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Malawi: Challenging Power & Corruption
AfricaFocus Bulletin
Jul 30, 2011 (110730)
(Reposted from sources cited below)
Editor's Note
"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. ... President
Mutharika embodies the contradictions of Malawi's political
system and the crassness of Malawi's political class." -
Paul Tiyambe Zeleza
On July 26 the U.S. government froze a $350 million
Millennium Challenge Corporation aid agreement with Malawi
which was signed in April this year. This follows on
British suspension of budget support of $30 million,
earlier this month. Malawi relies on donors for
approximately 40% of its national budget. While these
actions increase the pressure on the government, President
Mutharika seems determined to defy donors as well as
protesters. National elections are not scheduled until
2014, and in May the government also postponed local
elections until the same year.
This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains excerpts from the
statement by the civil society coalition which organized
the July 20 demonstrations, and a background analysis by
Malawian scholar and commentator Paul Tiyambe Zeleza.
For descriptions of the violent repression of the
demonstrations by the Malawi government and the aftermath,
see the report by Human Rights Watch
(http://www.hrw.org/en/africa/malawi), a news analysis from
Inter Press Service (http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=56688), and an eye-witness account and analysis by Steve
Sharra (http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/75243).
For another eyewitness account, by blogger Kondwani
Munthali, see http://tinyurl.com/44hqy7a For reports on
government action against journalists, see
http://www.cpj.org/africa/malawi/
Sources for updates include http://allafrica.com/malawi,
http://www.malawidemocrat.com, http://www.maravipost.com/,
http://www.faceofmalawi.com, and http://www.malawivoice.com
For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on Malawi, visit
http://www.africafocus.org/country/malawi.php
Thanks to an alert reader who just pointed me to this additional
article, on the link of tobacco companies to lower income from exports.
http://mg.co.za/article/2011-07-29-tobacco-helps-ignite-mass-anger
++++++++++++++++++++++end editor's note+++++++++++++++++
Uniting for Peaceful Resistance against Poor Economic and
Democratic Governance
"A Better Malawi Is Possible"
20th July 2011
[Excerpts. Full text of the statement available at
http://www.osisa.org/News/malawi/major-demonstrations-malawi
and on http://vincekumwenda.blogspot.com]
Concerns and Demands
In legitimate exercise of the rights and freedoms enshrined
in the Constitution of the Republic of Malawi, We, Members
of Civil Society have joined hands with Workers, Faith
Communities and Concerned Citizens from all walks of life,
to hold peaceful country-wide mass demonstrations today,
the 20th July 2011 upholding the theme:"Uniting for
Peaceful Resistance Against Poor Economic and Democratic
Governance - A Better Malawi Is Possible". These
demonstrations are part of a series of nation-wide mass
actions that will continue to respond to such crises until
feasible solutions have been found and implemented.
Malawi is currently facing a series of catastrophes on
multiple fronts due to economic mismanagement and
democratic derogation by the incumbent leadership and
administration. The current leadership and administration
continue to disregard caution and advice regarding the
crises, choosing to engage in empty political rhetoric
without providing any actionable solutions or alternatives.
Any dissenting or alternative views result in adversarial
clamp downs, a practice that is unacceptable within the
current democratic dispensation that we all fought hard for
and are prepared to defend at all costs.
The challenges currently facing Malawi are too numerous to
mention, however the following issues may suffice to
demonstrate the cause of our discomfort;
Acute Foreign Exchange (Forex) Shortages
Malawi has experienced acute shortage of foreign exchange
for over 2 years, with no end in sight. Indeed, there is
cause to believe that the current shortages are the worst
in all our 47 year history since the attainment of
independence.
Significant numbers of people scramble in queues for forex
that may be available at any foreign exchange point, in a
pathetic display of fruitless desperation.
...
Numerous reasons, such as poor tobacco sales (which used to
provide 74% of our forex inflow has dwindled by over 70%),
have been forwarded to explain the shortage of forex in
Malawi, but these show a clear divide between advice from
economic experts and rhetorical defences from the current
leadership and its administration and, in so doing, merely
serve to increase confusion and uncertainty.
