Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Lilongwe (Agenzia Fides)- One month has passed since political and presidential elections in Malawi gave a second mandate to outgoing President Bingu wa Mutharika (see Fides 22/5/2009). Italian Monfort missionary, Fr Piergiorgio Gamba, has lived in Malawi for many years. Fides asked his opinion on the new political course in the country.
“The unprecedented 'avalanche' victory of Mutharik, and the election of 143 members of his party out of a total 193 members of parliament, allows the president to govern as he pleases, without compromise with the Opposition and without even dialectic within the majority party ” the missionary said. “The situation in my opinion was described aptly by the title of the editorial of our newspaper The Lamp: "In the shadow of Mutharika grass does not grow”.
Mutharika formed a new government which left the people perplexed because of the high number of ministers. “The new executive has 21 ministers and 21 vice ministers ” Fr Gamba told Fides. “This is an enormous number in a country which has to live with daily electricity cuts and a whole week without water at Blantyre, an industrial hub of the country”.
Fr. Gamba mentions other characteristics of the new government: the President is also Minister of Agriculture (a key ministry in a country like Malawi, where a poor harvest means hunger for hundreds of thousands of families; 20 ministers are from southern Malawi, 11 from the central region and 9 from the north. Eleven ministers are women (26%), “a step forward and a result of a 50/50 campaign for man/woman representation” says Fr. Gamba.
The missionary says that “Goodal Gondwe, finance minister in the previous executive, and the best promoter of the process of economic reform, has been moved to a ministry of minor importance. In the new government, moreover, room has been made for a few younger members. None of them with particular merit, except total obedience to the President. The missionary also points out the appointment as minister of justice of the president's brother, who will have complete control of his ministry since he has not been flanked with a vice-minister ”.
However the missionary thinks that the President's ample margin of manoeuvre in parliament will have an undesirable consequence for the Head of State. “In the past- says Fr. Gamba- when things went wrong the blame was put on the Opposition. Now the government is alone, to be praised or demonised. This too is a radical change in Malawi politics ”.
Fr. Gamba concludes recalling the issue of control of national media, cleverly used by the president in the electoral campaign: “Until all political and social forces are guaranteed free and transparent access to the media, the control of the latter will remain the great uncertainty for the country's democratic future”. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 24/6/2009 righe 36 parole 481)
