DECEMBER 2012 Review of the Year

C F S C P R E DECEMBER S 2012 S Review of the Year R News clippings with E analysis from the major V newspapers in Malawi I E Compiled by the W Center for Social Concern (CFSC) Box 40049 Lilongwe 4 Area 25 Next to St. Francis Parish Tel: 01 715 632 www.cfscmalawi.org CFSC Press Review December 2012 – Review of the Year LIST OF NEWSPAPERS REVIEWED Daily Times The Weekend Nation T he Sunday T i m e s Malawi News The Guardian Nation on Sunday The Nation CFSC Press Review December 2012 – Review of the Year THE POLITICS OF 2012 Many commentators have tried to give a suitable title to this year’s happenings. It is hard to come by since politics continue to surprise friend and foe alike. It seems the rulebook of democracy continues to be reinvented all the time. May be that is why it deserves the title of The Year of Many Firsts! Firsts such as: The year of a sixty-day ultimatum to the incumbent president to resign by an inclusive conference of religious leaders, civil society, academicians and politicians. The year that a sitting president died while in office. The year of the presidential state funeral. The year of the attempted ‘coup’ trying to thwart the constitutional provisions for succession at the death of the incumbent president. The year of Malawi’s first woman president. The year of revoking legislation deemed against democracy. The year of reinstating the flag adopted at independence. The year of about turns: the vice president as overseer of the Malawi Electoral Commission, the VP without that portfolio. Yet we could also use the title: The More Things Change, the More They Remain the Same! While one might have expected from a female president to be more like a mother to her country, we saw that in spite of many complaints the presidential motorcades did not decrease in number of accompanying gas-guzzlers, while most motorists off and on needed to cue for fuel. The extravagant lifestyle of her predecessor impressed Madam President enough to imitate it. Recently it was published in the Netherlands that JB was driven by Rolls Royce to her £6,000 a night suit in a London hotel where she stayed for 14 days. This bit of news discouraged many ‘a-would-be-contributor’ to a very popular fundraising event. Four or five disk jockeys enclose themselves in a glasshouse and fast for four days while playing requests from donating individuals and groups to raise money for children and mothers. This year the contributions are to go to Malawi. Previous years they collected up to over €8 million. What did the Centre for Social Concern say at the end of 2012? By way of conclusion, 2011 can be said to have been a very tumultuous year politically. What is coming out of the events that were characteristic for 2011 is the fact that the president seems to have waged war against all the sectors of the society: the clergy, the academia, the opposition parties, the international community, the civil society and the citizens themselves that are the fabric of the society. The consequence of the fight has been costly resulting in some innocent citizens of this country that are supposed to be protected by the government losing their precious lives. When you discern these occurings, the message is clear: bad politics evidently lead to bad economy. The year 2011 has been bad politically and economically! CFSC Press Review December 2012 – Review of the Year Those who believe that the country had learned from the mistakes that led to the 2011 economic crash are mistaken: on the contrary, by December 2011 the reality on the ground indicated further financial turmoil in the year 2012. By the end of the year it was no longer rocket science to read that the current government exhibited a bareness of ideas, policy options and limited governance capacity. In fact, the real problem was not a lack of potential responses to the truly colossal economic threats we faced and lived. What was genuinely alarming was that the political-economic establishment had a built-in inertia that stopped it responding quickly, effectively and adequately to these threats as they present themselves. It is therefore not farfetched to say that the economic collapse in 2011 was simply the trailer for a succession of avoidable domestic politics that eroded good governance. It is therefore important to understand at the beginning of the year 2012, that to cure the economy, we need to understand exactly what fails it. An accurate diagnosis is just as important as a proper prescription. The economic problem carried forward from 2011 is more severe than most people realize and the shocker is this: arrogance and hubris, the status quo that wants to see “business as usual” will not cure it. The situation demands that we rethink what political and economic power involves. Because there is a host of things that can and must be done to reorganize society such as the cruel arrogance that arises from a failure of bottom-up feedback in systems where vast social and geographical distances exist between the powerful and the powerless must be addressed; equally we must not condone the fact that for a long time it has been the “little people” who bear the costs while those higher up the food chain reap the benefits. Power means that our leaders are effectively cocooned from the negative kickback from their actions. In the year 2012, we ought to aim at securing economic resilience to protect and ensure that the basic needs of all can be met fairly through influencing public expenditure priorities, programme priorities for grant-aid funding and legal framework. A short overview of 2012 While these conclusions of 2011 were not very encouraging we saw some small points of hope. The Hope Alliance: a grouping of some 30 DPP MPs. It looked as if the DPP party somehow from its interior was trying to introduce some form of intra party democracy. They had a lot of opposition also from within. It seemed a ‘bridge to far’. But 30 are a large number and if they would have been given a chance they might have reached sufficient critical mass to bring about change. The problem seemed to be one person, the one who called all the shots and was not willing to listen to any voice of reason, neither the voice of money or rather lack of it when donors suspended their budgetary support. Opposition political parties also tried to meet the president. But in spite of referring to home- grown policies, the president did not listen to anyone in Malawi except himself. As a reaction there are some voices that start calling for a referendum or for Mutharika to resign. Of course all this falls on deaf ears. The midbudget reports are dismissed by serious commentators as based on cooked figures. There is a little debate about the hosting of the African Union summit but it remained a voice in the wilderness, that of the vice president. CFSC Press Review December 2012 – Review of the Year March 2012 March brings us the all-inclusive meeting of religious leaders, civil society and political parties called by the Public Affairs Committee (PAC). The Government did its utmost to stop it. It went as far as to stop the Mount Soche Hotel hosting it. Luckily the Catholic Church, Limbe Cathedral offered its premises and the meeting continued be it under close supervision of armed police and with great tension. After a day of input about the political, economic and social situation in the country, the different interest groups met. Out of these meetings the stronger voice was that of civil society calling for the resignation of the president in 60 days unless there is going to be some serious change. While religious leaders don’t want to underwrite such a drastic demand, they have difficulty to bring this across. So the meeting went into history as having demanded the resignation of the president. The response of the president was of course negative. It was to be expected after authoritative voices like those of the Catholic bishops had been shoved aside earlier on. But this meeting was a milestone. It showed that sometimes the way of confrontation has to be chosen. It also shows that things could have deteriorated further approaching the Zimbabwe scenario had they been allowed to continue. Malawi has not really drawn its lessons from this event. What if April the 5th had not happened what then? Because Bingu instead of listening the voice of reason told his party stalwarts to counter any demonstrations in the streets and he continued to tell donors to ‘go to hell’. With the advent of armoured vehicles in the streets Malawi has more and more the appearance of a police state. The 5th of April It was Holy Thursday, just before the feast of Easter. The rumour goes around that Bingu has died. Talk of a massive heart arrest. The country is in uncertainty. News can only be had from external sources and some who were close to Kamuzu Central hospital were they took him. Up to now it is not clear whether he was already dead upon reaching Kamuzu central. In order to manipulate the handover of power the DPP send an already dead Bingu to South Africa. In the meantime the so-called midnight six tried to get Peter Mutharika to assume power. At the same time many call for the constitution to be applied.

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