However, one fact remains indisputable and that is: the
forex crisis continues to escalate and the current
administration has failed to demonstrate the ability to
reverse the situation any time soon.
Acute Fuel Shortage: Malawi is now labelled as a 'Fuel
Queue Nation'
This year has seen the most acute fuel shortages in Malawi
in 47 years of independence. A common scene that greets the
eyes at every filling station is extremely long queues of
cars, with people waiting for hours or even, days to get
access to a few litres of fuel.
The acute and incessant fuel shortages have caused
shrinkages in transportation which limit people travelling.
Service providers are unable to transport products around
the country, leading to shortage of products and services.
Stocks in supermarket and grocery shelves are gradually
dwindling. Critical services such as health services have
not been spared and workers face a daily struggle in
commuting between workplace and home. Freight hauliers have
been severely constricted and more disaster looms if the
status quo remains unchecked. All these are visible signs
of economic regression which, if not checked immediately,
could result in a total breakdown.
...
Electricity Shortages
Never has Malawi suffered more from acute electricity
shortages in all its 47 years of independence than within
the past 2 years despite the fact that, after all these
years, only 6% of the population had access to electricity.
The recent announcement by ESCOM that power cuts will be
implemented for 8 hours everyday for the rest of the year
have only increased the sense of despair amongst the people
who cannot lead normal daily lives without fear of
blackouts.
Industries are hard hit with insufficient power to enable
optimal production of vital products which may even
substitute imports. Work-flow is constantly interrupted by
equipment switching off intermittently. Huge costs are
incurred in repairing equipment that have been damaged by
power fluctuations and the cost of installing massive
generators in an effort to keep going. Indeed, a classic
example is the failure of ESCOM to guarantee supply of
adequate power to Paladin for processing uranium at
Kayelekera thereby necessitating installation of massive
diesel generators, which need 3000 litres per day to ensure
production - this meant that ESCOM lost out on potential
extra business of millions of Kwacha every month due to its
own inefficiency and incapacity to be innovative.
It is apparent to most that the current leadership and
administration has not demonstrated to the nation that they
can reverse the situation any time soon in spite of the
need for tangible solutions. There should be a clear time
frame as to when the problem will be over. As it remains,
the energy drain remains a pain without any solution in
sight.
Lack of Economic Prudence
The current leadership and administration has continued to
excessively and irresponsibly squander public funds without
consultation and with cavalier disregard for current
economic hardships afflicting the populace created by the
mismanagement.
The list of anomalies lengthy, but some major issues
include the following:-
- In 2010, the President secretly authorised the purchase
of a private jet costing US$13 million - equivalent to half
the budgetary support that Malawi's major donor
contributed. The purchase went on regardless of
condemnation from different stakeholders within Malawi and
beyond. The amount spent was equivalent to annual salaries
of approximately 5,000 nurses or approximately 11,555
primary school teachers. ...
- Since the first Cabinet of 29 Ministers in 2004, the size
of the current Cabinet has grown to 41, leading to a
monthly wage bill of over MK15,000,000.00, which would fund
monthly salaries of 428 nurses or 1,000 primary school
teachers. It is important to note that this Cabinet of 41
also includes Deputy Minsters who, in most cases, have been
awarded the position as a reward for political favours and
not on merit. ...
- At the beginning of 2011, the President secretly awarded
a contract to his wife, the First Lady, Callista Mutharika,
leading to a payment in arrears, of MK6,400 400 for the
period before the contract was signed, and subsequent
salary of MK1,300,000 per month - ostensibly for doing
charity work. ... The First Lady's salary is equivalent to
monthly salaries for 30 nurses or 93 primary school
teachers.
- The contract for the construction and management of the
(in)famous Nsanje Inland Port was awarded in a non
transparent and dubious manner to Mota Engil, a foreign
construction company who appears to enjoy presidential
favour.
