Malawi is a landlocked country without gold and oil – two minerals that have proven to be wealth earners wherever they exist. As such, the majority of the population is poor. But, as KAREN MSISKA asks, can’t the country’s soil be its gold and oil?
From the highest point of Misuku Hills in Chitipa on the northern tip of Malawi to the lowest point of the Shire Valley in Nsanje lying on the southern tip of the country, Malawi’s soil has capacity to give life to more than one crop that would change one’s life through generating income.
Yet, Robson Watayachanga, a 30-year-old villager at Munonono in Rumphi, will tell you that he was born with poverty, lives with poverty and will die with it.
“We have been told more than once that Malawi has no gold, oil or a port that can bring about riches for us. So we were born this way, live this way and – unless God suddenly drops a miracle – we expect to die this way,” he says.
Such a mentality is not only in Robson’s head. It is a common problem amongst a number of Malawians. In the run up to the 2004 general elections, then a presidential candidate, President Bingu wa Mutharika used the least time allocated for him to ‘greet’ those who gathered for rallies to confess this when he said that Malawians are the ones that are poor, not Malawi.
Mutharika has since tried to change the mentality by encouraging people to think critically and adopt initiatives that could enrich them. Through such attempts to end poverty, Mutharika has since changed fortunes for tobacco farmers in the country.
For the first time in recent history, the country’s tobacco industry raked in a whopping K75 billion, which translates to about 33 percent of the 2008/2009 initial national budget pegged at K229 billion.
Considering the fact that tobacco grows in the soils of mainly the central region and that other soils elsewhere across the country support crops that can also rake in money for the country, the question ‘can’t Malawi’s soil be its gold and oil?’ begs.
“Absolutely,” said Clement Thindwa, Chief Executive Officer for the Tea Planters Association of Malawi, in an interview. “Land as one of the factors of production can be used to generate a lot of wealth.”
He says, however, that the mentality that land is for traditional use only should change.
“We should harness our land, adding value to it. We have tended to be very traditional when handling land issues, as such we need to change our thinking and look at innovations that would bring high value out of low volume of land,” he says.
Tea, grown mostly in Thyolo and Mulanje districts and on a lower scale in Nkhata Bay, is the second highest income earner for the country. Thindwa said the crop fetches about K5 billion yearly, but there is enormous room for improvement.
He said, currently, there is an export void between June and July because growers mostly rely on rain.
“We need to exploit irrigation as well so that we produce the crop all year round. There is a lot of demand for tea internationally because the plant has more than just one use. Most products including T-shirts have the flavour of tea,” he says.
“Domestic consumption of tea should also improve because only 3 percent of the tea grown in the country is consumed locally. The rest is consumed outside the country. So the question is why don’t we drink our tea?”
Thindwa adds that the association is also looking at means of making its marketing strategy aggressive so that there are more buyers at the tea auction floors, just as has been the case with tobacco this year.
Coffee Association of Malawi (Camal) Technical and Marketing Executive Officer, Peter Njikho, concurred with Thindwa, saying if fully exploited, coffee growing would make people realize that their soil is as good as gold and oil elsewhere.
He says: “If the coffee industry is revived and invigorated, more returns would be realized. There are a number of areas where coffee was grown on a large scale in the past but are no longer growing the crop.”
Currently, most of the coffee is grown in Misuku Hills in Chitipa, Phoka Hills and Mphompha in Rumphi, and in some estates in the southern region. Njikho says Mwera and Ntchisi Hills in the central region are fertile for the crop but people there have turned to growing tobacco thereby abusing the potential.
“The crop is just growing like natural bush there now, but if we came back and revived business of growing the plant we can make effective use of the soil. Otherwise people in the areas are just forcing themselves on growing tobacco,” says Njikho, adding that some hills in Dedza and Ntcheu are also ideal for the crop.
He said current statistics indicate that coffee sells at $2.50 (about K350) per kilogramme on the export market. This translates to between K700 million and K850 million yearly as the country realizes between 2,000 and 2,500 metric tons of the bean annually. (1 metric ton equals 1,000 kg).
Njikho says the industry could realize a windfall if all that amount were consumed locally as statistics show that the crop sells at $12 (about K1,680) on the local market. This translates to between K3.36 billion and K4.2 billion annually.
“We need to produce more because we drastically fall short of demand for Malawian coffee on the international market. Otherwise, we should also change our belief that coffee is for the whites and start consuming the produce,” he says. According to Njikho, only 3 percent of coffee is currently consumed locally.
“We are on a marketing drive to equip most hotel operators on how to prepare coffee because when asked why they don’t serve Malawian coffee, there answers have been that they don’t know how to prepare it,” he adds.
Tobacco, coffee and tea are just some of the cash crops that the country’s soils give life to. Lakeshore districts and the Lower Shire have areas that are capable of growing cotton on a larger scale. With a boom in the textile industry in the United States and China, the crop could fetch a windfall for the country in general and farmers in particular when supplied with great quality, say analysts.
Another crop that can generate reasonable amounts of cash for farmers and the country is Paprika. The crop is widely used to flavour and spice up foods. And with global food prices rising by day, maize is gradually becoming another crop that could bring in cash.
So far, indicators are that the country’s soil is enough gold and oil. But, according to Harrison Kalua, president of the Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCCI), the mentality of people like Robson Watayachanga has to be changed first.
“If you convince yourself that you are poor, you will be poor but if your thinking is different you can turn the situation around. We need to change the mentality in most of our people. You can see, in the village people feel happy where they are even when you note that there are problems there,” says Kalua.
“Take the instance of Japan. It has no minerals whatsoever, but it has a people that can think and create wealth for themselves and the country is rich. Let us teach our people to think. Let us educate them.”
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Today minus food processing is tomorrow without food
The equation T - FP = TWF is nowhere near Mathematics. Not even in C.V. Durell, that Mathematics book which every Mathematics genius wants to flip its pages.
But this equation, Today (T) minus Food Processing (FP) equals Tomorrow Without Food (TWF), is everywhere. And everybody – Mathematician or not – in hills or valleys, can bear testimony to it. If you said you cannot, read this.
At Bvumbwe market, a few kilometres off the eastern outskirts of Blantyre City, along the Thyolo road, there are times when the hustle and bustle that dictates matters there is about fruits and vegetables. And, Blantyre’s townships quench their thirst for good pineapples and cabbage there without any problems.
