Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Lilongwe (Fides Service)- The battle between Malawi’s national leaders continues other while the country’s serious food shortage is ever more critical and famine ever closer. On Thursday 3 November vice president Cassim Chilumpha criticised the government for arresting members of parliament “who were only doing their duty" he said.
He was referring to Lucius Banda and MP Maxwell Milanzi both arrested on charges of giving false information a crime punished with three years in prison. “It is not normal for a vice president to attack his own government and it was a shock for everyone” said local sources. “It was aggravated by the fact that the president was out of the country at the time and the vice president was the highest national authority. In the attack on the government the vice president was in the company of former president Bakili Muluzi”.
President Bingu wa Mutharika who is visiting Scotland found the British government little inclined to listen to requests for food aid after Muluzi’s party accused the government of corruption. “This attack on the president in another country with the precise intention of stopping donation of aid to Malawi is another signal of what is going on here” the sources commented. In fact several countries have said they will not supply aid if President Bingu wa Mutharika is subjected to impeachment. Yesterday 7 November the parliamentary committee which controls public accounts, overruled by the part of former president Muluzi, accused the President and two ministers of corruption, and called for an investigation.
This institutional conflict started when former president Bakili Muluzi, who governed the country for ten years, tried to impose a party candidate of his choice Bingu wa Mutharika who won the elections in 2004.
The new President distanced himself from the party which led him to be elected and installed. To be totally independent he formed his own party DPP. More than once Mutharika tried to reduce Muluzi’s influence threatening to have him arrested, although he never did. For months now Muluzi’s party has called for the impeachment of the new president for minor factors. The battle between the two men continues in Malawi as the country struggles with a dramatic famine (see Fides 11 October 2005).
“Where is Malawi going?” a missionary asks. “It seems the country could fall no further: end of party democracy, end of government unable to stand... there is an attempt of mediation between the government and Bakili Muluzi. The former president would avoid prison if he leaves politics and accepts a job with the common market of southern African countries. This is perhaps the first time we sense that something has come to an end, and there is no time to lose”. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 8/11/2005 righe 45 parole 538)
