Kohta sitä verta alkaa sitten tulemaan Bingun hallinnon nenästä. En ala sen kummemmin referoimaan tai kääntämään tekstejä/linkkejä jotka tuonne loppuun laitan, koska melkolailla kaikki noista jutuista on jo jossain vaiheessa tässä blogissa mainittu. Malawilaisissa paperilehdissä noista asioita ei varmaankaan tulla käsittelemään kovinkaan laajasti. Pakko niidenkin on jotain asiasta kirjoittaa, mutta eivät varmasti tule listaamaan Wa Mutharikan hallinnon keekoiluita. Samaan hengenvetoon pitää taas vahavsti epäillä että tuon Nyasa Timesin serveri ei voi sijaita Malawissa...
Hölökohtaisella tasolla täällä on selvitelty meidän auton vaihtomoottorin laillisuutta. Siis sen, joka installoitiin kulkupeliin Golomoti Roadilla räjähtäneen tilalle. Ei meinaan koskaan saatu kaverilta kuittia siitä Camryn myllystä. Tämä kaikki siis sen vuoksi, että maassa menivät diplomaattiajoneuvojen kilvet uusiksi. Nykyään lähetystöt ajelevat pienillä numeroilla ja NGOt päälle satasen lapuilla. Liikennöintioikeuksia ko. järjestely ei muuttanut. Meillä kun on tuon auton rekisteriotteessa (joka sekin on jossain hukassa muuton jäljiltä. Vietiin se autosta pois ennen U:n hakureissua, ja tiedä sitten mihin tuli mokoma lykättyä) vanha koneen nummero, ja nyt pitäisi ensin saada uusi ote että saataisiin uudet kilvet.
E. on siis viettänyt tänään laatuaikaa Interpolin ja Road Traffic authoritieksen kanssa. Pollarit kävivät tietokantansa läpi ja totesivat että "ei oo varastettu, tässä todistus asiasta". Tämä todistus ei sitten kelvannutkaan tieauktoriteetille, koska "tämä sanamuoto ei kuulemma suojaa tarpeeksi mun selustaa." Varmaan teerahalla se olisi suojannut, mutta lähinnä kyseessä on vain malawilainen vittuilu, vaikka kyseessä ei ole edes Hillman. Mzungua on niin kiva pompottaa... On varmaan joutunut ko. herra tietoimistosta olemaan aina koulussa välitunneilla maalivahtina...
Kanoille hommattiin valkuaisainepitoisempaa ruokaa. Josko niitä munia/tipuja alkaisi sen myötä tulemaan. Www.munanetti.net on ollut kovan lukemisen alla...
No juu, tässä nyt niitä linkkejä. Tuo linkitystoiminto ei oikein pelittänyt, joten laitan ihan vaan kopipastella Nyasa Timesin ja ihan oikean The Timesin lontoonkieliset tarinoiden osoitteet. Taidanpa pistää myös tuon Nyasa Timesin pitkän stoorinkin kopioiden. Jostain syystä kiristää foliopipo sen verran, että lienee syytä ottaa mokoma talteen.
http://www.nyasatimes.com/features/malawi-economic-engineering-versus-governance.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7002255.ece
Pitää vielä tähän mainita, että onhan tuossa allaolevassa kirjoituksessa vähän julistamisen makua ja vähän spekulointiakin, mutta yleisesti ottaen asiat siinä ovat kyllä kohdallaan. Tuosta 300 miljoonasta punnasta iso osa on mennyt budjetin tukemiseen, eli siis ihan hallinnointiin. Tuossa The Timesi jutussa annetaan vähän sellainen kuva, että koko summa olisi laitettu avustuskohteisiin. Ei ole. Yleensä avustuskohteisiin menevällä rahalla saadaan kyllä jotain aikaankin.
Surullisinta tässä saagassa on oikeasti taaskin se, että jos Bingun hallinto saa "banaania kanavalle", on isoin kärsijä se poliittisesti sitoutumaton tavallinen malawilainen, joka kaikesta metsäläisyydestään huolimatta on omalla vaatimattomalla tavallaan yleensä ihan ookoo tyyppi.
"On Saturday, December 16, 2010, most Malawians woke up to disbelief when a banner headline in one of the weekend newspapers screamed “UK ministers hold fate of Malawi aid”. The article said that the new British High Commissioner to Malawi, Fergus Cochrane-Dyet had disclosed that the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) disbursement of its annual MK5.4 billion budgetary support to Malawi would depend on UK ministerial approval.
The article proceeded to announce that the resumption of aid will depend on improved governance profile and human rights issues. In a related development, the Reserve Bank Governor, Perks Ligoya, was quoted as saying the International Monitory Fund (IMF) would decide Malawi’s fate on economic support on February 10, 2010.