Yet, there are times when Bvumbwe – known for its riches in avocado pears, pineapples, Irish potatoes, tomatoes and many kinds of leaf vegetables – cannot quench even its own thirst for these produce.
“If you want to buy pineapples here, then you have to come between November and February. You will have completely no chance of finding the produce here after May every year.
“As for avocado pears, you should come here between December and June. You may have a slim chance of finding them up to July. Otherwise, in between there is no chance of finding such produce here,” says Clement Banda of the Bvumbwe Vegetable Growers Association.
Problems of gaps in the availability of food are not confined to only one area. This is a national issue, and, in most cases, it goes beyond borders.
For the past three years, Malawi has been registering surpluses in maize production. Yet, like Bvumbwe pineapples that rise and sink like the sun, continued maize availability in the country is something nobody would guarantee.
Only a few months ago, Malawi’s success story of achieving surplus maize harvests was talk of the town. The United Nations (UN) has more than once urged developing nations that suffer perpetual food shortage to adopt Malawi’s technique in dealing with the problem.
Yet, the so-highly-rated Malawi is itself suffering effects of food shortage. Phalombe, Chiradzulu, Balaka, Thyolo and Chikwawa have been highlighted as among a number of districts where food inavailability has taken its toll. But how can a nation that created so much impression in food production be generating stories of food shortage?
“Whenever there is a void in food processing, we will always be talking of this and that food as seasonal,” says Banda. “Otherwise, with food processing there is a guarantee that there will be food today and tomorrow and people won’t be waiting for a season to get a particular food.”
He says that processed food beats time as it is easy to store. As such he and a group of fellow farmers have set up the Bvumbwe Vegetable Growers’ Association, which, apart from growing, processes a wide-range of leaf vegetables which they store and sell later to supermarkets in Blantyre.
He adds: “Most of our leaf vegetables are processed by drying and they are later packaged. With this process, there is no talk of losses in terms of damages or selling at a cheaper price for fear of encountering these damages.”
Tomatoes are processed into sauce; however, the process is not that developed because of shortage of machinery and skill. Otherwise, with support from the One Village One Product (Ovop) we expect a processing factory to take off soon as it is already being built.”
Realising the benefits of food processing, the Story Workshop – with support from the European Union (EU) – has embarked on a campaign to ensure that food processing activities close to the producer, like the one by the Bvumbwe Vegetable Growers’ Association, are done across the country.
Under this programme, Story Workshop seeks to encourage individuals to come together and start simple food processing activities at village level. This is aimed at ensuring that there is continued availability of and value addition to what these villagers produce. As such, they can guarantee food security and more returns on their products.
“Higher food prices ideally benefit the farmers producing the food. Most farmers in Malawi sell the products of the harvest right away since storage is a problem in many areas,” says the Story Workshop in its programme briefing paper.
With the country basking in so many agricultural activities, analysts say there are equally so many food processing activities in which individual groups can indulge themselves.
Charles Kazembe, Malawi Entrepreneurship Development Institute (MEDI) Executive Director, says individuals should just express interest and his institution will show them where to go.
“Everything that is grown has capacity to be processed and stored,” says Kazembe. “Unfortunately, about 80 percent of what is grown in Malawi is wasted because there is no processing, which leads to easy storage. Yet the procedure is simple: once you start with what you know, everything follows.”
Currently, MEDI is known mostly for teaching people how to process cassava into flour. But Kazembe says the organisation has gone far beyond that.
He says, for instance, recently the organisation started processing sumu, which is largely onions mixed with tomatoes and with chillies and vinegar added to the mixture as preservatives.
“There are so many food processing activities which groups of individuals can embark on. MEDI is ready to facilitate the process of imparting skills; however, willingness and real interest is very important,” he says.
Unfortunately, there is little activity on food processing in the country. Oil extraction from sunflowers and juice manufacturing are done on a smaller scale. Only fish drying, cassava processing and vegetable drying in the homes are done to a larger extent.
In Banda’s words, the absence of such food processing activities is what has led to having food only today and none tomorrow. This is why pineapples are seasonal, he says.
MEDI Executive Director Kazembe says failure to exploit potential in these food processing activities is a result of a negative perception of the process. Nevertheless, he says, there is a lot of value added to food during processing and one has nothing to lose. The foods are grown locally, he says.
According to Ovop National Coordinator Kamia Kaluma Sulumba, a change in the negative perception to food processing can be facilitated by the affected individuals themselves. She says they can form groups and later enjoy every benefit coming from Ovop.
“When they form groups, they can become Ovop members and once they are members all the benefits will be trickling down to them,” she says. “We look at what individual groups need and identify who can impart on them the skills they miss. When they come up with the products, we work with them to come up with marketing strategies that include organising trade fairs.”
She adds that Ovop has an antennae shop in Lilongwe where all its members showcase the products they make.
Tomorrow will remain without food if the Story Workshop programme is not heeded and today continues without food processing. Otherwise, if groups like Banda’s form across the country, utilise Ovop services and acquire skills at MEDI, nobody will tell when it is a pineapple season and when it is not.
But this equation, Today (T) minus Food Processing (FP) equals Tomorrow Without Food (TWF), is everywhere. And everybody – Mathematician or not – in hills or valleys, can bear testimony to it. If you said you cannot, read this.
At Bvumbwe market, a few kilometres off the eastern outskirts of Blantyre City, along the Thyolo road, there are times when the hustle and bustle that dictates matters there is about fruits and vegetables. And, Blantyre’s townships quench their thirst for good pineapples and cabbage there without any problems.
Yet, there are times when Bvumbwe – known for its riches in avocado pears, pineapples, Irish potatoes, tomatoes and many kinds of leaf vegetables – cannot quench even its own thirst for these produce.
“If you want to buy pineapples here, then you have to come between November and February. You will have completely no chance of finding the produce here after May every year.
“As for avocado pears, you should come here between December and June. You may have a slim chance of finding them up to July. Otherwise, in between there is no chance of finding such produce here,” says Clement Banda of the Bvumbwe Vegetable Growers Association.
Problems of gaps in the availability of food are not confined to only one area. This is a national issue, and, in most cases, it goes beyond borders.