...
Corruption and Abuse of Power
There are strong suspicions that this leadership and
administration is condoning corruption and abuse of power
by a 'favoured few'.
...
During his 2 terms of office, the current President appears
to have amassed significant wealth that does not tally with
his salary of approximately MK 2,000,000 per month. Within
3 years of being power in 2007, Mutharika purchased land in
Thyolo at an alleged price of MK 70 million. He then
proceeded to develop part of the land at an exorbitant cost
which requires clear explanation to allay suspicion.
Massive corruption appears to be the order of the day.
Malawians witness a few individuals in Government who have
amassed massive wealth at public expense. These individuals
build expensive houses, owning fleets of cars and indulge
openly in displays of fabulous opulence that seems to have
accrued without a visible source. The Government may be
aware of this but no visible steps are being taken to stop
such malpractices or to recover wealth gleaned in such
dishonest manner.
Disrespect of the Rule of Law
The current leadership and administration has tended to
exhibit deliberate disregard of the Constitution and the
rule of law.
Amid public condemnation, the current leadership and
administration abused its majority in Parliament to pass an
amendment to Section 46 of the Penal Code allowing the
Minister for Information to ban publications 'deemed to be
contrary to the public interest'. This law has taken Malawi
backwards in terms of guaranteeing media freedoms contained
under chapter VI of the Constitution.
...
The University of Malawi Crisis
The current leadership and administration has failed to
resolve the current stalemate between the University
Council and its 2 constituent colleges (Chancellor College
and Polytechnic) despite all the effort and posturing.
For over 100 days, the leadership and its administration
has remained adamant in refusing to recognise legitimate
demands by the academic staff unions from the 2 constituent
colleges, leading to an unnecessary standoff. This has cost
students valuable learning time and disrupted the general
academic calendar.
This can easily be described as the worst crisis in the
history of the University of Malawi, but it has evolved as
such largely due to the intransigence and truculence of the
Establishment which takes its lead from the Head of State
in adopting inflexible stances that militate against all
effort at conciliation.
Political Intolerance and Violence
The current leadership and administration appears of late
to be leaning towards tactics that promote violence and
intolerance against critics and those with differing views:
- During the 2 terms of office, the President has
deliberately demonised his Vice Presidents, thereby
deliberately weakening their offices which are enshrined in
the Constitution. The failure to work with Vice Presidents
has seriously disrupted the role of the Office of the Vice
President in the performance of governmental duties;
- In recent times, the President has deliberately crippled
the office of the Vice President based on personal grudges
and differing views. This year, the budget of the Office of
the Vice President was significantly reduced to a pittance.
The President continues to castigate the Vice President in
public rallies, calling her names whilst she continues to
hold her peace.
...
- This year, the President instructed the ruling DPP party
youth cadets to 'protect him' as a response to widespread
criticism on his governance style. The instruction was
followed by the DPP leaders publicly stating that they will
use 'all possible means' to protect their leader. Since
that instruction, some Civil Society leaders who have
previously spoken on various issues have been attacked or
received threats, leading to general fear and terror.
Experts have cautioned that such public remarks by leaders
have potential to lead to violence or conflict thereby
creating a 'culture of fear' that is becoming more visible
by the day.
- There are many indications that the current leadership
does not accept any criticism or dissenting views. Those
who have dissenting views, within the ruling party or
generally, are destined to face violence or adversity in
one way or another. This has led to fear among
institutional heads or ruling party officials which
prevents them from offering alternative views that may run
contrary to the Party line.
- Following a leaked cable in which the British High
Commissioner confidentially described challenges facing
Malawi for the Foreign Office in London, the President took
the unprecedented step of deporting the British Envoy from
Malawi back to the UK. This contributed to the deportation
of the Malawi envoy from the UK and subsequent withdrawal
of the British contribution to the Malawi budget (30%).