These disclosures have shocked many Malawians who, since 2005, have lived under the illusion that the Malawi economy is doing very well and that the Mutharika administration has struck a miracle cord that would see a permanent cordial relationship with the Western donors, especially considering that Malawi was certified qualified for debt relief under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) programme in 2005.
But for most technocrats, the mouthful praises of ‘Ngwazi’ Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika’s economic miracle were a rich satire, difficult to comprehend at face value because the basic life of every Malawian, save for those within the ruling elite, has not changed, if anything, the socio-economic environment is at its harshest level as most people cannot afford basic needs of life.
The Ngwazi, so they have argued, was part of the former president Dr. Bakili Muluzi’s assemblage until 2004 when Western donors and financial guardians decided to close down financial taps for Malawi because of corruption and mismanagement. It was unbelievable therefore, the argument went, that Bingu had sooner and suddenly overturned Malawi’s economic misfortunes to earn himself and his regime such rhetoric of being the messiah.
While the Mutharika regime may have started on a promising note during the first term in as far as economic management was concerned boasting of stable macro-economic fundamentals; the regime, probably got drunk with initial success, decided, in the later days of the second term in office, to artificially hold the exchange rate between the Malawi Kwacha against the US dollar. This is where Mutharika missed the plot as an economist of whichever generation.
Mutharika cantankerously declared that Malawi was a sovereign state and that it would therefore not devalue its currency to please Western donors. Buoyed by Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and the new-found Chinese friends, Mutharika went on to challenge the West at some during his regular foreign sojourns that the Western donors are responsible for the economic misfortunes of most Third World countries. In the voices equivalent to those of a Pentecostal Pastor, he spoke against the West and praised the Chinese for the aid that was to come…and suddenly adopted the aggressive no-human-rights approach to governing this country, which is still smarting from the one-party dictatorship.
“Today, he has declared a knee-jerk campaign against declared gays incarcerating them as if they were treason prisoners, denying them bail and subjecting them to inhumane treatment. There are also growing tendencies of extrajudicial killings of suspects by the police, who have massively benefited from the British aid under the Police Reform Programme,” observed Veronica Mashangu of the Citizens Committee on Democracy.
“The economic engineer, as Mutharika has been touted, forgot that Malawi was a capitalist nation whose trading paradigm was squarely hinged on politics of open market economics driven by forces of demand and supply,” further said Mashangu.
Mutharika decided against conventional marketing wisdom that the price of the major forex earner, tobacco, be fixed not by the forces of demand and supply but rather that he and fellow tobacco farmers, should maximize on their earnings by forcing tobacco buyers on the floors to virtually subsidize their production costs, which one economist described as a “strange way of doing business.”
It was unfortunate for the desperate tobacco farmer that for the errant tobacco buyers whose bosses failed to see business sense in the president’s thinking, suffered deportations. What the President forgot was the fact that once a businessman is threatened; he/she will not want to invest in that country and will look for another investment destination. The fixing of tobacco prices also affected cotton, resulting in major buyers Calgrill dis-investing from Malawi.
Thirdly, the Ngwazi has created a frightful financial regime through poor fiscal policies such as the sudden closures of forex bureaus; the closure of the Finance Bank; the stringent requirements for individuals wanting to open bank accounts; and the regular public threats against businesses, coupled with an openly hostile disposition against businesses owned by foreigners. The Ngwazi threatened businesses with closure, nationalization and deportation, the language best known and used by Mugabe.
Fourthly, the use of the police and other organs of the state to suffocate some businesses, especially those associated with opposition leaders, has been another major threat to the socio-economic development of the country.
Fifthly, within six years, the Mutharika administration has commissioned serious violations relating to governance and tenets of democratization to the extent that Malawians have witnessed their hard-won freedom and democracy crumble under the tyrannical machinations of a regime that is interested in staying in power at any cost.
The regime has unlawfully secured the use of public funds for the promotion of the interests or affairs of a political party contrary to section 193 (3) and (4) of the Constitution of the Republic of Malawi.
The Mutharika regime has continued to be wasteful in the use of public resources by among others spending funds that were included in national budget as approved by Parliament.
For instance, the construction of his private Ndata Residence; the road leading to the residence and other roads that were not approved; the acquisition of the presidential jet; and the purchase of excess fertilizer for the subsidy programme, among others, are cases in point.
Mutharika has maintained a large cabinet, carrying with it a lot of luxury; external travel with large entourages has been a regular event; and state residences have been retained as they were in the previous regime despite a pledge to reduce the number to cut operational costs.
For instance, President Mutharika continues to the use Sanjika Palace in Blantyre, Zomba State Lodge, Chikoko Bay in Mangochi and Mzuzu State Lodge. In addition, it is alleged that his private residence at his Bineth Farm in Zimbabwe is believed to be enjoying State Lodge status, completely run on Malawi tax-payers’ money.
The Mutharika regime has continued to disregard the Constitution by its deliberate failure to hold Local Government Elections (LGE) as required by law. The issue about the LGE has assumed serious ramifications affecting the credentials of our multiparty democracy and the decentralization process.
The direct interference in the affairs of the Judiciary is another serious abuse. The present Chief Justice was approved by 50 MPs (out of 193 members) against the required two thirds majority and that the current Chief Justice is a relative and a bona fide member of the an ethnic Mulhako wa Lhomwe sect, where the President is the patron, compromise the neutrality and expected impartiality. The Judiciary has also been under severe attack by the President personally and the Executive in general for any judgement deemed to be against the Executive.
The issue of the Malawi Electoral Commission is another sore area because the commissioners remain disputed and tainted with being either relatives or former classmates of the president.
The Mutharika regime maintains very close ties with Zimbabwe, particularly with Mugabe, whom Mutharika has assisted to remain in power against the popular wish of Zimbabweans. The resources used to support Mugabe would have been better used in the fight against abject poverty among Malawians and the fight against other social ills such as HIV/Aids.
Whilst there has been very huge rhetoric about the purported fight against corruption, which has largely targeted opposition leaders, serving leaders in the Democratic Progressive Party or leaders in the Mutharika government have been spared the rod. There have been disturbing reports about corrupt ministers, presidential aides, civil servants and cronies of the president but no action has been taken.
For example, the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee Report of 2005/06, entitled “The Investigations into the Operation and Management of Credit Scheme Account in the Ministry of Education,” records the type of corrupt acts and names ministers involved who have been shielded by the President except scapegoat Treasury Secretary Dr. Milton Kutengule and Education Minster Yusuf Mwawa. Over 10 ministers involved were shielded from prosecution.
Former Minister of Information and Civic Education, Patricia Kaliati was named in allegations of receiving bribes from a United Arab Emirates consortium as an inducement to awarding it the Nyika-Vwaza Eco-tourism Concession.
The minister is also named in the awarding of a licence to the second fixed line operator, Access Communications Limited, in disregard to a legal opinion made by Attorney General Dr. Jane Ansah against the award. The Anti-Corruption Bureau and the state have shielded her from prosecution.
The Clerk of Parliament, Matilda Katopola, was found culpable by a House Commission of Inquiry of abuse of office for awarding her private firm a contract to supply stationery to the National Assembly, in a clear breach of public procurement procedures. The president shielded her on grounds that the amount of money involved did not warrant disciplinary action.
There is also a whiff of corruption surrounding the award of road construction contracts, particularly to the Portuguese company Mota Engil, which is working on almost all major road projects. Mota Engil constructed the road to President Mutharika’s private estate, Ndata in Thyolo and a palacial home is taking shape.
The same Mota Engil is a partner in the Shire-Zambezi Waterway project and has also been corruptly been awarded the concession to run the Malawi Lake Service, replacing the role of Tiny Rowland of Lonrho during the one-party regime.
“Where are the Financial Services International Units of the UK and EU…where are they, because Mota Engil is consuming a lot of donor aid through the various dubious contracts?” wondered a governance expert.
Our African leaders should learn to serve as servants of the people, which is their proper role, and then they should hold the wealth of the nation in trust for the people who elected them, not to lead, but to perform the people’s agenda. Government is a trust and the officers are trustees and both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people.
There is very little reason for one to be a leader of a country if that leader cannot protect the interests and values of its people. It is one thing to declare that the economy is doing fine, and quite another to get this perception resonate with the expectations of the people themselves, in their own crude ways.
Malawians want to witness positive change in their lives as translated into what they spend, what they eat, what they wear, what they live in and under. The evidence must be of such clarity and potency that it must create in people reason to have hope into the future.
Malawi is now standing between the rock and a hard place because the country needs economic aid as it cannot survive on its own. But at the same time, we have run out of the rails of a democratic dispensation; our governance record has hit all-time low; a culture of fear reminiscence of the one-party dictatorship is back in town; and the media and the opposition cannot open their mouths to criticize, or say anything that is contradictory to the thinking of government.
Whatever the case, Malawians need economic aid as much they need their freedom to go about with their daily businesses in an environment of peace and without interference from a tyrannical regime."
Nyasa Times 27.1. 2010
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