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Viewing cable 04LILONGWE404, FREER, BUT POORER: MALAWI AFTER TEN YEARS OF

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
04LILONGWE404 2004-05-14 11:44 2011-08-30 01:44 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Lilongwe
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 LILONGWE 000404 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KDEM ECON PINR MI
SUBJECT: FREER, BUT POORER: MALAWI AFTER TEN YEARS OF 
DEMOCRACY 
 
REF: 03 LILONGWE 1202 
 
2004 Elections a Milestone for Malawi's Democracy 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
1.  (SBU) Summary and introduction: This month's presidential 
and parliamentary elections will mark ten years since 
Malawi's first democratic elections and the transition away 
from Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda's thirty-year dictatorship. 
Much has changed, for better and for worse, since the advent 
of "multipartyism" in 1994, and it is an appropriate time to 
take stock of Malawi's democratic development. 
 
2.  (SBU) One of our diplomatic colleagues summarized the 
past decade by saying that Malawians are "freer, but poorer" 
now.  We must agree.  The days of domestic intelligence 
officers monitoring social functions and the capricious 
jailing of political activists are long gone; they have been 
replaced by a remarkable openness among Malawians, both in 
person and in public.  The small private media are vibrant 
and enthusiastic.  The military remains impressively 
apolitical.  Accountability and oversight institutions, while 
weak, have survived, and a nascent civil society scored a 
major victory in 2003 when President Muluzi's bid to amend 
the constitution and extend his time in office was defeated. 
 
3.  (SBU) At the same time, the average Malawian is 
materially worse off today than in 1994. Per capita GDP, at 
$180, has stagnated.  Seasonal food shortages haunt the 
countryside, and the manufacturing sector has shrunk. 
Corruption, both official and petty, is on the rise. 
Maternal mortality has become significantly worse, nearly 
half of children suffer chronic malnutrition resulting in 
stunting, and HIV/AIDS and other diseases have lowered life 
expectancy from 45 (in 1987) to 39 years.  Although there has 
been some progress in addressing health concerns, behavior 
change is elusive, anti-retroviral drugs to treat those with 
AIDS have only recently become available to a tiny fraction 
of the HIV-infected, and the challenges of delivering more 
care are daunting.  Too often resigned to their economic and 
health "fates," people show up to political rallies to 
receive cash handouts so they can buy some soap and perhaps a 
bit of sugar for their tea. 
 
4.  (SBU) Whither Malawi's democracy?  The lifting of decades 
of repression, deteriorating living standards, and HIV/AIDS's 
rending of the social fabric have led to a rise in crime and 
a certain lawlessness in political, economic, and social 
life.  Addressing this feeling of "freedom without 
responsibility" -- which pokes through at all levels of 
society -- will be a major challenge for the country's next 
ten years of democratic development, as will be the task of 
rebuilding the economy.  End summary and introduction. 
 
Political Life 
-------------- 
5.  (SBU) Democratic institutions and traditions in Malawi 
are fragile, and the transition to democracy is still very 
much a work in progress.  The executive branch exercises 
considerable authority over the legislature and judiciary; 
Parliament has trouble focusing its attention on pertinent 
and timely legislation; regional and personal loyalties trump 
ideas in party-building; and only some judges exhibit real 
independence.  With that said, Malawi's democratic 
consolidation has engaged civil society and the media, and 
human rights and freedoms are generally respected. More 
Malawians are actively participating in political and civic 
life, and popular support for the idea of a national 
democracy is strong (though not coupled to a grass-roots 
understanding of institutions or expectations of performance). 
 
6.  (SBU) The executive branch's disproportionate access to 
resources and corresponding influence, however, continues to 
define much of Malawi's politicking, precluding the normal 
checks and balances of a more mature democracy.  The 
President, with his absolute control over the size and 
composition of the Cabinet (bloated now to 46 members), is at 
the helm of a well-greased patronage machine that doles out 
Mercedes, luxury four-by-fours, government residences, 
first-class travel, numerous allowances, and various other 
"personal emoluments" to the favored.  Finance Ministers -- 
even backed by threats from the IMF -- have been unable to 
control the President's travel, state residences' expenses, 
and discretionary budgets.  And the executive branch as a 
whole routinely overruns its budget, only sometimes seeking 
ex-post approval from Parliament through supplementary 
budgets.  In a significant change, however, 2003 saw 
Parliament's first open-floor challenge to the GOM's budget 
as presented by the Finance Minister, and, after several 
years of technical assistance, budget and finance oversight 
committees now seem more comfortable in reading and 
questioning budget line items. 
 
7.  (SBU) Other promising signs of incipient Parliamentary 
activism include a general increase in the quality of 
legislative committees, President Muluzi's inability to end 
his term limit through "Open Term" and "Third Term" bills in 
2002 and 2003, and opposition successes in blocking 
government-introduced legislation (such as late-2003 
proposals to amend an anti-corruption bill and the act 
governing the agricultural parastatal ADMARC) by pushing it 
to committee.  The opposition's new-found ability to stand in 
the way of legislation arose from the splintering in all 
political parties that occurred in the run-up to this year's 
elections, but the unprecedented number of independent 
candidates currently running -- and the almost certainty that 
no party will control a majority in the next parliament -- 
could conceivably consolidate that power into a major 
democratic gain.  Although such a consolidation is by no 
means assured, the judiciary's striking down of 
"floor-crossing" legislation, previously an effective tool 
for enforcing rigid party discipline, makes it more likely. 
 
8.  (SBU) Malawi is a highly litigious society, with suits, 
countersuits, injunctions, and counterinjunctions punctuating 
the daily life of politicians, businesspeople, and even 
sports figures.  Over-reliance on the courts reflects the 
basic fairness Malawians perceive in the judiciary, but it 
also indicates their frustrations with other, largely 
ineffective government institutions.  Several judges have 
shown admirable independence over the past ten years in 
high-profile and politically sensitive cases, and the 
judiciary's ability to rebuff parliamentary attempts in 2001 
to remove several independent judges was a major step 
forward.  Inefficiency, backlogs, and a lack of resources, 
however, commonly mar the system's ability to deliver timely 
justice. 
 
9.  (SBU) While judges have often shown their independence, 
the judicial system as a whole suffers from some political 
bias exerted through the office of the Director of Public 
Prosecutions (DPP).  Politically appointed and beholden to 
the President, the DPP has wide discretion over which cases 
to prosecute (including cases brought by the independent 
Anti-Corruption Bureau).  It is no coincidence that at least 
seven cases of corruption by ministers or other senior 
officials during the Muluzi decade have not been pursued by 
the DPP, while all the opposition presidential candidates 
(John Tembo, Gwanda Chakuamba, Brown Mpinganjira, and Justin 
Malewezi) have been prosecuted during the past three years. 
That none of the four has been found guilty simultaneously 
testifies both to judges' independence and to the system's 
vulnerability to some political manipulation. 
 
Civic Participation and the Rule of Law 
--------------------------------------- 
10.  (SBU) The media environment in Malawi has changed 
drastically in the last ten years.  During the previous 
regime, the information environment was completely closed, 
all news was censored, and freedom of speech did not exist. 
Today, freedom of speech is a right that is exercised, and 
private media is largely free.  State-run media still exist, 
however, and are tightly controlled by the government. 
State-run Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC radio) is the 
only medium that reaches the entire population; it remains 
the main source of formal news for most people.  MBC almost 
exclusively carries pro-government and pro-ruling party news. 
 Television Malawi, also state-owned and operated, reaches 
the urban elite and is heavily biased towards the government. 
 
11.  (SBU) A slew of private media outlets opened at the time 
of transition in 1994 and just as quickly were winnowed by 
the marketplace.  While fewer in number now -- and smaller 
than their state-run counterparts -- private media are 
playing an important, and growing, role in the information 
environment.  Two daily independent newspapers, one 
opposition weekly, and several private radio broadcasters 
carry largely unbiased news and are often critical of the 
government. Journalists have become more professional and 
investigative, and most private media, although lacking in 
resources, are committed to advancing freedom of expression. 
 