For the past three years, Malawi has been registering surpluses in maize production. Yet, like Bvumbwe pineapples that rise and sink like the sun, continued maize availability in the country is something nobody would guarantee.
Only a few months ago, Malawi’s success story of achieving surplus maize harvests was talk of the town. The United Nations (UN) has more than once urged developing nations that suffer perpetual food shortage to adopt Malawi’s technique in dealing with the problem.
Yet, the so-highly-rated Malawi is itself suffering effects of food shortage. Phalombe, Chiradzulu, Balaka, Thyolo and Chikwawa have been highlighted as among a number of districts where food inavailability has taken its toll. But how can a nation that created so much impression in food production be generating stories of food shortage?
“Whenever there is a void in food processing, we will always be talking of this and that food as seasonal,” says Banda. “Otherwise, with food processing there is a guarantee that there will be food today and tomorrow and people won’t be waiting for a season to get a particular food.”
He says that processed food beats time as it is easy to store. As such he and a group of fellow farmers have set up the Bvumbwe Vegetable Growers’ Association, which, apart from growing, processes a wide-range of leaf vegetables which they store and sell later to supermarkets in Blantyre.
He adds: “Most of our leaf vegetables are processed by drying and they are later packaged. With this process, there is no talk of losses in terms of damages or selling at a cheaper price for fear of encountering these damages.”
Tomatoes are processed into sauce; however, the process is not that developed because of shortage of machinery and skill. Otherwise, with support from the One Village One Product (Ovop) we expect a processing factory to take off soon as it is already being built.”
Realising the benefits of food processing, the Story Workshop – with support from the European Union (EU) – has embarked on a campaign to ensure that food processing activities close to the producer, like the one by the Bvumbwe Vegetable Growers’ Association, are done across the country.
Under this programme, Story Workshop seeks to encourage individuals to come together and start simple food processing activities at village level. This is aimed at ensuring that there is continued availability of and value addition to what these villagers produce. As such, they can guarantee food security and more returns on their products.
“Higher food prices ideally benefit the farmers producing the food. Most farmers in Malawi sell the products of the harvest right away since storage is a problem in many areas,” says the Story Workshop in its programme briefing paper.
With the country basking in so many agricultural activities, analysts say there are equally so many food processing activities in which individual groups can indulge themselves.
Charles Kazembe, Malawi Entrepreneurship Development Institute (MEDI) Executive Director, says individuals should just express interest and his institution will show them where to go.
“Everything that is grown has capacity to be processed and stored,” says Kazembe. “Unfortunately, about 80 percent of what is grown in Malawi is wasted because there is no processing, which leads to easy storage. Yet the procedure is simple: once you start with what you know, everything follows.”
Currently, MEDI is known mostly for teaching people how to process cassava into flour. But Kazembe says the organisation has gone far beyond that.
He says, for instance, recently the organisation started processing sumu, which is largely onions mixed with tomatoes and with chillies and vinegar added to the mixture as preservatives.
“There are so many food processing activities which groups of individuals can embark on. MEDI is ready to facilitate the process of imparting skills; however, willingness and real interest is very important,” he says.
Unfortunately, there is little activity on food processing in the country. Oil extraction from sunflowers and juice manufacturing are done on a smaller scale. Only fish drying, cassava processing and vegetable drying in the homes are done to a larger extent.
In Banda’s words, the absence of such food processing activities is what has led to having food only today and none tomorrow. This is why pineapples are seasonal, he says.
MEDI Executive Director Kazembe says failure to exploit potential in these food processing activities is a result of a negative perception of the process. Nevertheless, he says, there is a lot of value added to food during processing and one has nothing to lose. The foods are grown locally, he says.
According to Ovop National Coordinator Kamia Kaluma Sulumba, a change in the negative perception to food processing can be facilitated by the affected individuals themselves. She says they can form groups and later enjoy every benefit coming from Ovop.
“When they form groups, they can become Ovop members and once they are members all the benefits will be trickling down to them,” she says. “We look at what individual groups need and identify who can impart on them the skills they miss. When they come up with the products, we work with them to come up with marketing strategies that include organising trade fairs.”
She adds that Ovop has an antennae shop in Lilongwe where all its members showcase the products they make.
Tomorrow will remain without food if the Story Workshop programme is not heeded and today continues without food processing. Otherwise, if groups like Banda’s form across the country, utilise Ovop services and acquire skills at MEDI, nobody will tell when it is a pineapple season and when it is not.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Who is your role model?
WHO IS YOUR ROLE MODEL?
Try it without looking at the answers..... .
1) Pick your favorite number between 1-9
2) Multiply by 3 then
3) Add 3, then again Multiply by 3 (I'll wait while you get the calculator.. ..)
4) You'll get a 2 or 3 digit number….
5) Add the digits together
Now Scroll down ............ ..
Now with that number see who your ROLE MODEL is from the list below:
1. Robert Einstein
2. Nelson Mandela
3. Jerry Springer
4. Barack Obama
5. Bill Gates
6. Mahatma Gandhi
7. Tony Blair
8. Eddie Murphy
9. Karen Iron Msiska (Me)
10. Abraham Lincoln
I know I just have that effect on people. That is why in 2019 I am contesting as Member of Parliament (MP) for Rumphi North and in 2024 I am contesting as President of the Republic of Malawi.
Iron Woyeeeeee!!!!!!!!!
Try it without looking at the answers..... .
1) Pick your favorite number between 1-9
2) Multiply by 3 then
3) Add 3, then again Multiply by 3 (I'll wait while you get the calculator.. ..)
4) You'll get a 2 or 3 digit number….
5) Add the digits together
Now Scroll down ............ ..
Now with that number see who your ROLE MODEL is from the list below:
1. Robert Einstein
2. Nelson Mandela
3. Jerry Springer
4. Barack Obama
5. Bill Gates
6. Mahatma Gandhi
7. Tony Blair
8. Eddie Murphy
9. Karen Iron Msiska (Me)
10. Abraham Lincoln
I know I just have that effect on people. That is why in 2019 I am contesting as Member of Parliament (MP) for Rumphi North and in 2024 I am contesting as President of the Republic of Malawi.
Iron Woyeeeeee!!!!!!!!!
