subsidized fertilizers worth Sh8 billion.

While presenting the budget speech for his office for the 2011/2012 financial year, Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda told the Parliament that the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) would throw its weight into investigating cases of fraud surrounding the implementation of a new system of proving agricultural input to farmers in the country.

According to Premier Pinda, the government asked PCCB to intervene after farmers lodged complaints over mismanagement of Voucher distribution.
GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY