K6.7 billion for city roads

By DEBORAH NYANGULU-CHIPOFYA

Roads Authority (RA) has set aside K6.7 billion for the rehabilitation and resealing of roads in the cities of Lilongwe, Blantyre and Zomba.

Briefing the press in Lilongwe Wednesday, RA Chief Executive Officer Paul Kulemeka said the funds would be realised from the fuel levy.

“The rehabilitation works will include re-cycling of the existing base, shoulder reconditioning, repair and lining of road side drains, road markings and installation of traffic lights,” Kulemeka said.

He said in an interview that the K6.7 billion budget was a projection of money to be realised from the fuel levy between February this year and September next year when the road works are expected to be completed.

Kulemeka said the rehabilitation works are expected to last 15 months from June 15 this year to September 15 next year and would cover 128km of road.

He said several contractors had been engaged for the works.

In Lilongwe, Kulemeka said, the works will be done by three contractors, Mota Engil, Cilcon/SR Nicholas JV and Master Construction.

Bua Consulting Engineers have been contracted to supervise the works in Lilongwe.

The works in Zomba will be done by Mkaka Construction and Fargo Limited with EMC Jatula Associates supervising the works.

Mota Engil, Fargo Limited and Cilcon/SR Nicholas JV will also handle the work in Blantyre with Mphizi Consulting Engineers supervising them.

The road maintenance will not be restricted to town roads in the cities but will even go in the residential areas, according to Kulemeka.

Malawi sees bumper maize harvest

Malawi expects its biggest maize crop in more
than a decade. An official said the country could harvest 3.4 million
tonnes of maize in 2008/09 versus 3.2 million tonnes in the previous
season.


The crop would be the country's third consecutive surplus since the
fertiliser and seed subsidy programme started in the poor yet
fast-growing economy in 2005. The national maize consumption is 2.2
million tonnes.


"We have recorded a surplus of 1.2 million tonnes this year and we
plan to double this next year because Malawi has good soils and the
subsidy programme will be more targeted," Mr Andrew Daudi, principal
secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture told Reuters.


The estimate for the 2008/09 season was based on the second round crop estimate.



The final maize harvest is due in about two months, he said.
Malawi's previous highest maize harvest was in the 2007/08 season. The
maize season runs from November to April.


Malawi is a net food exporter and has seen three years of growth above 7 percent in the country of 13 million.



The Economist Intelligence Unit forecast Malawi will have the
world's fastest growing economy after Qatar this year, but annual gross
domestic product is estimated at only $313 per capita.

Malawi President seeks reconciliation with opposition party

Malawi President Bingu Wa Mutharika has
extended a hand of reconciliation to former president Bakili Muluzi and
opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) leader John Tembo on condition
that the two apologize for what he calls violation of his integrity
during and before the recent election campaign, Xinhua reported.

    Speaking to Malawians through a special program aired Sunday on
state radio and television, Mutharika emphasized that politics of
vengeance should be a thing of the past and that he would want Muluzi
and Tembo to be part of rebuilding of a new Malawi.

    Mutharika said he has power through his majority government to do
whatever he wants but he was now looking at mature politics.

    The president said Tembo warned that if he won the State House
race, he would deal with Mutharika. He alleged that some people were
given instructions to arrest him once Tembo was inaugurated as State
President.

    "Should I deal with Tembo now? Is that the way we want to run government?" he asked.

    "Muluzi used to say he can deflate the tyre he inflated, he had no
development agenda but just to remove me. So that's why I say look, let
us have reconciliation but it does not mean that those people who
violated the law will go scot-free..but in terms of political bickering
and the kind of things we were doing, I say let's forget it," Mutharika
said.

    The president added that he was now looking at mature politics because he was a leader not a ruler.

    On his part, Muluzi said he quickly congratulated Mutharika on his
re-election because he was peace to prevail and not bloodshed adding he
believes in democracy and welcomed Mutharika's statement that the
nation should move on and that there would be no vengeance.

    MCP spokesperson Nancy Tembo said the party's president did not say
anything derogatory against the president but just criticized his
various policies like the agricultural subsidy program.

    "It is the wish of MCP to see positive coexistence and respect for
each other. We might differ on some issues but we don't get personal,"
she said.

    Meanwhile, a legal expert told Xinhua that members of Parliament
have the powers to remove Tembo as leader of opposition group in
Parliament by amending the House's Standing Orders since the position
is not constitutional.

    Tembo has been leader of opposition group for the past five years,
Justin Dzonzi said, adding that "strictly speaking, the position of
leader of opposition just like the position of leader of the House, is
not a constitutional position or a legal position as such. The position
is an administrative one governed by Standing Orders."

    He said if need arises legislators can amend the Standing Orders without problems.

    However, a political analyst from the University of Malawi, Mustafa
Hussein, has warned that removing Tembo from position of leader of
opposition will weaken further the already frail opposition, which lost
its supremacy during the elections after the ruling Democratic
Progressive Party took a total of 114 seats against opposition's 44.

African Leaders Pursue “Malawi Miracle”

Ben Block
May 28, 2009 2:53 PM

Five years ago, the rains disappeared for a month across much of
Malawi, just as the country's corn crop reached a critical growth
period. As a result, the 2005 harvest was the worst in a decade. Yet
again, millions of farmers were in need of food aid.

President Bingu wa Mutharika decided the next year would be
different. Despite World Bank disapproval and intense government
debate, Malawi's National Assembly distributed 3.4 million coupons to
farmers to subsidize purchases of inorganic fertilizer and improved
seeds. To ensure that the US$58 million program would support small
producers rather than large commercial estates, households were limited
to receiving two 50-kilogram fertilizer bags each.

With the help of heavy rains, the 2005-2006 season resulted in a
twofold increase in corn production. The program was repeated the next
year. By late 2007, Malawi began exporting its surplus corn to
Zimbabwe.

"For four years in a row, a starving country is no longer a starving
country," said Pedro Sanchez, an advisor to the Malawian government who
directs the Tropical Agriculture and the Rural Environment Program at Columbia University's Earth Institute.

A dozen countries throughout Africa may soon replicate the "Malawi Miracle," as the program is now called, Sanchez said during a speech at the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) annual conference in Arlington, Virginia, last week.

"This is Green Revolution stuff - India, Pakistan in the ‘60s," said
Sanchez, the 2002 recipient of the internationally recognized World Food Prize. "I don't know any other options that are working."

Zambia, Ghana, Senegal, and Kenya have recently announced plans for similar subsidy programs.
Still, such top-down reforms may fail, experts warn, without
improvements in the countries' commodity markets and transportation
infrastructure. Environmentalists are also concerned that the programs
may lead to farmer dependencies on synthetic fertilizer and genetically
modified seeds.

International donors such as the World Bank and U.S. Agency for
International Development originally opposed direct subsidy programs,
arguing instead for long-term solutions that rely on the private
sector.

"Donors want to see their funding going into investments on roads or research, not paying for income or salaries," said Samuel Benin, a research fellow with the Washington, D.C.-based International Food Policy Research Institute.

But since Malawi's agricultural reforms, the World Bank and other
international financial institutions have increased investments in
agriculture, including public spending initiatives.

"The private sector cannot do it all. It cannot reach farmers
everywhere because [private companies] are looking to make a profit,"
Benin said. "Donors have always known that supporting farmers is a good
thing. It's just the channel of how to do it that has been difficult."

Support for direct subsidies in countries such as Malawi and
Mozambique is also driven by concern that fertilizer prices will rise
in the future. During last summer's jump in energy prices, urea, the
world's most common nitrogen fertilizer, doubled in cost. Diammonium
phosphate (DAP), often produced using natural gas, increased by nearly
five times, according to the International Center for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development (IFDC).

Public spending initiatives have not always found success in Africa.
In Ethiopia, government subsidies for fertilizers and improved seeds
helped increase corn production dramatically in 2001, but the country
lacked the infrastructure to distribute the harvest to remote
communities, leading to a crop surplus and a crash in prices.

"Without investing in complementary services, [the program] actually
did not help by investing in fertilizer and seeds," Benin said. "You
need good agricultural systems to move foods to less-developed areas
and connect with other markets. By not investing in other areas, that
was a failure."

Replicating the "Malawi Miracle" may bring additional problems that
have become associated with agricultural success in both developing and
developed countries. Agricultural subsidies have resulted in greater
crop yields, but farms have often become reliant on fossil fuel-based fertilizers, chemical pesticides, and irrigation in areas often prone to drought, critics say.

Reliance on genetically modified seeds can also threaten the
availability of locally adapted seed varieties for future generations.
About 700 local crops were once cultivated worldwide, enabling
communities to turn to drought-resistant crops during droughts or other
seed varities that can withstand severe weather conditions. Yet 15
crops now supply an estimated 90 percent of the world's food, said
Louise Jackson, a soil scientist at the University of California at Davis and a co-chair of the DIVERSITAS network on agro-biodiversity.

"The reality is that in many places of the world, local people are
no longer reliant on local [crop] varieties," Jackson said at last
week's AIBS conference.

Organizations such as the United Nations and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa
are attempting to increase agricultural yields through systems that do
not rely entirely on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

Sanchez said that Malawi is attempting to use nitrogen-fixing trees or other organic methods, but the financing of organic or ecosystem-based agriculture alternatives simply do not exist in much of sub-Saharan Africa.

"We know very well that continuing to use mineral fertilizers
without organic fertilizers is wrong," Sanchez said. "I would hope to
see that in 10 years or so, a lot of fertilizers are organically fixed
through cover crops or other means."

Resource-depletion is a main reason why soils across sub-Saharan
Africa yield an average of 1 ton per hectare, compared to 3 tons per
hectare in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

Beyond Malawi, a handful of other African countries have also found
recent agricultural success. The goal of 6 percent annual agricultural
growth by 2015, set by the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), has been achieved by Ethiopia, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, and The Gambia in recent years.

Related posts in the Worldchanging archive:

GMO Crops and the Developing World

Conservation Agriculture and Global Warming

Worldchanging Interview: Wangari Maathai

A Truly African Green Revolution

Ben Block is a staff writer with the Worldwatch Institute. He can be reached at bblock@worldwatch.org.

Resuscitating Malawi

Written by Owei Lakemfa

Friday, 29 May 2009

MALAWI had been on the boil and its general elections had the
potentials of either increasing or lowering its temperature.  These
were not to be ordinary elections.  They were elections in which an
angry godfather and immediate past President, Bakili Muluzi, who had
imposed incumbent President Bingu Wa Mutharika, wanted his protégé out
of office.

Mutharika, accused his godfather of corruption and had him dragged 
to court for allegedly siphoning $10 million from donor countries.

Claiming
the charges were political, Muluzi had used his control of the ruling
United Democratic Front (UDF) to checkmate the President on a number of
fronts. Using their majority in parliament, UDF legislators accused the
President of crossing carpeting, and attempted to impeach him.  Hanging
on to power for four years without the backing of parliament, Mutharika
hoped that the the new elections in which parliamentary votes were also
up for grabs, would give him the needed control of the National
Assembly.

The intense power struggles between the President and
his godfather paralyzed the country. Riots broke out and there were
claims of coup plots to oust the government.

There were also
constitutional matters to settle.  Former President Muluzi who had
spent the mandatory two terms in office decided to personally challenge
Mutharika for the presidency.  He insisted that after five years out of
office, he was again eligible to contest. 

In the Nigerian
context, it is like former President Olusegun Obasanjo who after two
terms in office, imposed President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on the
electorate wanting to run in the 2011 or 2014 presidential election. 
By the time the courts on May 16, 2009  ruled that constitutionally,
Muluzi is barred from contesting, it was too late for the UDF to float
a credible candidate.  So the former President sanctioned the candidate
of a rival party, John Tembo of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP).

This
support was ironic as the UDF was the same “Liberation”  party which
had put an end to the one-party rule of Malawi by the blood-thirsty MCP.

The
MCP had been founded in August 1959 by Malawian nationalist, Orton
Chirwa. When Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda was released from prison in
1960,  Chirwa had out of deference, vacated the party’s presidency for
him.  Banda immediately seized the party structures and got himself
elected its life President.  Malawi which was known as Nyasaland became
independent on June 6, 1964 and Banda made the MCP the sole party in
the country which he declared a one party state.

To complete his
dictatorship, Banda handpicked and appointed not just members of his
cabinet but also the National Assembly.  Banda, a medical doctor, then
proceeded to run one of the most archaic, brutal and uncultured
dictatorships in world history.  He empowered local courts to try cases
of witchcraft to which there were no appeals. 

He turned on
Jehovah Witnesses and after brutal attacks, thousands of them fled to
neigbouring Zambia and Mozambique.  Churches also had to be sanctioned
by government before they could operate.

Orton Chirwa who had
founded the ruling party, left, and established the Malawi Freedom
Movement (MAFREMO). He was arrested along with his wife and sentenced
to death.  Only an intensive international campaign saved them from the
hangman. Another opposition party was  the Socialist League Of Malawi
(LESOMA) led by Dr Attati Mpakati.

On March 16,1979, a letter
bomb sent to Mpakati in Mozambique where he was on exile, blew off his
hands. An estatic Banda celebrated this dastardly act right on the
National Assembly floor. Four years later Mpakati was assassinated in
Zimbabwe.

Banda and the MCP also repressed press freedom; the
mass media including the radio was directly controlled by Banda.  Life
jail was the penalty for any journalist found guilty of “false
information”.
Banda as the father of the nation even prescribed
dress code for Malawian women.  Most oversea mails were opened and
telephone conversations monitored.

No criticism of President
Banda was allowed and those guilty were imprisoned or deported. His
huge wealth in a largely poor country could not be discussed.  He was
also a well known collaborator of the apartheid South African regime.

After he was deposed, Banda was put on trial, and on June 14, 1993, Malawians in a referendum voted for multi-party democracy.

The
post-dictatorship general elections of May 17, 1994 were won by the UDF
led by Muluzi.  The party won 82 of the 177 seats and went into
coalition with the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD). Five years later;
the AFORD went into alliance with the MCP against Muluzi who was
re-elected.

In the 2004 elections, John Tembo, perhaps Banda’s
main follower emerged strong winning 27.1 percent of the votes, but was
defeated by UDF’s Mutharika who had 35.9 percent. The latter had to
cobble together a number of opposition parties to form  government.

The
switching of sides by Muluzi to John Tembo is one of the surprises of
history.  Tembo was a man feared under Banda’s rule.  He was accused of
eliminating his rivals in the party, including then Ministers Dick
Matenje and Andrew Gandama.  In a little veiled reference to his past,
Tembo 77, said  this month, that the MCP is the party to vote for
because it had the experience to govern the country, arguing: “I belong
to the past, I belong to the present and I belong to the future”.

However,
the electorate did not share his views; with 93 percent of the votes
counted, Tembo had 1.2 million votes and incumbent President Mutharika
2.7 million.  Tembo cried foul claiming that opposition poll agents had
been denied access to the vote counting centres.  However, his main
backer, Muluzi conceded defeat and congratulated his former protégé.

These
elections have settled a number of issues, including the control of the
National Assembly which is now firmly in the hands of President
Mutharika and his party.

The Malawian elections in which unlike
Nigeria, the votes counted, has demonstrated that once the electorate
is respected, many, if not most political differences can be settled
based on the overall interests of the people.

Send us pictures of the inauguration

whether it is you and your friends witnessing history or pictures of the ceremony itself. We would like to see different angles of the stadium on inauguration day.

Send to antimuluzi@googlemail.com
Thanks

It's official Malawi President wins re-election

Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika has won a second term in office, according to the country's electoral commission.

The commission said that he had won 2.7 million votes, with his nearest rival John Tembo winning 1.2 million.

Mr Tembo has alleged that there was election fraud.

The
new president is due to be inaugurated on Friday, and several regional
leaders are already in Malawi to attend the swearing-in ceremony.

Observers hail peaceful election

by NATION  REPORTER
(5/21/2009)

As
Malawians turned up in large numbers to vote in presidential and
parliamentary elections yesterday, leader of the Commonwealth observer
mission and the EU chief observer applauded the country’s citizens for
a peaceful election.
Leader of the Commonwealth observer team John
Kufuor, who is also former Ghanaian president, said in an interview
voting went well in most centres he visited.
“The voting stations I visited were calm. People were voting in a peaceful manner...,” he said.
Kufuor
led a team of African Union mediators to Malawi three months ago to
ease the political tension between former president Bakili Muluzi, the
incumbent president Bingu wa Mutharika and MCP president John Tembo.
Vice-President
of the European Parliament and the EU chief observer Luisa Morgantini
said Malawians should be proud of themselves for the peaceful elections
and an impressive turn out.
“I am getting reports from across the country from EU observers that the situation is the same,” she said.
Mutharika,
standing for a second term, battled it out with six other candidates in
an election described as DPP’s first litmus test.
“I voted because I
wanted Bingu to have the mandate he badly needed to govern the
country,” said an excited voter—Loveness Austin in Lilongwe.
“I voted for someone who will make sure that food is always on the table for my family,” said another voter Martin Msonda.
In
most polling centres in Lilongwe, it was evident the race was between
Mutharika and Tembo, who is backed by Muluzi whose attempt to run was
blocked by the courts over the weekend.
The Electoral Commission closed the polling centres across the country shortly after 6pm.
In
a statement released after polling stopped, the commission’s
chairperson Anastasia Msosa said they had no reported incidence of
violence across the country and admitted that in some areas names of
voters missed on the voters roll.

Election Results Commentary

Gentlemen,
A fortnight before the polling day Muluzi declared, at a
rally, that Bingu does not know politics but HIM. I have never seen
this Muluzi doing any politics. Does he want to tell Malawians that
politics is just about castigating people. Politics is about
leadership, governance, and development. Mr Muluzi should go back to
school and learn what politics means.

Muluzi should look for a job as  tailor, driver, cook, or garden boy at the STATE HOUSE that is where he would do better!

I remain

Makiyolobasi

UDF faces reality of defeat as Malawians signal the dawn of new politics

United Democratic Front (UDF) has said it is ready to accept defeat
in the just ended general elections in which the incumbent President
Bingu wa Mutharika is leading.

UDF spokes-person Robert Jamieson said his party has received
unconfirmed reports about Bingu’s lead but said as a party they will
wait for an official announcement from Malawi Electoral Commission.

He said UDF is ready to accept defeat but hinted that it will only
be after the party has carefully examined the official results.

“We will have to examine the official results and if it is proved
that nobody tampered with the results we will accept,” he said.
Jamieson
who is among UDF gurus who have fallen in the Parliamentary elections
said after everything is settled about the general elections his party
will make serious decisions on their future.

He did not elaborate on what would happen to their coalition with Malawi Congress Party (MCP).

However, MCP general secretary Chris Daza said he was not ready to
comment on anything as regards to the results so far released.