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Malawi: Sitting President versus Former President
Of late, there has been a trade of barbs between Malawi's sitting President Bingu wa Mutharika and his predecessor, Bakili Muluzi. The two wrote each other trading accusations on a wide range of issues. I looked for the letters and today I present one from Muluzi, apparently a response to Mutharika's piece. I haven't got Mutharika's letter to Muluzi yet, but I will present it the moment I lay my hands on it.
Enjoy reading this one.
Muluzi's reply to Mutharika: Malawi Presidential paranoia
31st October 2008
His Excellency Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika
President of the Republic of Malawi
New State House
LILONGWE
Your Excellency,
RE: CRIMINAL LIBEL AND SEDITION-RESPONSE
Please kindly accept my personal greetings and best wishes and those of the former First Lady, and we trust that you are keeping well.
Your Excellency, I am compelled to respond to your letter dated 28th October, 2008, because it contains serious allegations against me personally, Messrs. Humphrey Mvula, Patrick Mbewe, Harry Thomson and Brown Mpinganjira, MP, among others. I note that this letter is a repeat of allegations contained in your letters to me dated 14th July, 2006 and 12th March, 2008.
Your Excellency, I will commence my response by refuting in the strongest terms your assertions in paragraph two where you accuse me of being confrontational and attempting to remove you from the Presidency.
Your Excellency, this is entirely false as you are fully aware that I, Bakili Muluzi, worked tirelessly to secure your Presidency and after the elections in 2004, I went further in assisting you to form a workable government by talking to the leadership of opposition parties, and independent Members of Parliament. This is clear testimony of my personal goodwill and support for your government.
Your Excellency, I would also wish to remind you that I have personally invested a lot energy and effort in the quest of finding a solution to the political impasse engulfing this country today. Your Excellency, under my guidance, members of the United Democratic Front (UDF) have remained calm even after you decided to dump the party that sponsored you to the Presidency in February 2005.
Your letter gives me the impression that there must be something seriously wrong with or in the manner that authentic and credible intelligence information is submitted to Your Excellency as the Head of State and Government.
The allegations raised in your letter are not only false but concocted lies fabricated for ulterior political motives by dubious individuals within the intelligence or your political system.
Your Excellency, upon assuming office in May 2004, I did advise you to exercise extreme caution in the handling of intelligence information that will be passed on to you.
I gave you numerous examples of how late Dr. Kamuzu Banda, the first President of the Republic, was held virtually hostage by intelligence officers and political functionaries who routinely fed him with false information resulting in the Ngwazi making wrong decisions and creating imagined enemies.
Your Excellency, I am always amazed when you attribute to my name all the negative publicity against you even when some of such is borne from unpopular government decisions or where the citizens agitate for a cause that seem to run contra to your own way of looking at issues.
Your Excellency, both of us are aware that democracy is government by the consent of the governed who must approve not only the rules by which they are administered but also the policies affecting them.
Your Excellency, I think time has come when all of us should remember that democracy does not demand blind obedience, unquestioning discipline and acceptance of the status quo; but calls upon leaders to appreciate people’s right to understand and take active participation in matters affecting them.
I am equally amazed and humbled when you assert that I control the media, particularly the on-line publication called Nyasa Times and the independent media in general.
Your Excellency, these allegations are false and I would advise you to stop peddling such allegations because they have the capacity to undermine the credibility of your High Office.
Your Excellency, I have also found it disheartening that you have personally and through your ministers attributed all your failures to me and my colleagues in the UDF. Some of the failures have been occasioned by natural causes and others by accidents that very little could have been done to prevent them from happening.
I think and believe that leadership demands of us objectivity, honesty, transparency and accountability. During my reign, a lot was achieved and several programmes were work-in-progress by the time you took over government and I would therefore expect you to publicly acknowledge such contributions.
Your Excellency, I would like to correct your assumption that Mr. Humphrey Mvula resides in my house and that he has been employed or deployed to write and publish articles that are critical to Your Excellency.
Your Excellency, Mr. Humphrey Mvula has never lived with me in my house and he has never been my employee nor has he been hired to write negative articles about Your Excellency. This is again a case of inaccurate and misleading intelligence information.
Your Excellency may recall that Mr. Humphrey Mvula was one of the few individuals who worked tirelessly during our successful campaign for your Presidency. Unfortunately, like me, Mr. Humphrey Mvula has been a victim of your administration’s witch-hunt tactics having been arrested eleven (11) times in the last four years.
Your Excellency, it is most unfortunate and illogical that the alleged ‘ghosts’ story by Raphael Tenthani and Mabvuto Banda could also be attributed to me personally when it is on record that the story had Reverend Malani Mtonga, your Special Assistant on Religious Affairs, as the source. How does it become a Muluzi fabrication and where does Muluzi fit in this equation?
Your Excellency, the two journalists are employed by international news organizations and have also written very positive stories about Your Excellency and very negative stories about myself.
The allegations that Nyasanet and Nyasa Times are funded by me personally are inaccurate and false. Whilst I cannot answer for Mr. Humphrey Mvula about his alleged involvement, I, however, have my doubts and do not subscribe to the philosophy that he is the Nyasanet/Nyasa Times mastermind.
Your Excellency, such allegations against individuals demand that hard evidence should be available, otherwise you may be targeting wrong people for victimization as you hunt around for real enemies.
Your Excellency, the matter about drunkenness as published in The Dispatch newspaper has no bearing on me personally, and on any of the persons that you accuse.
Your Excellency, you would do me great favour if you sued The Dispatch newspaper instead of attributing it to me or persons believed to be closely connected to me. I cannot bear witness as to whether you take or you do not take alcohol because that is a very personal matter.
Your Excellency, the issues about teargas from Malawi to Zimbabwe and clearance of Chinese arms for Zimbabwe were known to me following media reports. Personally, I did not take keen interest in the two allegations and I viewed them with a lot of skepticism based on my experience of the past.
Your Excellency, the allegations alluding to the COMESA Report are equally strange to me because I have not seen the report in the recent years.
Your Excellency should, however, be appraised that the COMESA Report was brought to the fore during the campaign in 2004 by M’mgwirizano Coalition through The Nation and the defunct Chronicle newspapers. We all worked very hard to diffuse its impact on your candidature then. Fortunately, we succeeded and it did not hamper our quest for you to be elected President.
