JB 100 days in Office
H.E. Dr. Joyce Banda 100 days in Office
President Joyce Banda clocked 100 days in office generating more hope, trust and expectation from Malawians.
When she assumed office, there was
no fuel, import cover was only available for less than a week, people were
queuing to buy sugar, the economic situation had worsened, the country’s
relation with multilateral donors went sour.
However, in within 100 days in
office, the tables had turn around, the news in the streets was different, the
economy was back on track.
She was catapulted into office at the worst
possible moment. The country was engulfed in a rambling political and economic
crisis that appeared headed for a failed state status.
The President’s first Keynote
Address on the State of the Nation before the National Assembly on May 18, 2012
went straight to the crux of the matter.
Mrs. Banda appealed for sanity to
prevail in the House and get the string of legislation which had become to be
known as bad laws repealed.
The ill-considered laws made donors
to the budgetary support to withdraw their 40 percent financial injection. It
also turned out to be a yoke around the nation’s neck, strangling its democracy
and estranging friends and foes alike.
She urged Members of Parliament to
repeal the law on the so-called Injunction Bill that barred anyone from
obtaining a court order against apparent injustices from government.
Other similarly controversial
legislation lined up for repeal were amendments to police searches without a
warrant issued by a court officer and archaic colonial-made law on same sex
relationships described as unnatural sexual acts.
Another was section 46 which a
responsible minister could unleash to shutdown a media house or other
publication that may be regarded as distasteful in the eyes of the government.
The law under question framed by
the previous Bingu wa Mutharika administration despite its overwhelming
majority in Parliament was left to wallow in a bankrupt situation.
The people were facing deepening
poverty amid rising human rights abuses. The streets were becoming
ungovernable.
It was crucial for the President to
get the laws repealed that had a knock-on effect on donor aid that had been frozen
in view of the regime’s undemocratic tendencies.
Acts of impunity and blatant abuse
of office as evident in wanton deployment of armed security forces ordered to
“shoot to kill” suspects required a demonstration of leadership which Mrs.
Banda ably did without hesitation.
It was such qualities of leadership
that had led her to be expelled from President Mutharika’s cabinet and the
governing Democratic Progressive Party. However, he could not take away Mrs.
Banda’s position as Vice President, an office protected by the Republican
Constitution.
She stayed put and mounted a
courageous and unprecedented campaign under the People’s Party that grew
quickly into a major opposition party and a thorn in Mutharika’s administration
on a call for a return to democracy and democratic principles.
The last days of March produced the
poetic Beware of the Ides of March. Mrs. Banda solidarity visit to Maula Prison
in Lilongwe where a United Democratic Front leader was incarcerated, she was
forced to walk the last kilometre to the prison by armed-to-the-teeth police
officers who did not let her car enter the area.
Days later, the former President,
Professor Mutharika, suddenly died from a massive heart attack, according to
reports. It is an event that had seismic political ramifications unwelcome for
the governing DPP and more than a mere twist of fate for many others.
Whether or not indeed, it was
destiny or fate, the Vice President, in the next few hours of April, be
sworn-in as the fourth president of the Republic of Malawi.
President Mrs. Joyce Banda’s
ascendancy to the most powerful of offices in the land debunked old myths about
women’s abilities to become President of a country and Malawi which was
mouthed, with the help of hindsight now, without pause to think, that what had
been labelled a male-dominated society had much more to it than the eye could
see.
Donors and neighbouring states that
had raised concerns at the threat Malawi’s previous regime misrule posed for
the stability of the region were quick to respond to the new President’s
appeals for emergency aid to alleviate fuel and foreign exchange shortages that
were scarring the nation and devouring unity and progress in the process.
The official statement the
President made before Parliament and in her acceptance speech that her
administration would do everything possible to regain the trust of the
international community and its neighbours and in particular the people of
Malawi was a seal that was needed to re-set the course of the ship to calmer
political waters and to the docks of, well, milk and honey.
There was much work to be done, the
President conceded. The economy was battered and bruised beyond the pale.
Donors would only throw in their weight when the economy barometer
institutions, The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, issued the
country with a clean bill of health which they did and aid started to trickle
then flow.
With good fiscal management, good
governance and respect for rule of law, it should not be too long before aid
gushes in again.
The President would not rest. Aid
resumption came with its usual conditionalities that are more or less the same
for all member states of the World Bank and IMF.
Malawi’s economy would attain
better health with an austerity programme as it reforms and reconstructs the
economy.
The damaged economy would require
Malawi to devalue its currency, at least by 40 percent; improve on its tax
collection; create a business-friendly environment and attract foreign direct
investment to rival the geographically and economically well endowed nations in
the region.
The President responded with a
National Conference on the Economy, bringing together various stakeholders,
policy and decision-makers in the private and public sectors including
international bodies for a definitive solution.
The President was also responding
to a call for transformation of the society, in the words of the British charge
d’affaires Mr. Kirk Hollingworth at Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee country
celebration in Blantyre.
She was aware that there can be
little or no growth at all in an environment of economic austerity programmes.
The impact on the poor of society would be exacerbated and needed urgent
attention for remedial palliative measures as a safety net. One of the
programmes was the public works programme that would earn beneficiaries K300
each day at work up from K200 a day earlier.
There are more cash transfer
programmes in the pipeline to cushion the unintended outcomes of the programme
adopted.
President Banda appears undaunted
by the Herculean task before her. In fact, going by the events that began with
the Maula Prison visit that March, it seems like she was being prepared for a
‘Happy Birthday’ present on her sixty-second anniversary as it turned out.