Official Endorsement from Editorial: Bingu Wa Mutharika for President

Muluzi failing to pay legal fees

Lawyers for former president Bakili Muluzi say
they will not respond to Attorney General Jane Ansah’s demand that they
pay K15 million in legal costs incurred when handling a dismissed case
of their client’s candidacy.
The lawyers argued that they have taken the stand because the Electoral
Commission (EC), which the AG was representing in the matter, did not
present the actual bill.
But Ansah in an interview W ednesday said she would just take the
matter for taxation--a process where parties discuss costs of every
stage of the process.
One of Muluzi’s lawyers Kalekeni Kaphale described EC’s demand for K15 million as a big joke.
Kaphale said they would not bother to respond to the letter because the amount mentioned was exorbitant.
“We received a letter demanding our client to pay a bill of K15 million, but it is on the higher side,” he argued.
Asked on the next step, Kaphale said the Attorney General knows what to do.
On the other hand, Ansah said EC would not revert to Muluzi’s attorney and instead the matter would go straight to taxation.
“We demanded K15 million, so the next step is to go for taxation,” she said.
She said the two parties would discuss the bill then appear before the registrar for assessment.
Costs payable after losing a case are assessed by the Registrar of the High Court in the presence of both parties.
During this process, lawyers for both sides argue over the figures, but
the registrar has the prerogative to endorse the final figures.
A panel of three judges dismissed Muluzi’s challenge filed following
EC’s rejection of his bid to stand in next week’s presidential
elections.
The court ordered him to pay the costs.
The case was filed again and the Constitutional Court has reserved its ruling for this Friday.

Malawi is the second fastest growing economy in the world

LILONGWE, May 17 (Reuters) - Malawians vote on Tuesday in
parliamentary and presidential elections which could reignite
political tensions and threaten Western donor funding in one of
the world's poorest countries.

President Bingu wa Mutharika's chances of victory may have
increased significantly after Malawi's Constitutional Court
upheld on Saturday a decision to throw out an application by
former president Bakili Muluzi to contest the election.

Muluzi and main opposition leader John Tembo had forged an
unofficial alliance to take on wa Mutharika. Although he can no
longer run for president, Muluzi is unlikely to quit the bid to
beat the incumbent.

Wa Mutharika's tight fiscal management may give him an
advantage despite growing frustration among the poor.

He has won billions of dollars in debt relief for driving
reforms that have steered growth of around 7 percent a year for
the past three years.

Seven candidates, including one woman, are in the race. Wa
Mutharika took office in 2004, after winning an election marred
by violence and accusations of ballot rigging.

Investors are hoping for policy continuity in the southern
African country that depends heavily on tobacco exports.

An opposition win could throw the country into uncertainty
as the global economic crisis hits agricultural exports and it
may encourage Western donors to reconsider projects.

Donors account for 80 percent of Malawi's development budget
and stability is crucial for securing aid.

"The issue if the opposition wins is going to be the
alliance's stability -- given that it was only formed to oust
the incumbent," said Mike Davies, Middle East and Africa analyst
at Eurasia Group.

Malawi is the second fastest growing economy in the world,
according to the Economist Intelligence Unit. It managed to
bring down inflation from 30 percent to single digits in 2008.

But political upheaval has often overshadowed economic
gains, making Western donors uneasy and diverting attention away
from pressing problems such as poverty and AIDS.

Two thirds of the country's 13 million people live on less
than $1 a day and stalemates between the government and
opposition in parliament have held up budgets for months.

SIMMERING TENSIONS

Tensions have been brewing ahead of the election.

Muluzi was arrested in February and charged with stealing
millions of dollars of aid money during his decade as president
that ended 2004.

He remains a powerful political force despite his legal
troubles. Hailed as a hero in 1994 for removing dictator Kamuzu
Banda, Muluzi stepped down in 2004 after unsuccessfully trying
to change the constitution to allow him to stand again.

He announced a comeback bid last year and was later detained
on suspicion of being involved in a coup plot. The charges were
dropped.

"Political tensions will continue in the next five years
because of mistrust among the current political leadership,"
said University of Malawi political analyst Blessings Chisinga.

The direction of the economy is more predictable, with the
International Monetary Fund estimating 2008 expansion at 9.7
percent, boosted by growth of the telecommunication sector, high
tobacco sales and a strong maize harvest.

It also forecast strong growth for 2009 but warned of risks
from the global economic downturn.

Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe said commodity prices would
be under pressure but said the economy would benefit from
diversification away from agriculture -- most notably a uranium
mine that opened in April and which wa Mutharika said would
become Malawi's top foreign currency earner.

Malawi electoral campaign smooth: EU observer

BLANTYRE (AFP) — Malawi's electoral campaign, which ended on Sunday
morning before next week's elections, has been "smooth, very calm and
peaceful," said a European Union official.

"Overall, the
campaigning seems to have been all right. Freedom of expression has
been assured by everyone in accordance with international standards,"
Luisa Morgantini, head of the EU's observer mission, told AFP.

The
EU, with 83 observers on election day, will be the largest
internatiuonal observation mission in the southern African country's
fourth parliamentary and presidential elections since the end of the
Kamuzu Banda dictatorship 15 years ago.

The EU's core team and long-term observers will remain in Malawi until mid-June to cover the post-election period.

Other
observer missions are from the Commonwealth group of nations, the
African Union (AU), headed by John Kufuor, former president of Ghana,
and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Campaigning kicked off on March 20, after parliament had automatically dissolved.

However,
the EU observer chief noted that incumbent President Bingu wa
Mutharika, had "more public media coverage" than all contestants.

"It was clear, there was total difference of participation in the public media," she said.

The Mutharika administration gave a total news black-out to the opposition on state radio and television.

