MALAWI PRESS REVIEW April 2004
From Centre For Social Concern (see our house)

PREVIEW

During the month of April, media reports on politics observed that the issue of independent candidates continues to haunt political parties in the country. The main fear is that the parties may lose some constituencies to independent candidates. As the May Elections draw nearer, reports have also revealed an increase in incidents of political violence, electoral fraud and political intimidation.

Recent reports that the IMF has once again been dissatisfied with the current budget prompted debate on the reasons why the government will simply not adhere to donor conditionalities. Reports on the economy also expressed concern over high levels of unemployment, a decline in Foreign Direct Investment and the high cost of living.

Food experts have predicted that the overall maize production is expected to be lower this year than in 2003, This prediction is worrying in terms of food security and offers proof that it is high time that farmers opt for some other drought resistant crops such as cassava and Bananas.

Civil society groups and churches expressed dissatisfaction with the electoral process as well as the competence of the Electoral Commission to deliver free and fair elections in May. Civil Society and Churches also took a leading ruling in guiding people on what type of leadership to vote for. They also initiated meetings to encourage unity among opposition political parties.

Reports on education expressed concern with the increase in the number of school children dying on the roads of the country, as well as an increase in incidents of violent and disorderly behavior among University students.

Reports on Health bemoaned the rise in the sale of essential drugs by vendors on the streets. This has inevitably led to abusive drug use as people are taking non-prescribed drugs to cure the wrong ailments. Reports have pointed out the danger of developing drug resistant strains of Tuberculosis and ARV-resistant strains of HIV/AIDS.

.

POLITICS

It is sad to note that despite the fact that civil servants in the country are among the lowest paid, their situation is made worse by the fact that they also have to contend with salary delays as well as the difficult economic times. Consequently civil servants are demoralized, a situation that has resulted into low productivity, corruption and poor working standards in the civil service. The government has on several occasions tried to justify salary delays by excuses such as late release of funding by treasury or lack of proper technology, yet funds have always been available for parallel activities such as the President’s campaign trips. The recent revelation by the Vice President Justin Malewezi that President Muluzi spends K10 million of taxpayer's money each time he holds a rally is simply shocking considering the country’s poor economic situation.

It is therefore high time that the government realized that as far as productivity is concerned, human resources are a valuable asset. It is obvious that demoralized workers will not be in a position to contribute to the country’s development agenda. Lack of motivation for civil servants has also been the main reason for the rampant corruption in the country as well as high levels of absenteeism among civil servants who spend most of their time doing their own private work. However, with a few weeks to May 18 General Elections, some critics have speculated that the March salary delay may prompt some Civil Servants not to vote for the ruling United Democratic Front.

The fact that most Parliamentary candidates who were dissatisfied with the outcome of the Primary elections have vowed to run as independent candidates is an issue that continues to haunt political parties in the country, especially the UDF where a majority of independent candidates have emerged. Many disgruntled candidates who lost in the UDF Primary elections have defied the party’s order that losers should support the party’s candidate despite their differences. Consequently, critics have argued that the emergence of independent candidates from the ruling UDF was conformation of some of the problems that are wrecking the party. It is also speculated that the party risks losing some constituencies to independent candidates.

As the time draws nearer to the May Elections, reports have observed an increase in incidents of political violence and intimidation in the country. The European Union Election Observers have observed that the ruling UDF is using state funds in its campaign, for instance, the use of state cars to ferry party supporters to political rallies. This lack of a level playing field is unfair for opposition parties who have no access to state funds and other infrastructural materials. Observers have also bemoaned lack of access to public media by opposition parties. Despite some quarters saying that there has been an improvement in the coverage by the two state broadcasters, it is only UDF who is being covered live, and this should be applied to all contesting parties.

Reports on the electoral process also revealed that the UDF is leaving no stone unturned inorder to manipulate the outcome of the vote. It is alleged that the ruling party is secretely distributing extra ballot boxes and papers in some districts of the country to rig the elections. There are also rumours that people in some districts possess more than one registration certificate. The public Affairs Committee (PAC) has already voiced out her suspicion that there may be electoral fraud going on. PAC challenged the EC to conduct inspection of the voter’s roll and publish figures of registered voters in order to guard against possible electoral fraud.