Your Excellency, the COMESA fiasco should at no time be attributed to me personally or anyone in my political party, the United Democratic Front (UDF) because I did my very best to defend you from a unanimous decision to dismiss you and later report you to police. The minutes of that special COMESA summit would bear witness.
Your Excellency, it is not true that the report was authored with the assistance of a committee comprising Messrs. Harry Thomson, Patrick Mbewe, Brown Mpinganjira, late Dumbo Lemani, late Edward Bwanali and late Chakakala Chaziya.
Your Excellency, from my recollection, the COMESA Report was authored by a special committee of five (5) eminent persons and none of them was Malawian.
Your Excellency, history will judge us as great leaders if we accept that there was once a past, which was checkered with successes and failures rather than exist in the self-belief of omnipotence and infallibility. In this regard, whether COMESA was a smooth ride or not, it is a matter of inclination and subjective debate.
Your Excellency, I would advise you to discard the feeling that it was the UDF that hatched a plan to have you removed as COMESA Secretary General.
I would also advise you to desist from repeatedly referring to the COMESA Report because its contents cannot be changed and there are also other salient features that some of us would rather not talk about; for example, the state of your nationality at that time.
Your Excellency, if it were to be true that indeed out of my hatred for you I had formed a committee to remove you from COMESA, does it make sense, Your Excellency, that the same Muluzi decided to appoint you Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of Malawi, later as a senior cabinet minister for Economic Planning and Development and finally as Presidential Candidate for the United Democratic Front.
Your Excellency are aware that I single-handedly proposed your name against fierce protestation from senior members of the party; some of whom decided to leave the party in anger.
Your Excellency, I could not have invested huge personal resources into your campaign nor could I have asked other senior members to invest into your presidential campaign if your theory of hate is anything to go by.
Your Excellency, I would request you to regularly reflect and look over your shoulders in appreciation of the fact that what we leave behind is part of ourselves.
Your Excellency, most of all, as leaders, we must not throw away the ladders that take us to the rooftop and we must always pay special tribute to all that have contributed to our being what we have become.
Your Excellency, I am disappointed to read about your allegations on the state of your health. Let it be said that I am neither a sadist nor do I belong to a category of individuals that enjoy seeing others suffering or in pain nor do I celebrate when someone, whatever his or her disposition, is going through a bout of poor health.
Your Excellency, the state of your health has never been a subject of debate in the UDF and be rest assured that I, personally, and the UDF as a party, continue to wish you good health.
Your Excellency, your comments about my own health are ill-considered and made out of malice because by and large, I am in very good health.
Your Excellency, if at any time my health is not up to the mark, I will be the first one to go public about it as I have always done. I have never pretended to be such a person that cannot fall sick nor have I hidden the state of my health.
Your Excellency, it is true that I had suffered a slipped disc and this condition came about because of the grueling campaign of 2004 that I had undertaken on Your Excellency’s behalf.
Your Excellency, following the slipped disk, I have since undergone operations in South Africa and the United Kingdom and my recuperation has been satisfactory. I still have to go for regular check-ups as advised by my specialist doctors.
I am rather perturbed that you have quickly forgotten that the said slipped disc had been as a result of my active campaigning for you in 2004. I would request you to remember and appreciate my sacrifices and the sacrifices of other UDF leaders whom you fervently tout as enemies today.
Your Excellency, I would like to assure you that it is not true that I went through a blood draining operation in Egypt and that it is also not true that I have throat cancer.
I am disturbed with your claim that I suffer from category “A” diabetes and that I cannot stay very long time without eating food or else I would faint. Your Excellency, your information is wrong and malicious since you well know that this is not the case.
You worked with me as cabinet minister and you spent long hours with me during the 2004 grueling campaign, which at times saw us conduct ten (10) campaign meetings a day without taking food. You are also aware that I am a devout Muslim who observes thirty (30) days of fasting during the Holy month of Ramadan.
It smacks of sadism that Your Excellency can regurgitate information that is false and unfounded; especially considering the fact Your Excellency has demonstrated the rare courage of capturing this information on official record. I find this to be a very unfortunate situation and a demonstration of how much hate you hold against me.
Your Excellency, I would also wish to remind you that you have personally, or through your ministers, party functionaries and the public media, MBC and TVM demonized me, calling me all sorts of despicable names.
There are several other unfortunate actions that you have taken against me as the Former President, who worked so hard for your success. Similar actions have been taken against some of the senior members of the UDF and others sympathetic to the party.
Your Excellency, I have not forgotten my recent dehumanizing and disgraceful arrest at Kamuzu International Airport in June this year on trumped-up treason charges. That arrest was authorized by Your Excellency following your pronouncements at a rally in Nkhata Bay district.
I wonder if you really believe that I can plan to overthrow a government that I helped put together and also considering that from 1983 to 1993 together with so many courageous Malawians who did not run away from the dictatorship fought for multiparty democracy.
Your Excellency, in your letter, you make threats of my arrest and that of the so-called imaginary perpetrators alleged to be spreading what you describe as “diabolic lies” about Your Excellency.
Your Excellency, I am extremely surprised that these threats of arrest are being championed by Your Excellency as the Head of State because the power of arrest lies with the police who are expected to be apolitical whilst serving the government of the day and the power of adjudication is vested in the judiciary.
Your Excellency, as the first democratically-elected President, it worries me to realize that after 14 years of multiparty democracy coupled with the existence of a considerably good Republican Constitution, we still read and hear of the Head of State ordering arrests of political competitors! Your Excellency, I would advise you to stay clear of a leadership that believes in the subjugation of its citizens.
You may wish to know that our democratic agenda has all along been driven by repudiation of the highly noxious phenomenon of the cult of personality so that never again shall this country have one anointed personality sitting above the Republican Constitution, passing decrees and command arrests of citizens.
Your Excellency, I have never wished you dead. Rather that you have wished me and my colleagues in the UDF dead because a lot that can be proved by hard facts and evidence has happened during the past four years.
The bad treatment that you and your government are subjecting me to cannot be compared to the atrocities of the one-party dictatorship. I have also found it unfair that there are attempts to suffocate the UDF as a party through deliberate efforts targeting the top leadership. I must state without fear of contradiction that had Your Excellency not dumped the UDF, the party would have most likely settled for you as its Presidential Candidate for the 2009 General Elections.