12.  (SBU) A nascent civil society has taken some advantage 
of the media environment, but much of the NGO community 
remains "donor-centered" rather than attuned to the political 
aspirations of average Malawians.  A few voices for 
accountability, transparency, and political activism stand 
out, but government initiatives to tax, corral, and arm-twist 
civil society are still tolerated and are therefore still 
effective.  Many of the most active NGOs are those with 
foreign funding and ties that serve as a counterweight to the 
government's bullying.  Churches, tied to foreigners but also 
deeply entwined with Malawi's history (including the 
churches' pivotal role in the change to multi-party 
democracy), remain the most influential civil society force. 
Also noteworthy is the rapid rise of Islam and the 
proliferation of foreign-financed mosques, which are less 
visible than the churches but can sway opinion at the 
grass-roots level, especially in the south and along the 
lakeshore. 
 
13.  (SBU) When civil society does mobilize the population, 
as it did during President Muluzi's bid to end presidential 
term limits, it runs afoul of the police.  Deeply resistant 
to change despite an ambitious training program run by the 
British, the police (like most Malawians) appear to have 
difficulty distinguishing between the government of the day 
and the ruling party.  Officers remain somewhat intolerant of 
demonstrations and their crowd control tactics are often 
heavy-handed.  Aggressive police reaction to protests -- 
particularly those by students -- has provoked vandalism, 
which too easily escalates to the use of live ammunition and, 
occasionally, deaths.  Deaths of detainees in police custody 
have also provoked public outrage.  While a far cry from the 
enforcers of the Banda regime, the police still must develop 
the understanding that their primary relationship is to the 
populace -- rather than the government. 
 
14.  (SBU)  The Malawi Defense Force (MDF), in contrast, 
remains impressively professional and apolitical, and 
attempts to draw the army into the political arena continue 
to be swiftly and decisively rebuffed by senior military 
officials.  As one of the first African militaries to 
complete all six phases of the US-sponsored African Crisis 
Response Initiative (ACRI) and to sign on to the Africa 
Contingency Operations, Training, and Assistance (ACOTA) 
Program, the MDF plans to open a regional peacekeeping 
operations training school at its military college.  In the 
past decade, it has participated in peacekeeping missions to 
Rwanda, DRC, Liberia, and Kosovo, and it was first on the 
scene with humanitarian relief during Mozambican floods. 
 
Economic Development's Role 
--------------------------- 
15.  (SBU) Malawi is heavily donor-dependent, with bilateral 
and multi-lateral aid contributing around 40% to the 
government's budget.  The donor dependency that has evolved 
can verge on the absurd -- at the extreme, presidential 
candidates have campaigned on their ability to beg from the 
donors -- and that mentality, with its seeping assumption 
that action can only be initiated by the government or the 
donors, stands as one of the biggest obstacles to private 
sector-led economic growth and democratic maturation. 
 
16.  (SBU) Malawi's grinding poverty, chronic food 
insecurity, and a stagnant economy have robbed many of the 
luxury of participating in political life.  Not all is bleak: 
poverty reduction, at least on paper, is now the government's 
avowed priority, and significant infrastructure upgrades and 
structural reforms have begun to attract limited foreign 
investment.  The resulting improvements in banking and the 
retail grocery sector, for example, can already be seen in 
urban areas.  The benefits of reform will have to spread 
further, however, before they reach the average Malawian and 
create much-needed jobs. 
 
17.  (SBU) Beyond poverty's effects, the continued large role 
of parastatal organizations in Malawi's economy hinders 
democratic development.  Lucrative memberships on parastatal 
boards constitute the rolling stock of the government's gravy 
train, tying perhaps 600 of the elite to the President's 
power of appointment.  Worse, the parastatals are generally 
inefficient and drain the government's resources, raising the 
burden on the average taxpayer while dragging down the 
private sector.  In a significant success of the past decade, 
the government's privatization program has sold off more than 
half of approximately 110 parastatals targeted, but the 
remaining 50 or so companies -- many the largest and most 
politically sensitive -- must be addressed to reinvigorate 
the economy and reign in the executive's source of patronage 
and all-too-easy influence over key economic sectors.  If the 
challenge of creating an indigenous constituency for the 
private sector is simultaneously met, the long-term benefits 
to political and economic life will be magnified. 
 