Reports on politics also expressed dismay at opposition leaders’ lack of compromise in fostering a union that would challenge the UDF government as one front. Perhaps the fact that opposition politicians cannot overlook their desire for power and put the well-being of the nation at the top simply means that they do not actually have the interest of the people at heart.

Critics have also expressed discontent with President Muluzi’s taking a centre stage in the ongoing UDF campaign for presidency. Indeed, listening to presidential rallies one would think that it is President Muluzi himself and not his handpicked successor Bingu wa Mutharika who is going to run in the forthcoming elections. Furthermore, it is alleged that the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) recently rejected a proposal by Muluzi to have his face printed on ballot papers along side those of the UDF Presidential candidates. In the long run, this strategy is likely to be detrimental to the image of Bingu Mutharika because he is denied the chance to win the confidence of the people and sell himself to the electorate as a strong and powerful leader. Mutharika’s playing second fiddle to President Muluzi also begs the question as to who would actually rule the country should the UDF win the elections.

ECONOMY

Reports on the economy attempted to explore the reasons why the government will simply not adhere to the conditions that donors attach to their money. Indeed, it is only proper that if one asks for financial assistance from somebody, they ought and are expected to use it for the agreed purpose. Recent reports have revealed that the International Monetary Fund have postponed indefinitely the meeting to discuss the country’s economic progress because they discovered that the current budget is off track due to overspending.

For some reason, our government has several times failed to meet donor conditionalities after agreeing to adhere to the set conditions. Perhaps the sad thing is that this lack of political will is at the expense of poor Malawians who will in the long run have to deal with high interest repayments and are denied basic services once the donors decide to discontinue particular aid programmes. Reports of misuse of state funds and corruption are the order of the day, yet the majority of the population continue to go without food and drugs. This begs the question whether it is worthwhile to rely on donor funding which only benefits a minority, and which will in the long run create a huge debt for the whole population. Some have argued that the government continues to misuse donor funds for the simple reason that they know that due to the nature of foreign aid, it is argued that in this so called ‘global village’, donors will continue to overlook certain discrepancies and continue to provide aid on either humanitarian grounds or because it is their prerogative to provide donor funding.

One of the main effects of privatisation has been a rise in the level of unemployment in the country following company closures. All the more these company closures have been accompanied by a decline in Foreign Direct investment. A recent United Nations report indicates that Malawi is among the five least developed countries where Foreign Direct Investment has been declining. Foreign investors are unwilling to invest in the country because of the poor economic situation as well as local inefficiencies which have to be addressed in order to improve the situation. A case in point is the inefficiency of our hydro-electric power system, corruption as well as technological inefficiencies that simply discourage foreign investors.

However, it is to be noted that this failure to attract foreign investors is despite the fact that Malawi has put in place measures to attract more investors and increase private investment. The government in line with the Malawi Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (MPRS) has in recent years put in place policies which aim at encouraging and assisting both foreign and private investment. Similarly, the manufacturing industry is not fully benefiting from trade agreement such as the Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA), the EU/ACP Cotonou agreement and the Common Market for Southern Africa, (COMESA). Economic commentators have attributed this failure to high interest rates and the exorbitant tax regime by the government. It is also necessary for the private and public sector to be more aggressive in their efforts in order to take advantage of the fair trade deals.

Food experts in the country have predicted that the overall maize production is expected to be lower this year than in 2003. However, this prediction creates a grim picture of the country’s economy as food and other commodity prices are likely to continue escalating. Inevitably, this will render impossible the single digit inflation targets set in the current national budget.