I would therefore implore on Your Excellency to allow members of the UDF to field a Presidential Candidate of their choice without coercion and undue pressure from your office and members of your party. In this regard, I would like to personally ask you to tell your supporters in the DPP to stop meddling in the internal affairs of the UDF.
Your Excellency, I know that there are some in our country of feature on MBC and TVM posing as “experts” or “analysts” simply on the basis of their readiness to abandon all ethical conclusions and self-respect, at a cost to the taxpayer, to propagate entirely fabricated and negative notions about me and my colleagues in the UDF.
I cite the names of Messrs. Nawena, Ning’ang’a, Sawerengera, Banda, Ntaba, Dausi, Malopa, Mtumodzi, Molande, Sudi Sulaimana, Prof. Mphande, Mrs. Kaliati among others as the “experts” and “analysts” who are on your payroll to carry out the devilish agenda against me.
As Head of State and Government, you have a responsibility to steer this country towards a free and fair election in 2009, which is Your Excellency’s constitutional mandate and obligation.
Your Excellency, on my part, I can assure you that there is no iota of truth in the allegations that you have levelled against me. I can challenge you to provide evidence to substantiate any of your allegations.
Your Excellency, intelligence information has the potential to make or break leaders when not properly synthesized and utilized. I would encourage you to rigorously evaluate the information that you receive before embarking on a blame game.
Your Excellency, please accept my sincerest regards.
DR. BAKILI MULUZI
Enjoy reading this one.
Muluzi's reply to Mutharika: Malawi Presidential paranoia
31st October 2008
His Excellency Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika
President of the Republic of Malawi
New State House
LILONGWE
Your Excellency,
RE: CRIMINAL LIBEL AND SEDITION-RESPONSE
Please kindly accept my personal greetings and best wishes and those of the former First Lady, and we trust that you are keeping well.
Your Excellency, I am compelled to respond to your letter dated 28th October, 2008, because it contains serious allegations against me personally, Messrs. Humphrey Mvula, Patrick Mbewe, Harry Thomson and Brown Mpinganjira, MP, among others. I note that this letter is a repeat of allegations contained in your letters to me dated 14th July, 2006 and 12th March, 2008.
Your Excellency, I will commence my response by refuting in the strongest terms your assertions in paragraph two where you accuse me of being confrontational and attempting to remove you from the Presidency.
Your Excellency, this is entirely false as you are fully aware that I, Bakili Muluzi, worked tirelessly to secure your Presidency and after the elections in 2004, I went further in assisting you to form a workable government by talking to the leadership of opposition parties, and independent Members of Parliament. This is clear testimony of my personal goodwill and support for your government.
Your Excellency, I would also wish to remind you that I have personally invested a lot energy and effort in the quest of finding a solution to the political impasse engulfing this country today. Your Excellency, under my guidance, members of the United Democratic Front (UDF) have remained calm even after you decided to dump the party that sponsored you to the Presidency in February 2005.
Your letter gives me the impression that there must be something seriously wrong with or in the manner that authentic and credible intelligence information is submitted to Your Excellency as the Head of State and Government.
The allegations raised in your letter are not only false but concocted lies fabricated for ulterior political motives by dubious individuals within the intelligence or your political system.
Your Excellency, upon assuming office in May 2004, I did advise you to exercise extreme caution in the handling of intelligence information that will be passed on to you.
I gave you numerous examples of how late Dr. Kamuzu Banda, the first President of the Republic, was held virtually hostage by intelligence officers and political functionaries who routinely fed him with false information resulting in the Ngwazi making wrong decisions and creating imagined enemies.
Your Excellency, I am always amazed when you attribute to my name all the negative publicity against you even when some of such is borne from unpopular government decisions or where the citizens agitate for a cause that seem to run contra to your own way of looking at issues.
Your Excellency, both of us are aware that democracy is government by the consent of the governed who must approve not only the rules by which they are administered but also the policies affecting them.
Your Excellency, I think time has come when all of us should remember that democracy does not demand blind obedience, unquestioning discipline and acceptance of the status quo; but calls upon leaders to appreciate people’s right to understand and take active participation in matters affecting them.
I am equally amazed and humbled when you assert that I control the media, particularly the on-line publication called Nyasa Times and the independent media in general.
Your Excellency, these allegations are false and I would advise you to stop peddling such allegations because they have the capacity to undermine the credibility of your High Office.
Your Excellency, I have also found it disheartening that you have personally and through your ministers attributed all your failures to me and my colleagues in the UDF. Some of the failures have been occasioned by natural causes and others by accidents that very little could have been done to prevent them from happening.
I think and believe that leadership demands of us objectivity, honesty, transparency and accountability. During my reign, a lot was achieved and several programmes were work-in-progress by the time you took over government and I would therefore expect you to publicly acknowledge such contributions.
Your Excellency, I would like to correct your assumption that Mr. Humphrey Mvula resides in my house and that he has been employed or deployed to write and publish articles that are critical to Your Excellency.
Your Excellency, Mr. Humphrey Mvula has never lived with me in my house and he has never been my employee nor has he been hired to write negative articles about Your Excellency. This is again a case of inaccurate and misleading intelligence information.
Your Excellency may recall that Mr. Humphrey Mvula was one of the few individuals who worked tirelessly during our successful campaign for your Presidency. Unfortunately, like me, Mr. Humphrey Mvula has been a victim of your administration’s witch-hunt tactics having been arrested eleven (11) times in the last four years.
Your Excellency, it is most unfortunate and illogical that the alleged ‘ghosts’ story by Raphael Tenthani and Mabvuto Banda could also be attributed to me personally when it is on record that the story had Reverend Malani Mtonga, your Special Assistant on Religious Affairs, as the source. How does it become a Muluzi fabrication and where does Muluzi fit in this equation?
Your Excellency, the two journalists are employed by international news organizations and have also written very positive stories about Your Excellency and very negative stories about myself.
The allegations that Nyasanet and Nyasa Times are funded by me personally are inaccurate and false. Whilst I cannot answer for Mr. Humphrey Mvula about his alleged involvement, I, however, have my doubts and do not subscribe to the philosophy that he is the Nyasanet/Nyasa Times mastermind.
