AFRICA/MALAWI - Malawi in the grip of famine and institutional chaos sees timid signs of hope according to local missionary: “it has started to rain, people are sowing every kind of available seed, what is a more a political solution may be in sight”

Lilongwe (Fides Service)- “Christmas is coming and the end of a particularly difficult year for Malawi is near and people want desperately to see a point of return, a return to a rule of law, to good government, to a life free of the fear of hunger, to being once again proud to be a Malawian” said a local missionary in Malawi, a country in the grip of a political and humanitarian crisis due to drought which is on the way to a partial solution.
“The most important event in the past two weeks has been without a doubt the return of rain all over the country” the missionary confirmed. “Everyone is out in the fields sowing every sort of available seed and hoping the rain will not stop until it is time for the harvest. Rain will help overcome hunger, which in some parts of out Malawi has reached ruinous levels forcing people to go back to eating roots and wild berries to which they were no longer accustomed”.
At the political level the missionary said: “Another sign in the past two weeks which all hope is authentic, although while not believing it, is a possible political reconciliation in a scene which is in an awful mess. The presidency of the country after weeks of attacks on the Opposition would appear to be interested in dialogue. The call came in particular from history which on 3 December recalled the eight years which have passed since the state funeral of Hastings Kamuzu Banda, first president of Malawi, ever more missed by many people who admit that the dictatorship at least fed the people and restricted corruption (at that time centralised)”.
“In recent months political activity has developed a style very similar to that of the rains which brings into the open all the lethargic frogs under ground” the missionary continued. “When parliament meets, every few months, there is a revival of the accusation of impeachment of the president who disappears from the scene. As soon as parliament closes we see the reappearance of the president who invades the country with his travels, television programmes disappear from the only existing TV channel and are replaced with infinite hours of political rallying by the one party, arrests of opposition members resumes and threats are made on behalf of the Anti Corruption Bureau, for ever in search of new cases of corruption which it never concludes”.
Ever present is the battle between the UDF party and Bakili Muluzi whom people cannot forgive for having been betrayed by the candidate he led to presidency.
The reasons for this institutional battle are derived in fact from an attempt by former President Bakili Muluzi, who governed the country for ten years, to impose on his party a candidate after his own heart Bingu wa Mutharika who won the elections in 2004.
The new President however distanced himself from the party which brought him to elections and presidency. In search of total independence he formed his own party DPP. More than once the new president sought to reduce the influence of Bakili Muluzi threatening to have him arrested, although he never did. For months Muluzi’s party has called for the impeachment of the new president for minor factors. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 5/12/2005 righe 42 parole 563)