Reports on the economy also expressed concern over the rise in the cost of living due to an increase in the price of basic commodities. The situation has been made worse by the fact that price increases have not gone hand in hand with salary increments. To this end, the Consumer Association of Malawi has called for a liberalised salary structure to resuscitate the dwindling consumer base. Economic commentators have questioned the rationale behind some of the levies imposed by the government on commodities. However, for the consumer, it appears to be a no win situation as he cannot turn to the government for help. The Minister of Finance argued that he could not remove fuel levies because he had no other source of revenue.

FOOD SECURITY

Reports on food security revealed the phasing out of the misguided belief that it is only nsima that can satisfy both the stomach and taste. Indeed, people are slowly realising the need to change eating habits by opting to eat other food crops with the same nutrition value as maize. Crops such as cassava, sweet potatoes, bananas and millet have proven to be drought resistant and cost effective as they do not require fertilizer. Nutritionists have also argued that overdependence on maize has increased cases of malnutritional diseases in children because most parents insist on feeding their under-five children with maize porridge instead of milk or other nutritious types of food. Nevertheless, there is still need for government to intensify the promotion of food diversification in the realisation that changing lifetime habits is a difficult exercise This is more so because the problem appears to be more psychological in that people have it in their mind set that Nsima is the only dependable food. Apart from food crops, there is also need to promote diversity in cash crops, mushrooms have proven to fetch even better prices on the market than tobacco.

CIVIL SOCIETY AND CHURCHES

During the month of April, Religious groups expressed dissatisfaction with the electoral process as well as the performance of the Electoral Commission. The Catholic clergy asked the Electoral Commission to reopen voter registration in order to give a chance to people who did not register due to shortage of materials. It is believed that lack of registration materials in various centres denied a lot of people the chance to register. It is therefore surprising to note that that despite various voter registration anomalies, the Electoral Commission put the number of registered voters at 6 million.

Religious groups have also expressed concern that voters in the country are confused as to which presidential candidate they will support. It is for this reason that the Public Affairs Committee initiated a meeting with all the Presidential hopefuls in order to accord the clergy an opportunity to guide their faithful on what leadership to vote for. Likewise civil society groups in the country have intensified their efforts to reunite opposition parties ahead of the May 18 general elections. These efforts were taken in the belief that a weak and divided opposition is detrimental to democracy. However, allegations that Members of MCP, NDA and Mgwirizano were discussing the possibility of fielding one candidate in the May elections failed to materialise as most presidential aspirants were unwilling to give up power. It is widely believed that this strategy would have given the opposition a better chance of winning the elections.

Civil society groups also demanded an apology from President Muluzi for saying that the May 18 general elections are a mere formality and that his government will continue to rule the country after the vote. Although the President may have said this simply to express his optimism that the UDF government would win, the same statement may be misguiding to some people who may misunderstand the electoral process. Similarly, the statement is frustrating for civic educators who make a great effort to educate the masses on the importance of elections.

Opposition parties and religious organizations have spotted various anomalies in the electoral process such as: the use of public resources by the UDF/AFORD/NCD alliance, unfair coverage of the opposition by the state media, inflated figures of registered voters, an increase in incidents of political violence and buying of voter certificates. All the more, the confession by the Malawi Electoral Commission that it was powerless to act on some of the electoral irregularities has made people lose confidence in MEC as it is mandated to curb any irregularities that may surface. On the contrary, legal experts have argued that MEC has the legal power to act on the electoral irregularities.

Reports that the UDF presidential candidate, Bingu wa Mutharika gave K5,000 handouts to some Blantyre Synod clerics met with criticism from the civil society umbrella body in Malawi who argued that instead of employing short term measures to woo the electorate, Mutharika should lay on the table concrete solutions to people’s problems. The habit of dishing out handouts by the president and other politicians received a lot of media attention over the past few months, with most commentators stressing that handouts are detrimental to the spirit of hard work which is vital for the development of the country.

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL LIFE

Reports on social and cultural life reflected on the recent directive by President Muluzi to arrest prostitutes as a solution to curb the problem of prostitution with the advent of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Perhaps what has been loud and clear is the fact that arresting prostitutes is not the right solution to the problem. This is more so when the penalty for prostitution is only K20, an amount that most people can easily afford. There is need for the government to look at the bigger picture and seek to fight the socio-economic problems that have led to a rise in prostitution in the country.