Your Excellency, such allegations against individuals demand that hard evidence should be available, otherwise you may be targeting wrong people for victimization as you hunt around for real enemies.
Your Excellency, the matter about drunkenness as published in The Dispatch newspaper has no bearing on me personally, and on any of the persons that you accuse.
Your Excellency, you would do me great favour if you sued The Dispatch newspaper instead of attributing it to me or persons believed to be closely connected to me. I cannot bear witness as to whether you take or you do not take alcohol because that is a very personal matter.
Your Excellency, the issues about teargas from Malawi to Zimbabwe and clearance of Chinese arms for Zimbabwe were known to me following media reports. Personally, I did not take keen interest in the two allegations and I viewed them with a lot of skepticism based on my experience of the past.
Your Excellency, the allegations alluding to the COMESA Report are equally strange to me because I have not seen the report in the recent years.
Your Excellency should, however, be appraised that the COMESA Report was brought to the fore during the campaign in 2004 by M’mgwirizano Coalition through The Nation and the defunct Chronicle newspapers. We all worked very hard to diffuse its impact on your candidature then. Fortunately, we succeeded and it did not hamper our quest for you to be elected President.
Your Excellency, the COMESA fiasco should at no time be attributed to me personally or anyone in my political party, the United Democratic Front (UDF) because I did my very best to defend you from a unanimous decision to dismiss you and later report you to police. The minutes of that special COMESA summit would bear witness.
Your Excellency, it is not true that the report was authored with the assistance of a committee comprising Messrs. Harry Thomson, Patrick Mbewe, Brown Mpinganjira, late Dumbo Lemani, late Edward Bwanali and late Chakakala Chaziya.
Your Excellency, from my recollection, the COMESA Report was authored by a special committee of five (5) eminent persons and none of them was Malawian.
Your Excellency, history will judge us as great leaders if we accept that there was once a past, which was checkered with successes and failures rather than exist in the self-belief of omnipotence and infallibility. In this regard, whether COMESA was a smooth ride or not, it is a matter of inclination and subjective debate.
Your Excellency, I would advise you to discard the feeling that it was the UDF that hatched a plan to have you removed as COMESA Secretary General.
I would also advise you to desist from repeatedly referring to the COMESA Report because its contents cannot be changed and there are also other salient features that some of us would rather not talk about; for example, the state of your nationality at that time.
Your Excellency, if it were to be true that indeed out of my hatred for you I had formed a committee to remove you from COMESA, does it make sense, Your Excellency, that the same Muluzi decided to appoint you Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of Malawi, later as a senior cabinet minister for Economic Planning and Development and finally as Presidential Candidate for the United Democratic Front.
Your Excellency are aware that I single-handedly proposed your name against fierce protestation from senior members of the party; some of whom decided to leave the party in anger.
Your Excellency, I could not have invested huge personal resources into your campaign nor could I have asked other senior members to invest into your presidential campaign if your theory of hate is anything to go by.
Your Excellency, I would request you to regularly reflect and look over your shoulders in appreciation of the fact that what we leave behind is part of ourselves.
Your Excellency, most of all, as leaders, we must not throw away the ladders that take us to the rooftop and we must always pay special tribute to all that have contributed to our being what we have become.
Your Excellency, I am disappointed to read about your allegations on the state of your health. Let it be said that I am neither a sadist nor do I belong to a category of individuals that enjoy seeing others suffering or in pain nor do I celebrate when someone, whatever his or her disposition, is going through a bout of poor health.
Your Excellency, the state of your health has never been a subject of debate in the UDF and be rest assured that I, personally, and the UDF as a party, continue to wish you good health.
Your Excellency, your comments about my own health are ill-considered and made out of malice because by and large, I am in very good health.
Your Excellency, if at any time my health is not up to the mark, I will be the first one to go public about it as I have always done. I have never pretended to be such a person that cannot fall sick nor have I hidden the state of my health.
Your Excellency, it is true that I had suffered a slipped disc and this condition came about because of the grueling campaign of 2004 that I had undertaken on Your Excellency’s behalf.
Your Excellency, following the slipped disk, I have since undergone operations in South Africa and the United Kingdom and my recuperation has been satisfactory. I still have to go for regular check-ups as advised by my specialist doctors.
I am rather perturbed that you have quickly forgotten that the said slipped disc had been as a result of my active campaigning for you in 2004. I would request you to remember and appreciate my sacrifices and the sacrifices of other UDF leaders whom you fervently tout as enemies today.
Your Excellency, I would like to assure you that it is not true that I went through a blood draining operation in Egypt and that it is also not true that I have throat cancer.
I am disturbed with your claim that I suffer from category “A” diabetes and that I cannot stay very long time without eating food or else I would faint. Your Excellency, your information is wrong and malicious since you well know that this is not the case.
You worked with me as cabinet minister and you spent long hours with me during the 2004 grueling campaign, which at times saw us conduct ten (10) campaign meetings a day without taking food. You are also aware that I am a devout Muslim who observes thirty (30) days of fasting during the Holy month of Ramadan.
It smacks of sadism that Your Excellency can regurgitate information that is false and unfounded; especially considering the fact Your Excellency has demonstrated the rare courage of capturing this information on official record. I find this to be a very unfortunate situation and a demonstration of how much hate you hold against me.
Your Excellency, I would also wish to remind you that you have personally, or through your ministers, party functionaries and the public media, MBC and TVM demonized me, calling me all sorts of despicable names.
There are several other unfortunate actions that you have taken against me as the Former President, who worked so hard for your success. Similar actions have been taken against some of the senior members of the UDF and others sympathetic to the party.
Your Excellency, I have not forgotten my recent dehumanizing and disgraceful arrest at Kamuzu International Airport in June this year on trumped-up treason charges. That arrest was authorized by Your Excellency following your pronouncements at a rally in Nkhata Bay district.
I wonder if you really believe that I can plan to overthrow a government that I helped put together and also considering that from 1983 to 1993 together with so many courageous Malawians who did not run away from the dictatorship fought for multiparty democracy.
Your Excellency, in your letter, you make threats of my arrest and that of the so-called imaginary perpetrators alleged to be spreading what you describe as “diabolic lies” about Your Excellency.