However,
she said the mission was in the country to "observe and make
recomendations. We hope the Malawi people will choose the best
candidates."

Mutharika will slug it out with main contender John
Tembo of the Malawi congress party (MCP), who is in alliance with
former president Bakili Muluzi's United Democratic Front.

About 5.8 million people are registered for the presidential and parliamentary poll on May 19.

Some 1,151 candidates, including independents, are vying for 193 parliamentary seats.

Muluzi election bar brings 'relief' to Malawians

BLANTYRE (AFP) — A constitutional court ruling dismissing
ex-president Bakili Muluzi's application to run for president for a
third time had "brought relief" to Malawians, the media said Sunday.

"The
ruling did not come as a big surprise to many... the fact that the
issue was settled by the courts has brought a lot of relief to
Malawians," the Sunday Nation said in its editorial.

It added:
"The political tension created by the debate on whether the
constitution allows a former president to bounce back after serving two
terms is almost over.

"With this matter settled for now, the focus of every Malawian will now shift to Tuesday's presidential and parliamentary poll."

Some
5.8 million Malawians are due to vote on May 19 in the country's fourth
multi-party since the end of Kamuzu Banda's dictatorship 15 years ago.

Constitutional
court judge Edward Twea said in the ruling that Muluzi, who served his
two terms as president from 1994 to 2004, is not eligible to bounce
back, as the constitution limits the president -- and also the vice
president and the second vice president -- to a maximum of two
consecutive terms.

Kalekeni Kaphale, lead lawyer for Muluzi, said they would appeal the decision.

Muluzi,
66, who defeated dictator Banda in the country's first multi-party in
1994, was in March disqualified from running for a third term.

The
electoral commission said he had hit his two-term limit, although
Muluzi had consistently argued the limit applies only to consecutive
terms.

Muluzi said he had only served for two consecutive terms
and was thereafter succeeded by the incumbent state president, saying
there was no possibility of life presidency.

Banda had declared
himself president for life, and the term limits were introduced to
prevent another ruler from making a similar move.

Muluzi has
entered an unlikely electoral alliance with the Malawi Congress Party,
once the instrument of Banda's oppressive rule.

He's supporting
John Tembo, Banda's former lieutenant, in his bid to unseat President
Bingu wa Mutharika, his handpicked successor and now estranged protege
who ditched Muluzi to form his own Democratic Progressive Party.

Muluzi
had selected Mutharika as his successor after failing to convince
parliament to amend the constitution to allow him a third consecutive
term.

LUCIUS: WRITING HIS OWN BIBLE?

By Mankhokwe Namusanya

NEITHER you nor I authored the story nor did we - even humorously - contribute anything to the story; it is said that it was God the almighty (Allah) who authored it indirectly through some people who are now in paradise enjoying with Him as do most Malawians now with the food security they have in total contrast to the famine they experienced during the tenure of one Elson Bakili Muluzi, a man from Machinga district, Kapoloma village to be specific.

The story mentioned earlier is in the Bible and it is about Moses - Moses and the Israelites. It also concerns Joshua and, of-course, Pharaoh who was the ruler of Egypt then. For further reading one can consult any holy Bible that contains the books; Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua and Judges, and read the said books or just consult any theologian, pastor, apostle, reverend, sheikh, etcetera.

The period 2007 saw Malawians (some not all) christening some person the title 'Moses' and therefore, by default, christening another 'Pharaoh'. The man who was awarded the title 'Moses' is the now president, Bingu wa Mutharika PhD., and his predecessor, Bakili Muluzi, was the one blessed with the title 'Pharaoh'. Some quarters then disagreed with the man who did the naming, Phungu Joseph Nkasa, but as of late it seems the same quarters are agreeing with him completely.

One guy who seemed, by all signs and symptoms, to disagree with Nkasa's observation was one Balaka-based musician, 'soldier' Lucius Banda JCE., who had his own version of Pharaoh as he explicitly announced in his hate-filled song Farao which appears in one of his recent albums, perhaps Cell 51, I am not really certain on that. But, recently, the man who was once an MP for Balaka north, has caught up with the truth and has come to agree that Bingu, the man who has heavily delivered despite being faced by an extremely hostile opposition, is indeed the latter day Moses.

Lucius, in his song Ndi Moto in which he is campaigning for John Zenas Ungapake Tembo - the one whom Muluzi said is a murderer - and therefore de-campaigning Bingu - the one whom the same Muluzi said is an economic engineer - has audibly audible accepted that Bingu is Moses. The guy cites the Bible and the very story of Moses to be painfully specific but, it is doubtful if he really cites the same Bible that is read in our churches each and every Saturday and Sunday including the one that was patronized by Crook (thus according to Muluzi) John Tembo and Katangale (thus according to Makande and BJ Mpinganjira) Bakili Muluzi that is located somewhere in the city of Mzuzu which connects to Chitipa district where Muluzi promised to construct a road which he is yet to construct.