Media reports on social and economic life once again emphasized the role of tradition and culture in perpetuating some of the evils currently facing society. There is no doubt that cultural traditions such as wife inheritance have contributed to the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the country. During the month of April, reports focused on the cultural dance known as Makhanya. This is a seductive dance that has contributed to the rise in unplanned pregnancies and the prevalence of the HIV/AIDS in the community. This has made some elders, traditional and religious leaders to suggest doing away with the dance.

EDUCATION

The month of April saw yet another incident of university student’s involvement in violence and disorderly behavior. Chancellor College was forced to close following the violence and general disorder that erupted during a protest by education students over the extension of their academic year. Once again, this points to lack of conflict resolution mechanisms among students and College officials. Student’s fast resort to violence and destruction of property is highly deplorable as it leads to waste of scarce resources as well as infrastructure.

Reports on education also expressed concern over the increase in the number of school children dying on roads of the country. The National Roads safety Council disclosed that last year alone, road accidents claimed 518 lives of school-going children, a situation described as pathetic to the safety of road users. This situation has been attributed to a lack of civic education in the general public, hence the need for civic education campaign targeting children in primary schools. Parents and teachers also need to be vigilant in educating their children on road safety.

It is to be noted that for various reasons, the introduction of free primary education in the country has not necessarily enabled all children to attend school. It is for this reason that Senior chief Msosa decided to impose a penalty on parents found keeping children from attending school. The Practice led to almost every able child in the village to attend the free primary education. Perhaps this example reveals that some of the problems facing the education sector require innovative, ‘out of the ordinary’ solutions.

Recent reports on education bemoaned the exploitation of girl pupils by teachers in most schools in the country. This practice has contributed to high drop-out rates for girls due to unplanned pregnancies. It is hoped that the current Education Act would be revised to embrace new measures of punishing teachers who have love affairs with their pupils.

Reports on education also revealed that self-help initiatives taken by various communities and organizations to help the government to improve the quality of primary school education are slowly bearing fruits. Gone are the days when communities would sit back and watch government initiate development projects. Some of the achievements that have been realized by the communities are building of school blocks, keeping students off the streets, providing teachers with decent accommodation and sustaining projects through income generating activities.

There is no doubt that many parents in the country welcomed the introduction of free-Primary education as it meant an end to the misery of finding money to pay school fees. Nevertheless, recent reports have argued that the free primary education is not at all free because some schools are demanding parents to contribute money for their children’s education in the name of school funds and other contributions. A survey carried out within Blantyre city revealed that most schools in the city are requesting parents to give money to schools, failure to which pupils are sent back from school.

HEALTH

Recent reports on Health have touched on the danger of using TB drugs to cure ailments other than TB due to the fact that it leads to the outbreak of Multi-Drug Resistant TB. The government has resolved to take stern measures in its bid to curb pilferage of TB drugs. However these efforts have revealed a larger problem, that some people in higher authority are issuing market licenses to vendors to sell these drugs. Ultimately, the problem stems back to corruption. Therefore there is need for these strict measures to first of all target the people in authority if we are to curb this dangerous practice.

The problem of abusive drug use also applies to Anti-Retroviral drugs. Recent reports in the media have emphasized the need to train medical personnel as well as educate patients to understand how ARV’s function in order to prevent the development of dangerous ARV-resistant strains of HIV. Medical experts have revealed that there are cases where patients recommend and share their medication with their undiagnosed sick friends or relatives. This dangerous practice must be condemned, as its repercussions would present a major setback to the fight against HIV/AIDS.