Your Excellency, I am extremely surprised that these threats of arrest are being championed by Your Excellency as the Head of State because the power of arrest lies with the police who are expected to be apolitical whilst serving the government of the day and the power of adjudication is vested in the judiciary.
Your Excellency, as the first democratically-elected President, it worries me to realize that after 14 years of multiparty democracy coupled with the existence of a considerably good Republican Constitution, we still read and hear of the Head of State ordering arrests of political competitors! Your Excellency, I would advise you to stay clear of a leadership that believes in the subjugation of its citizens.
You may wish to know that our democratic agenda has all along been driven by repudiation of the highly noxious phenomenon of the cult of personality so that never again shall this country have one anointed personality sitting above the Republican Constitution, passing decrees and command arrests of citizens.
Your Excellency, I have never wished you dead. Rather that you have wished me and my colleagues in the UDF dead because a lot that can be proved by hard facts and evidence has happened during the past four years.
The bad treatment that you and your government are subjecting me to cannot be compared to the atrocities of the one-party dictatorship. I have also found it unfair that there are attempts to suffocate the UDF as a party through deliberate efforts targeting the top leadership. I must state without fear of contradiction that had Your Excellency not dumped the UDF, the party would have most likely settled for you as its Presidential Candidate for the 2009 General Elections.
I would therefore implore on Your Excellency to allow members of the UDF to field a Presidential Candidate of their choice without coercion and undue pressure from your office and members of your party. In this regard, I would like to personally ask you to tell your supporters in the DPP to stop meddling in the internal affairs of the UDF.
Your Excellency, I know that there are some in our country of feature on MBC and TVM posing as “experts” or “analysts” simply on the basis of their readiness to abandon all ethical conclusions and self-respect, at a cost to the taxpayer, to propagate entirely fabricated and negative notions about me and my colleagues in the UDF.
I cite the names of Messrs. Nawena, Ning’ang’a, Sawerengera, Banda, Ntaba, Dausi, Malopa, Mtumodzi, Molande, Sudi Sulaimana, Prof. Mphande, Mrs. Kaliati among others as the “experts” and “analysts” who are on your payroll to carry out the devilish agenda against me.
As Head of State and Government, you have a responsibility to steer this country towards a free and fair election in 2009, which is Your Excellency’s constitutional mandate and obligation.
Your Excellency, on my part, I can assure you that there is no iota of truth in the allegations that you have levelled against me. I can challenge you to provide evidence to substantiate any of your allegations.
Your Excellency, intelligence information has the potential to make or break leaders when not properly synthesized and utilized. I would encourage you to rigorously evaluate the information that you receive before embarking on a blame game.
Your Excellency, please accept my sincerest regards.
DR. BAKILI MULUZI
Monday, October 27, 2008
Chelsea 0-Liverpool 1
It can't be more than beautiful to start blogging by commenting on what happened at Stamford Bridge - home ground for one of England's most reverred teams, Chelsea - on Sunday, October 26 2008.
The Blues - as Chelsea is fondly referred to - had gone 86 matches without tasting defeat at the Bridge.
So when an English Premier League fixture indicated that Liverpool Football Club was visiting the Bridge, people expected nothing less than an 87th match without defeat for Chelsea. After all, Liverpool - prior to Sunday - had won only once in League at the Bridge courtesy of that 32nd minute Bruno Cheyrou goal in early 2004.
As such elsewehere, the story was that Liverpool was tasting defeat for the first time this EPL season. I had other views.
At a drinking joint in Mzuzu, northern Malawi, I told a forest of Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal supporters that come the 26th, Chelsea was going to taste defeat at their backyard. Guess what? I was booed, but like any Liverpool diehard, I stood my ground. How I wish I was there the day the game was played. Unfortunately, this time I was in Blantyre, southern Malawi, where I am based.
However, with technology and the world of TV, I was able to be in touch with those that thought I was dreaming when I said Chelsea was tasting defeat.
This is the text message that I sent those overzealous supporters. "Nga umo nkhayowoyera sabata lajumpha, Chelsea tamufyapulira kuchipinda chakhe." This is Tumbuka, which translates to: "As I said last week, we have whipped Chelsea right in its bedroom."
It was funny how one Chelsea supporter responded. He said: "At least, today you played better football." But that was not the case. Throughout the season, Liverpool has been playing like that, but people thought the 2-1 historic win over Man United at Anfield was a fluke - Nay!
Now, only one giant remains in front of us - Arsenal. Unfortunately, the bad news to Arsenal is that they will lose twice - home and away - to Liverpool this season.
What a nice way to start blogging!
The Blues - as Chelsea is fondly referred to - had gone 86 matches without tasting defeat at the Bridge.
So when an English Premier League fixture indicated that Liverpool Football Club was visiting the Bridge, people expected nothing less than an 87th match without defeat for Chelsea. After all, Liverpool - prior to Sunday - had won only once in League at the Bridge courtesy of that 32nd minute Bruno Cheyrou goal in early 2004.
As such elsewehere, the story was that Liverpool was tasting defeat for the first time this EPL season. I had other views.
At a drinking joint in Mzuzu, northern Malawi, I told a forest of Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal supporters that come the 26th, Chelsea was going to taste defeat at their backyard. Guess what? I was booed, but like any Liverpool diehard, I stood my ground. How I wish I was there the day the game was played. Unfortunately, this time I was in Blantyre, southern Malawi, where I am based.
However, with technology and the world of TV, I was able to be in touch with those that thought I was dreaming when I said Chelsea was tasting defeat.
This is the text message that I sent those overzealous supporters. "Nga umo nkhayowoyera sabata lajumpha, Chelsea tamufyapulira kuchipinda chakhe." This is Tumbuka, which translates to: "As I said last week, we have whipped Chelsea right in its bedroom."
It was funny how one Chelsea supporter responded. He said: "At least, today you played better football." But that was not the case. Throughout the season, Liverpool has been playing like that, but people thought the 2-1 historic win over Man United at Anfield was a fluke - Nay!
Now, only one giant remains in front of us - Arsenal. Unfortunately, the bad news to Arsenal is that they will lose twice - home and away - to Liverpool this season.
What a nice way to start blogging!
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