18.  (SBU) In the short term, the next government will face 
significant difficulty in climbing out of the economic hole 
dug by the Muluzi government.  Ten years ago, the kwacha 
traded at four to the dollar; now it trades at just under 
110, and it is expected to depreciate further after the 
elections.  Three years of a rocky relationship with the IMF 
have also left the government with a non-functioning Poverty 
Reduction and Growth Facility, chronic government 
overspending, interest rates above 35%, and a domestic debt 
that has grown nearly fivefold since 2000.  The resulting 
macroeconomic environment is not conducive to growth, and 
rising interest payments have deeply cut into other 
government expenditures.  The debt is widely acknowledged as 
unsustainable, and it carries significant risk to overall 
macroeconomic stability.  The new government will have to 
address these problems to resume poverty reduction and 
support Malawi's long-term democratic development. 
 
19.  (SBU) Education and agriculture will also have to be 
addressed.  President Muluzi's United Democratic Front (UDF) 
instituted free universal education when it took power in 
1994, a move that was highly popular and long overdue. 
However, a lack of resources, a dearth of trained teachers, 
few educational materials, poor management and 
administration, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic have conspired to 
drastically lower education standards as access has increased 
to the system's lower levels.  At the higher levels, the two 
functioning universities have fees that are prohibitive for 
most Malawians, and entry requirements are more stringent 
than they were 10 years ago.  Given the ravages of HIV/AIDS, 
the needs for skilled workers at all levels have only 
increased in the meantime. 
 
20. (SBU) As for agriculture, Malawi today has more 
difficulty feeding itself than it did in 1994.  Much of the 
decline in food security stems from low productivity, a 
rapidly rising population, environmental and soil 
degradation, and the collapse of agricultural extension 
programs.  As most Malawians work the land, and many face a 
yearly "hungry season," the agriculture sector has been a key 
failure in the past ten years, retarding development in other 
areas.  For some, it has even led to nostalgia for the 
certainties of the Banda era. 
 
Health, Corruption, and other Dangers 
------------------------------------- 
21.  (SBU) Malawi clearly faces a number of significant 
challenges, but it is also clear that it has made progress, 
albeit slowly, in consolidating its democracy over the past 
decade.  The largest threats to those gains are HIV/AIDS and 
corruption.  The biggest open question is what will happen 
with soon-to-be former President Muluzi. 
 
22.  (SBU) The potential for HIV/AIDS to reverse gains in 
developing countries is well-documented.  In Malawi's case, 
the general HIV prevalence is 14.4%, 50% of the army is 
reported to be infected, and thousands of vital civil 
servants -- such as police officers, teachers, nurses, and 
parliamentarians -- are dying.  The country's security, 
political stability, and economic future are at stake. 
Malawi was in the first tranche of recipients from the Global 
Fund for Aids, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, and the $196 
million committed by the Global Fund, which has started to 
trickle in, will no doubt eventually bring some relief.  The 
money is just a down payment, though, on the enormous costs 
associated with prevention and care.  The USG's continued, 
aggressive engagement on HIV/AIDS will make a significant 
humanitarian difference while supporting our long-term goals 
of democratic and economic development. 
 
23.  (SBU) Corruption also poses a substantial and growing 
threat.  Though not yet in the league of Nigeria or Cameroon, 
Malawi is faced with a rise in both official and petty graft. 
 Its ratings from Transparency International have dropped, 
allegations of malfeasance played a role in Denmark's 2002 
breaking-off of multi-million dollar education and health 
programs, and corruption is a key concern for Malawi's 
potential access to Millennium Challenge Account funding. 
For Malawi's democratic development, the phenomenon has two 
particularly corrosive traits: fraud is rampant in the 
procurement, sale, and distribution of maize; and the 
shenanigans start from the very top. 
 