A Health NGO has revealed that some public health institutions have not yet received drugs as recently suggested by the Ministry of Health. The Health Centres that received some drugs only received a few non-essential drugs and not the drugs that had initially been requested. This development comes as a surprise as it follows President Muluzi’s order that all Health Centres should be provided with drugs with immediate effect. The pertinent questioned to be asked is where have the drugs gone? There is no doubt that some of the drugs may have found their way to street sales as recent reports have bemoaned a rise in the sale of essential medicines by street vendors on the streets. It appears that all of a sudden street vendors have become physicians and street pharmacists. Perhaps the only solution to the problem is to ban the sale of drugs in the streets. This will likely ensure that drugs are not stolen from the drug stores.

On a positive note, Malawi is expected to join other countries in conducting a five-year study to administer a trial vaccine on Aids called Adonovirus. It is hoped that these efforts will contribute positively to the fight against HIV/AIDS.

An international movement against Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria has criticized Malawi for not doing enough to fight against the killer disease, Malaria. Among other things, government has failed to make sure that 60 percent of people at risk of Malaria have access to effective Malaria treatment, as well as change government policy to incorporate Artemisinin- based combination therapy (ACT), which is more effective than Chroloquine and Sulphadoxine pyremethanine (SP). What is more worrying is that people continue to overlook the fact that Malaria can easily be prevented using simple cost effective means such as the use of Mosquito repellents, cutting grass around homes, destroying breeding places for mosquitos, as well as proper use of mosquito nets. There is also need to get rid of myths surrounding the use of a mosquito net since there are still some people who believe that a mosquito net is in fact ‘a birth control measure in disguise’.

Recent reports on Health revealed the need for government to put in place measures to check the increase in cases of negligence in the medical field. This has become more necessary these days due to an increase in the number of patients attending hospitals as well as shortage of medical personal. An example of medical negligence was the case where a defiled three-year old child was denied treatment at Lilongwe Central Hospital (LCH) because the hospital did not prove that was defiled and legal procedures were not followed.

ENVIRONMENT

Reports on the environment emphasized the need for the forestry department to develop and strengthen partnership with non-governmental organizations in its continued efforts to curb deforestation. One of the major problems facing NGO’s is their lack of resources to run projects that would improve their capacity to combat desertification. The problem of deforestation remains a major challenge in the country, as it is closely associated with the problem of poverty. The growing population in Malawi and shortage of land are some of the factors leading to deforestation. People continue to cut down trees for lack of alternative sources of fuel as well as lack of alternative sources of income on the part of charcoal burners.

Reports on the environment provided practical tips on the management of traditional pit latrines that serve as toilets in most households. Most people would agree that some of the main disadvantages of traditional pit latrines are that they tend to emit smell and may get infested with cockroaches and flies. There is also fear of a possible collapse of the floor. However, Ventilated Pit Latrine is a more hygienic and long lasting type of latrine that offers a solution to the above problems.

It appears that Malawi will have to succumb to changing global trends by phasing out the use of leaded petrol in order to avert the dire consequences of its continued use. It is common knowledge that lead has a negative impact on the environment and people’s health. Although phasing out of leaded oil will require investment by petroleum companies, its benefit certainly outweighs the cost of implementation. All the more, there would be a long-term economic gain as unleaded petrol costs cheaper than leaded petrol.

There is no doubt that environmental degradation has long term social and economic effects hence the need to take care of the environment for the sake of generations to come. A case in point is the recent report that the country’s economy is losing K100 million every day due to electricity blackouts caused by protracted environmental degradation problems along the Shire River. However, putting the situation right will cost much more money than would have been required to prevent the problem in the first instance.

GENDER

There is no doubt that some non-governmental organizations have played a major role in sensitizing the masses on the need to involve more women in politics. It has been argued that apart from the need to ensure gender equality, women’s attributes of caring, honesty and hard working would help in the development of the country. Women who are contesting in the forthcoming elections have among other things pledged that once voted into office, they would put a new face to politics by stamping out corruption and violence.

Jos Kuppens - Missionary of Africa
jkuppens@malawi.net
Jim Greene-Missionary of Africa
jgreene@malawi.net
Centre For Social Concern
P.O. Box 40049, Kanengo, Lilongwe
Malawi
Tel (265) 1 716 138 and (265) 9 957 669