In the same song, Lucius says that Tembo is the latter day Joshua who is to take over the mantle of leadership from the latter day Moses and lead us into Canaan - strange, isn't it? All the original Bibles on earth indeed do agree that Joshua succeeded Moses but not with the help of Pharaoh. If Lucius accepts that Bingu is Moses, then he is also accepting that Muluzi is pharaoh since it was Moses who succeeded Pharaoh in leading (is it leading really?) the Israelites.

Now, if Tembo is to be Joshua it means that he comes from the Israelite family and has no agreement with Pharaoh who in this case is Muluzi. And, Joshua was never an opposer of Moses but rather his supporter and therefore it is somehow blasphemous to call Tembo Joshua for the entire world knows how this Tembo fought against all the developmental projects that Moses Mutharika undertook including the national budget. Tembo himself is also being sponsored by Muluzi, who is pharaoh in this case, to remove Mutharika, who is Moses in this play, from power; this simply makes the whole process of naming Tembo as Joshua illogical and to say the least, CHILDISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If Lucius accepts that Mutharika is Moses then he is also surely accepting that Mutharika will win the general election this coming 19th for Joshua has not yet come as he is to come from Bingu's camp that comprises of his supporters as was Joshua to Moses, which in this scenario is the DPP. As of now, we are still in the wilderness being pursued by Pharaoh (Muluzi) and his army that is being commanded by commander Tembo who is trying to cheat us that he is the savior.

I said it before and I say it now again: we did not write the Bible nor did we write the story but God wrote it through his holy ones. As they say, 'history repeats itself.' GO and READ the Bible once again, the story of Moses and the Israelites, and see how Pharaoh pursued the Israelites and how they (the Israelites) became tensed as Malawians are now. Do not stop there but also see how Pharaoh, his armies and his commanders ended.

Was it good? I ask you. 

Feature

QUOTES THAT ARE TO LIVE

By MANKHOKWE NAMUSANYA

History safuta ayi. (Literally meaning, history is never erased.)

—Atupele Muluzi’s father, Elson Muluzi

THERE was once some cartoon in some newsletter on some campus about some certified professor who always began, progressed and ended all his lectures with quotes. The good professor always started his lectures by saying so and so said such and such, and so and so said this and that, a habit that also went on in the course of his lectures all the way through to the end of the lectures up to a point that one male student wondered on who was going to quote the intelligent professor for he never said anything himself but just repeated what others already said long before he was even born.

And, talking about quotes and quoting, many intelligent people nowadays seem to be solely surviving on quotes to look very intelligent and one of those quotes which is mostly quoted and drives many in their quests and, I strongly believe, shall stand the taste of time is that from the current US president Barrack Obama. It is a simple and straightforward quote and not unusual; it proclaims: ‘YES WE CAN!’ end of quote.

The quote, as used by many, does not go any further than that, does not elaborate what is it that we can, how we can, why we can, when we can, where we can, etcetera. It just says we can without elaborating and I also believe, yes we can. That quote is one of the quotes that I strongly do suppose shall live for it unusually inspires and provokes -in a positive way- ambitions specially hidden in us as individuals. One great thing that I learnt from that quote the first time I heard it was that I and you also can; yes we can also use quotes as all important people do like the professor in that cartoon that really did not impress me until now.

If you think that no we cannot then I say let us try using quotes and bring them out here; real quotes that have and will always stand the taste of time, quotes that are original and were said by people who were purely and soberly sober, and really meant what they said, real quotes ladies and gentlemen like these:

• "Of all people I know Tembo better. I cannot allow him to succeed me and I can’t recommend him."

-Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda.

• Tembo is a crook. He is a criminal!
• Mr. John Tembo is the one who killed the three ministers in Mwanza. There’s a record on Mr. Gadama, as you all know he was a catholic, gripping his rosary and pleading with Mr. Tembo saying, ‘mukundipheranji?’ (Why are you killing me?). Inu a Malawi lero ati tikakhale pansi ati tivotele John Tembo? (Malawians, do you think it’s logical for us today to be saying we have to vote for John Tembo?)
• I have a tape with me here in which Tembo together with other MCP members were plotting to kill all the catholic bishops for authoring the pastoral letter of 1992.
• Boma la MCP linali boma lankhanza kwambiri. Eti lero pawailesi n’kumanena ati tikavotere kokoliko. (The MCP government was a very cruel government. Strangely, they were saying on the radio today that we vote for the same cruel government.)
• Tembo is an ungrateful fellow. I gave him money to pay for water and electricity, and also buy clothes for his party women.
• Brown Mpinganjira is adulterous; he snatched another man’s wife – the wife of Mr. Lossa, a church elder at CI. Inu, kodi mwamzimayi wa ana faivi umvamo chani, osangobwera kudzatenga ma D7 ali panowa bwanji? (No translation please, please, please!)
• Kamlepo Kalua wachamba. (Kamlepo Kalua smokes marijuana)

-Bakili Muluzi, malawi’s former head of state and UDF national chairman (NB: all these things were spoken on public rallies)

• Boma la MCP/UDF coalition lizakulolani a maminibasi kukhala folofolo. (The MCP/UDF government will allow you minibus owners to overload your minibuses.)
• Things have changed, MCP has changed and I also have changed.
• Ine ndi puludzu (or buluzu?), sin’lapa ayi. (I am  unrepentant (or lizard?), I don’t repent)

-Mr. John Zenus Ungapake Tembo, MCP president.