This serves a vivid testimony of the sheer arrogance of our
leadership who can throw out a relationship that has
nurtured and supported Malawi for nearly 50 years at the
drop of a hat - regardless of the cost to the Nation in
general and the poorest sectors of society in particular.
- When civil society were organising a 'bicycle march'
demonstration regarding fuel crises facing the country, the
current leadership and administration threatened to prevent
the planned demonstration. To obstruct Malawi citizens from
exercising their rights to demonstrate, the leadership
attempted to introduce prohibitive monetary deposits as a
requirement prior to holding mass demonstrations. During
the current mass demonstration, there are already reports
of the leadership threatening to disrupt the mass action by
mobilising rabble rousers to disturb the march.
Demands and Recommendations
In summary, we conclude that the current leadership and
administration has failed to convince us that the issues
raised will be resolved or reversed anytime soon. As such,
we would only be convinced otherwise when concrete and
actionable solutions with short term time frames and
deadlines are proposed.
In light of the raised selected issues, we demand the
Government to take the following steps:
- Sell the Presidential jet and minimise all foreign trips
by the Head of State;
- Ban all importation of luxury cars (M/benz, Limousines
and Luxurious 4x4s). Any new cars for the President,
Ministers or State Officials must reflect our impoverished
state and should thus not be as ostentatious as in the
past;
- All foreign trips by Ministers and State officials must
be severely curtailed forthwith;
- Superfluous costs such as the new 'eavesdropping' machine
being installed at a cost of US$6 million at MACRA merely
to assuage creeping paranoia in an unconstitutional manner
must be discontinued and reversed forthwith;
- Zimbabwe must immediately repay the US$20 million that
has long been outstanding for food supplied by Malawi. The
payment can be made in cash or in fuel;
- Scrutinise all fertiliser imports for the previous year
to track the fairness of the pricing - all those who have
inflated their costings must be brought to book and
penalised for the full amount of overpricing as well as
harsh penalties for committing the crime.
- Scrutinise all fuel imports for overpricing practices and
bring the perpetrators to book. All forex gained through
such malpractices must be returned to Malawi immediately;
- Massive fuel importers such as Paladin (usage: 3,000
litres diesel per day) must use their own forex reserves to
bring in their fuel and should not drain Malawi's scarce
reserves;
- Allow independent importation of fuel by any entrepreneur
who has the means - this will break the stranglehold
monopoly of PIL and open the market for free competition;
- Paladin's exports of 'yellow cake' must be checked to
ensure that a fair market price is being charged and the
proceeds are being brought back to Malawi without any
transfer pricing;
- Gemstone exports must be monitored closely by trained
experts to ensure that fair values are being declared.
Malawi may have been short changed for decades in this area
due to lack of capacity and negligence;
- It may be necessary, in the short term, to listen to the
IMF and devalue our currency in order to gain their
approval which would then open the doors for other Donors
to come in and pump much needed forex into our flagging
economy. The inflationary aspects of this can be countered
by other anti inflationary measures.
- It is essential to immediately mend fences with our long
term development partners, the British Government by
apologising for the diplomatic faux pas and making amends.
Their contribution to our economy is too significant to
shrug off with cavalier disdain - especially when it means
that the poorest sections of society will be worst
afflicted by the suspension of British aid.
- The bloated Cabinet must be trimmed to 14 members and
their fuel and air time allowances adjusted to reasonable
levels with immediate effect;
- The newly approved MK 1 million monthly allowance for
each Member of Parliament must be revised downwards to a
reasonable level with immediate effect;
...
A Better Malawi is Possible!!
Viva Democracy Viva!!!
Malawi on the Brink: The July 20 Movement
By PT Zeleza
The Zeleza Post
http://www.zeleza.com / Direct URL:
http://tinyurl.com/3suwunj
July 21, 2011
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 ageold
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 20 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 19, 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 reestablish
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.
AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic
publication providing reposted commentary and analysis on
African issues, with a particular focus on U.S. and
international policies. AfricaFocus Bulletin is edited by
William Minter.
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