C F S C P R E SEPTEMBER S 2011 S News clippings R with analysis From the E Major newspapers V in Malawi I Compiled by the E Center for Social Concern W (CFSC) Box 40049 Lilongwe 4 Area 25 Next to St. Francis Parish Tel: 01 715 632 www.cfscmalawi.org CFSC Press Review September 2011 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 September 2011 PREVIEW Congratulations are in order to those that have been hired in the new lean Cabinet. There are a few new faces and the same old Democratic Progressive Party DPP members of parliament. From a 42 member cabinet to 32. President Bingu wa Mutharika released details of the Cabinet when everybody least expected. A day after the ruling DPP had lost Rumphi Central constituency to the Alliance For Democracy AFORD, a party that was on its death bed. The timing of the release of a new Cabinet was all good for the DPP because it switched people’s attention from the loss of the bye elections to the new Cabinet. After weeks of debating and speculation about who was going to be included in the new Cabinet, Mutharika came up with a list of ministers and deliberately removed his vice Mrs Joyce Banda. A leaner cabinet is what various sectors of society had been looking forward to. Opposition parties had been asking Mutharika to trim the Cabinet because economically Malawi should not have a bloated number of ministers especially at this time when we are struggling financially. Listeners to independent radio called Zodiak Broadcasting Station also shared the same sentiments. Some even proposed that deputy ministers should be scrapped. On the other hand civil society leaders, in their July petition which they sent to President Mutharika, also asked him to address the option of a lean Cabinet. Therefore it was not surprising to hear some civil society leaders commend Mutharika for a leaner Cabinet. A closer look at the Cabinet one only sees a handful of new faces. Many are the same old faces. There have been worries among some who feel the old faces were part and parcel of the old Cabinet and therefore have nothing new to offer. By dissolving the Cabinet people expected a new team of experts in various fields. The new Cabinet members will only be judged by their works after some time. CFSC Press Review September 2011 POLITICS The ruling Democratic Progressive Party DPP dazzled many people when it publicly congratulated the newly launched People’s Party PP in September. Just some weeks ago the DPP was busy trying to frustrate each and every move to have the PP registered. Vice President Joyce Banda went to greater heights to have the PP registered. The registration of the PP did not just happen without some court visitations. After a series of frustrations from both government and other opposition political parties, the PP got their mandate to be one of the many parties that are there in Malawi. Now to have the DPP congratulate the Vice President’s party is very questionable. Some people have actually said the DPP is doing this to save face. Meanwhile some political analysts have said that there are signs of fear of the newly launched PP among DPP members. This observation has come about after some cabinet ministers organized a press briefing with the aim of ridiculing the PP and its leadership. Among other things the senior ministers asked vice president Joyce Banda to resign from her position. Just when people expected DPP officials to find ways of gaining back the people’s confidence, the party’s leadership is busy castigating Joyce Banda and her PP. What a waste of airtime on state radio and television. Some opposition political leaders have expressed shock over president Bingu wa Mutharika’s use of threatening words like war. In one of his speeches the Malawi president warned his critics that he is ready for war. While some political leaders find it hard to understand why the president is all of a sudden threatening to go to war, his advisers are of the contrary view. Presidential adviser Dr Hetherwick Ntaba has shamelessly defended Muthraika saying the president never meant actual war but war on poverty. Whatever this means! After some weeks without ministers, president Bingu wa Mutharika appointed a relatively smaller Cabinet. Mutharika named a 32 member cabinet at a time when people were asking for a leaner Cabinet. Previously Malawi had 42 ministers. Even those that Mutharika has labeled as his enemies came in the open to congratulate him for coming up with a leaner Cabinet. But as is always the case some observers are not too happy with the allocation of ministers in certain ministries. An example is that of Dr Ken Lipenga who is at the helm of the Finance ministry. Lipenga is a well known public speaker, a linguist and very good at literature, should have been given another ministry such as information or tourism. Similarly others have noted that the composition still shows the same old faces with a handful of new faces. Still on the same issue of Cabinet president Bingu wa Mutharika deliberately removed his deputy the vice president Mrs. Joyce Banda from the list of cabinet ministers. Mutharika, who has made himself Minister of Agriculture and Commander in Chief of the Malawi Army, never gave the Veep any position in the Cabinet a thing that has left some people wondering why Mrs Banda continues to suffer at the hands of the same government that ushered her into power. It is not a surprise to see Mutharika and Joyce Bands working relationship falling apart because past experience has shown that Mutharika in his first term of office also had problems working with Cassim Chilumpha the then Vice President. It has been the same old story in the Malawi Congress Party MCP. Some members of the oldest party still do not get it right when it comes to democracy. They are still living in the dark ages of ruling with an iron fist. The MCP expelled its legally elected Secretary General CFSC Press Review September 2011 Chris Daza for openly saying he will contest for the position of the party’s president. The only crime that Daza committed was to have ambitions that would see him challenge the incumbent leader John Tembo. But experts have since told the MCP leaders that the firing of Daza is illegal because the position of Secretary General is an elected post. Daza was elected to this post at the party’s convention and therefore a few individuals cannot fire him. It seems other trouble is also brewing in Malawi’s MCP. Sosten Gwengwe, one of the young and intelligent Members of Parliament of the party, who was also MCP’s spokesperson on financial matters in the National Assembly, ditched the party in September. Gwengwe, who had been in MCP president’s bad books for some months joined the ruling Democratic Progressive Party DPP. Gwengwe’s defection seems very ironic to the MCP because the young MP comes from the same district as the party’s president John Tembo where most MPs are from the once mighty MCP and it is considered to be one of the strongholds of the party. To add salt to the wound Gwengwe’s constituency is just adjacent to Tembo’s. Recent turn of events in neighbouring Zambia have given some politicians food for thought. The victory of opposition leader Michael Sata in the just ended general elections in Zambia should act as an inspiration to other political leaders in Malawi. With the many blunders that the incumbent ruling party in Malawi has made, the opposition for now should keep their houses in order in readiness for the 2014 general elections. As some political commentators have said, Malawians need a united opposition and new leaders. It should be noted that at present there are squabbles and endless in fighting and division in the main opposition political parties in Malawi. Atupele Muluzi son to the former president Dr Bakili Muluzi announced in September that he is going to stand as president in the next general elections. The young Atupele who is a member of parliament in his home district Machinga was once leader of the Legal Affairs Committee of parliament. He is a trained lawyer and this is his second term of office in the National Assembly. He made it known that he has ambitions to becomes the first young person to vie for the presidency in Malawi. Atupele’s announcement comes at a time the United Democratic Front UDF is trying to mend the party. It is not known what the other gurus in the UDF will say. CFSC Press Review September 2011 ECONOMY The effects of devaluation will continue to be felt among Malawians in the years to come. Press reports have disclosed that many shop owners who rely on imported goods have now raised their prices of commodities due to the devaluation of the Malawi Kwacha. Their argument is that the have lost their buying power as they are now gaining less when they change Malawi currency into other currencies. It is not a hidden fact that prices of goods have increased drastically in recent months. While this is happening many employees are still underpaid making one wonder how they are making it. The International Monetary Fund IMF made it clear that one of the conditions for its resumption of aid programme for Malawi is to devalue the Kwacha further.