What Malawi lacks in abundance is
more than made up for the overwhelming goodwill from the people and others with
interest in the well-being of the country.
However, in recent times the
country’s ignored mining sector has assumed some prominence and could play a
vital role in creating wealth as it becomes commercially viable to mine
uranium, rare earth and others that are in demand for new technologies.
Mrs. Banda has also seen the need
for reaching out to scores and perhaps hundreds of Malawians living in the
Diaspora to contribute to national development.
She has appealed for allowing
Malawians holding other citizenships to get their Malawian citizenship under a
dual citizenship arrangement. The suggestion has received positive response.
In between, Mrs Banda has travelled
to foreign capitals to pay her personal thanks and the gratitude of Malawians
for staying firm with nation during the crisis.
It was a whirlwind tour that took
her to Monrovia in Liberia where the first African woman President Sirleaf
Johnson welcomed her warmly. She visited London and met the Queen on her
Diamond Jubilee marking 60 years of her reign.
The two enjoyed some time together
and the Queen wished her the best in office leading Malawi.
She travelled to Mozambique and
South Africa to thank the two countries for their assistance during the state
funeral and providing her beleaguered government with financial and material
assistance.
At home, there was a lot of work to
be done. There were outstanding issues on governance that civil society wanted
addressed and she had to although these originated from the previous regime.
It seemed each passing day was a
trial. There was the issue of the July 20 police shootings of unarmed
protesters in which about 20 died from gunfire. There was the case of the
mysterious death of a Polytechnic student Robert Chasowa to be resolved.
She was called upon to unravel the
Malawi Revenue Authority K30 billion borrowings from commercial banks on behalf
of the government in an attempt to cover up its fiscal mismanagement.
President Banda was Guest of Honour
at the University of Malawi Symposium on Academic Freedom, a matter that the
previous government was adamant to accept and entered into a tug of war, which
it came out worse for the wear.
She reaffirmed her commitment to
respect the university teachers, students and academic freedoms.
A dedicated rights activist,
particularly for the marginalized and vulnerable groups, children and women,
she assumed the role the UN had given her as Malawi’s Ambassador for Safe
motherhood the callous Mutharika regime had hijacked to throw it on former
First Lady Callista Mutharika. It was an ill fit.
The President travelled to rural
areas to mobilize chiefs to take a leading role in safe motherhood in order to
ensure compliance with advice on saving lives of newborn babies and mothers by
taking them early enough to government and independent health facilities in
order to avoid birth complications and death of mothers in childbirth.
She visited Ntandile, a peri-urban
settlement in Lilongwe following alarming reports of 68 cases defilement and
rape in one month. The President directed the police to construct a manned unit
that would mount patrols, respond quickly to any crime in the area, protect
life and property, and promote peaceful coexistence, law and order.
It was a wonder to see the
President as fresh and bright each day. She was busy as a bee. The media had
its day with Mrs. Banda, getting to know each other and looking for a common
ground where the two could amicably agree or disagree without turning nasty.
The media managers meeting the
President in audience at Sanjika Palace in Blantyre wanted the Freedom of
Access to Information Act repealed so the media can report with certainty and
clarity as well as discarding Section 46 so that reporters can operate without
an axe hanging over their heads.
The media feels vindicated by the
events surrounding President Mutharika’s death which were shrouded in some
mystery. Local media quoted the BBC broadcasting from London, some fifteen hours
of jet airliner travelling at 900km per hour to confirm the death.
While the Government of Malawi was
mum on the matter, the internet was electric with reports direct from insiders.
Media owners have a strong case, indeed.
She was soon off to lobby for
orphans and disadvantaged children. At the Joyce Banda Foundation primary and
secondary schools, the President delivered a heart-wrenching testimony of
orphans looking after each other and sleeping on empty bellies, penniless and
hopeless. She appealed to Malawians to at least, as she put it, look after one
orphan not their relation.
The President challenged both local
and international donors to the education sector to upgrade their assistance to
include enabling primary school pupils to benefit from secondary school
education which is not funded in the current arrangement.
The President, in keeping with the
theme, she graced the official opening of school facilities, including school
blocks, a dormitory and dining hall, constructed with funding from the Japanese
government where she called for emulation of it by other friendly governments
in order to get the country into a new era of prosperity and wealth-creation
through literacy and academic excellence.
The hard work President Banda has
put into reviving the economy and democracy has apparently been well received.
Tobacco auction earnings are reported a three-year record and still rising.
The Millennium Challenge Compact
has been revived with Malawi demonstrating before the United States of America
its newfound wisdom on good governance which underpins its access.
Malawi will use the K54 billion
grant for connecting its overloaded power grid to Cabora Bassa for additional
power in order to light up a greater part of the country and get industry to
maximize its expenditure.
Coupled with a friendly business
environment, effective legal instruments and competitive labour market, the
increase and reliability of power could enhance the country’s charm as the
foreign direct investment destination in the region.
President Banda’s statement at the
gathering of industrialists, financiers and decision makers resonated with the
global approach to development.
No longer is a country untouched by
developments elsewhere and neo-nationalist sloganeering cannot take the place
of a decent job, meaningful wages and the dignity of work.
Indeed, it is true that the country
often slips off the economic radar and it is often not someone else to blame
but Malawi’s leaders. The oft-noted problem is that it takes too long to
register a company and there are too many layers of bureaucratic red tape to
deal with.
There is everything to fear from
layer after layer of officialdom than being re-colonized, something that is
entirely a perception.
However, crowds at the Road Traffic
Directorate or Passport Office tell another story. That is a reality check. It
is a cost to business, which invariably will be passed on to the consumer at
the end of the line.
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