24.  (SBU) The fraud surrounding the purchase and sale of 
maize is notable because maize is a staple of both diet and 
politics in Malawi.  It is heavily subsidized; it is a large 
line item in the budget; and, notably, it is distributed at 
political rallies.  At least five separate investigations 
into a series of maize scandals have been initiated in the 
past three years, yet the results of all have been kept from 
the public.  It is widely understood in the diplomatic 
community that the tarnished include government ministers, 
parliamentarians, and prominent business people.  The scale 
of the theft, much of which has come during food shortages, 
has been grand, running into the tens of millions of dollars. 
 
 
25.  (SBU) It would be easy for an opposition government -- 
or a hand-picked successor looking for a way to establish his 
independence -- to launch into a series of corruption 
investigations and trials in the post-Muluzi period.  Whether 
maize or other corruption trials are brought forward or are 
suppressed, whether due process (versus political 
retribution) characterizes the proceedings, and how the 
public perceives those developments will all be important 
questions for determining which path Malawi's democracy is 
following.  Perhaps most important will be whether President 
Muluzi finds himself in court. 
 
26.  (SBU) President Muluzi entered office with a trading 
firm that was nearly bankrupt, two tobacco farms, and three 
houses in Blantyre.  He will leave a far, far richer man -- 
some say the richest man in the country.  Poor 
record-keeping, a system in which business interests can be 
easily hidden, and weak disclosure regulations keep the truth 
in the dark, but he is believed to own or have a major 
interest in a trading firm, sugar distributors, several 
farms, several houses, a real estate development corporation, 
a chain of grocery stores, a chain of gas stations, a major 
office complex now leased to the Malawi Revenue Authority, a 
national fertilizer supply chain, a few smaller office and 
shopping complexes, a professional soccer team, a mining 
firm, a radio station, and an international transport and 
trucking company.  He is the head of the quasi-public Bakili 
Muluzi Institute, and has started an eponymous HIV/AIDS 
foundation (which has already received, by questionable 
means, $50,000 in donor money).  He has also announced plans 
to open a self-financed investment bank and a television 
station.  His tentacles now touch much of Malawi's small 
economy. 
 
Whither Muluzi, Whither Malawi? 
------------------------------- 
27.  (SBU) Although he has stated publicly that he will tend 
to his businesses after stepping down from the presidency, 
President Muluzi will be a force in Malawi's politics for 
years to come.  He is an active sixty-one year old, and he 
has retained the Chairmanship of the United Democratic Front 
for himself (until now it has been held by the president). 
His older, hand-picked successor Bingu wa Mutharika (the 
current front-runner in the elections) owes his political 
standing to Muluzi, and Muluzi is legally eligible to run 
again for president in 2009.  Clearly, the outcome of this 
month's elections, and the successor government's 
relationship with Muluzi, will be crucial for Malawi's next 
decade of democratic development. 
 
28.  (SBU) More than Muluzi will matter, though.  All of the 
current presidential candidates came of age under 
President-for-Life Banda, and all were members of Banda's 
Malawi Congress Party.  All survived Banda's rough brand of 
politics, but not all will have political lives beyond these 
elections.  2004 will likely be John Tembo's and Gwanda 
Chakuamba's last shot at the presidency, and their departure 
from the political scene opens the possibility of another 
significant evolution.  The living memory, and imprint, of 
Banda recedes. 
 
29.  (SBU) Ten years ago, there was euphoria at the birth of 
multi-party democracy.  Progress has been slower than hoped, 
and more uneven, but there has been progress nonetheless. 
Malawi's poverty is so crushing, though, that many of the 
political and democratic gains cannot be enjoyed by the 
average citizen.  If the economy can be turned around, 
Malawians will be in a better position to appreciate -- and 
build upon -- the gains that have been made over the past 
decade. 
BROWNING