Have you now seen? We can also use quotes and believe them and let them be our drive. I tell you that the people quoted above meant what they said and therefore we are more than safe if we trust those quotes.

‘YES WE CAN’ – one of the quotes that are to live.

Vuto liri ndi a Malawi n’loti sitichedwa kuiwala.

(The problem with Malawians is that we forget very easily.)

• Patricia Shanil Muluzi’s husband, Elson Muluzi.

Bingu praised at US summit

President Bingu wa Mutharika continues to receive praise for his policies on agriculture with the latest being recognition from former United Nations (UN) Secretary General’s envoy on HIV/Aids to Africa, Stephen Lewis.

According to Malawian Mpanje Phiri, who attended a conference on reviewing the relationship between food shortage and the HIV/Aids crisis and held in the United States last month, Lewis lauded Mutharika for standing up against pressure from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) against subsidising fertiliser prices.

“I thought I should share the good news about our country’s image abroad since I was the only Malawian invited to the conference held in Kansas, Missouri,” said Phiri, a programme coordinator for a local relief NGO.

“Lewis singled out Malawi for achieving food security. He said Malawi has a president with rare skills and who successfully stood up to pressure from the World Bank and IMF against subsidising fertiliser prices.”

Asked if he broke the news to drum up support for Mutharika ahead of the May 19 polls, Phiri said he was not a politician and that if he were one, he should have gone on a political podium to announce the news.

In his speech, which Phiri showed to The Daily Times, Lewis said Mutharika made Malawi the only country to transform from a hungry nation to a food donor in the developing world because of his determination which also saw him stand pressure from some European countries and the US.

“Mutharika told these nations that if they were able to subsidise farm inputs for their farmers, there was nothing wrong with Malawi doing it for its farmers,” he said.

Phiri said other delegates, drawn from across the world, mobbed him during tea break to find out how Malawi achieved the feat and to congratulate him.

He added: “I felt very proud to be associated with such success. The moment he mentioned Malawi, I raised my hand to show that I was from the country.”

Canadian Lewis, now Coordinator of the Aids-Free World – an advocacy organisation promoting urgent and effective response to HIV issues, served as UN Secretary General Special Envoy on HIV/Aids to Africa between 2001 and 2006.

Lewis is the author of one of the bestselling books Race Against Time. He also served as United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) Deputy Executive Director from 1995 to 1999, and has been awarded up to 28 honorary degrees by Canadian universities.

Africa would not only remember Lewis for his role in fighting HIV in the continent but also as a member of an International Panel of Eminent Personalities to investigate the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and its surrounding events to which he was appointed in 1998 by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).

He also served as Canadian ambassador to the UN from 1984 to 1988.

 

Images from the Campaign Trail: Interesting flyer from our reader showing Malawi President Mutharika

Good governance earns Malawi funding from Obama Administration

President Barak Obama has called for increased financial support for agricultural development in poor countries as a way of mitigating food insecurity and promoting trade with the developed world.

Mr Obama called upon the US Congress on April 17, to double US financial support in developing countries to more than $1bn (Shs2,050bn) in 2010, according to a press release by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

“A permanent solution to food insecurity requires restoration of rapid and sustained economic growth that directly engages the world’s poorest populations, many of whom depend on agricultural labour for most or all of their household income and food consumption,” the release reads in part.

“We can directly improve the lives of poor populations by growing rural economies through broad-based agriculture growth. Doing so will help the world achieve the goal of halving the proportion of people who suffer from hunger by and decrease the price of food in the local market, making food affordable for and dramatically cutting hunger.”

The focus areas for agricultural development assistance include among others, increasing productivity and rural incomes by modernising the developing country’s agriculture through expanding development and use of modern technology.

The programme that will be managed through Usaid, will work in collaboration with American land-grant universities to strengthen the chosen countries’ research institutions.

According to the agricultural research organisation, CGIAR, the assistance will also boost access to quality seeds, fertilisers, irrigation, and rural credit while small producers are expected to be linked to markets, and agricultural value chains.

The funding will also strengthen national and regional trade, transport corridors and encourage private investment in agriculture.
The US aims at reducing dependency on international food aid and will seek to draw the poor countries into the growth process through social safety nets for example, by creating opportunities for jobs, improved education and healthcare services.

The Obama administration wants to see well established multilateral partnerships to leverage the strength of the developing countries’ private sector, NGOs, and universities.

The funding will cover 25 countries and eight regional-based programmes and the beneficiaries in Africa include; Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and Malawi.

South and East Asian countries like Bangladesh and Cambodia will benefit from the fund, while Guatemala and Honduras in the Western Hemisphere are some of the countries selected for support in their agricultural research.