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courage is contagious
Viewing cable 04LILONGWE187, FARMER" MULUZI CULTIVATES HIS POST-PRESIDENTIAL IMAGE
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Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin |
---|---|---|---|---|
04LILONGWE187 | 2004-03-04 13:52 | 2011-08-30 01:44 | CONFIDENTIAL | Embassy Lilongwe |
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 LILONGWE 000187
SIPDIS
DEPT FOR AF/S, INR/B
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/01/2014
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR MI
SUBJECT: "FARMER" MULUZI CULTIVATES HIS POST-PRESIDENTIAL IMAGE
REF: A. 03 LILONGWE 1238
- B. LILONGWE 146
- C. LILONGWE 148
CLASSIFIED BY: AMBASSADOR STEVEN A. BROWNING.
REASON: 1.5(B) AND (D).
SUMMARY
-------
¶1. (C) I met with President Muluzi at his request on
February 18 at his private residence in Blantyre. We
discussed his three-point agenda: a) USG assistance
in training Malawi Defense Force (MDF) officers as
helicopter pilots; b) USG support of an HIV/AIDS
Center he wishes to lead after he leaves government;
and c) Malawi's backing of USG efforts in Iraq and his
offer to send there a "token" MDF contingent. Muluzi
has enriched himself while President and will stay
politically active after leaving office. The post-
meeting, hour-long tour of his residential compound
and nearby maize fields was probably intended to
burnish his image a bit and strengthen our personal
relationship, most likely his primary goal for the
visit. End Summary.
THE FORMAL AGENDA
-----------------
¶2. (C) Muluzi complained that he has been "grounded"
since "all but one" of the MDF helicopter pilots are
incapacitated with HIV/AIDS, and stated the MDF needed
help with an accelerated officer-training program
since 147 officers had died in the past year. I
explained the USG had in place a robust training
program with the MDF and if the MDF saw helicopter
pilot training as a high priority it should be fairly
easy to re-order its training schedule. (Comment: At
a USG-hosted reception two days later, I raised the
President's concerns with the MDF's Chief of Training,
Brig. Gen. Cosgrove Mituka. He was surprised by the
President's request, explaining that, while they were
short of pilots, they certainly had more than one
available. Mituka stated that pilot training was not
the MDF's highest priority. Muluzi has been relying
heavily on the MDF helicopter fleet as he travels the
country campaigning for the May 18 elections. It may
be that the MDF has not been totally forthcoming with
the President on the health of the pilot corps to
reduce wear and tear on the fleet and on the pilots.)
¶3. (C) Muluzi sketched out his plan for an HIV/AIDS
Center. It would be modeled after the center led by
Nelson Mandela, leanly staffed and he would accept no
salary. He expected to travel around the country
conducting seminars, visiting schools, distributing
books, meeting with village chiefs and "headmen,"
educating them and raising public awareness about
HIV/AIDS. Muluzi stressed that his initial target
audience would be the country's "polygamous village
chiefs who are murdering young girls" with their
widely practiced sexual initiation rites.
¶4. (C) Muluzi had recently won some praise for his
remarks at the launch of Malawi's National HIV/AIDS
Strategy during which, for the first time, he
acknowledged he had been tested for HIV and his status
was negative, and that AIDS was the cause of his
brother's death three years earlier (reftel C). Given
his otherwise tepid anti-HIV/AIDS efforts to date, I
asked the President why, with all the resources of the
state at his disposal for the past 10 years, he
planned to devote so much attention to HIV/AIDS
awareness after he leaves office. He explained that
he would have "more freedom to speak out" when out of
office. Muluzi promised to send me a concept paper
concerning his center.
¶5. (C) Iraq was the third point Muluzi raised with
me. He encouraged the U.S. to not "give it up" and
asked me to pass on his "word of encouragement." He
offered a "token" contingent of MDF forces to join the
coalition forces in Iraq (reftel B).
THE SHOW
--------
¶6. (C) Muluzi completed his agenda after 30 minutes
and asked me how much time I had. Hearing that my
time was his, he drove me (Note: 10 years of being
chauffeured in multi-vehicle motorcades have
definitely eroded his driving skills.) to a nearby
field to view his 40 hectares of seed maize. While he
professed to be a farmer at heart and eager to return
to simpler civilian life, his inability to answer
simple questions about his crop, like when it was
planted, argue that "Muluzi the Farmer" is more image
than reality. That perception was strengthened when
he rolled out his personal photographer to capture on
film the President and U.S. Ambassador, both in dark
business suits, walking through muddy maize fields, a
scene vaguely reminiscent of President Nixon walking
the southern California beaches in suit and wing tips.
¶7. (C) Back at his private estate in suburban
Blantyre, which he calls his village, he took great
pride in showing me his kitchen maize field, vegetable
garden, chickens, goats, turkeys, cement fish pond and
mushroom shed. Clearly unaware of the irony of his
words, the Head of State and one of the country's
richest men expressed amazement that there was hunger
in Malawi. "There is no reason for food insecurity in
this country," he said, sweeping his arms over the
hilltop vista of his livestock and gardens.
¶8. (C) Comment: Having failed in his attempt to
amend the Constitution to allow him to run for a third
term, Muluzi is making a place for himself once he
leaves office. His self-engineered election to the
chairmanship of the ruling UDF party and his selection
of 70-year-old Bingu Wa Mutharika as the UDF's
Presidential candidate, a man widely acknowledged to
be a lackluster campaigner with no political base of
his own and thus heavily dependent on Muluzi, signal
that he plans to play an activist post-Presidential
role. I was approached several months ago by a senior
member of Muluzi's administration with a request that
the USG find something meaningful to occupy Muluzi and
get him out of the country after he left office so as
to "keep him out of mischief" (reftel A). While
discussing his proposed HIV/AIDS Center I asked Muluzi
if he also would be willing to consider a prestigious
position in Europe or the US for a few months after he
left office. He allowed that he could only be out of
the country for two weeks at a time, claiming he had
too many business interests to manage.
¶9. (C) Muluzi has never hesitated to telephone me
when he has issues to discuss, and his three formal
agenda items could all have been easily addressed over
the phone. During the drive and tour of his estate, I
tried to engage Muluzi in issues I wanted to discuss
with him. He would have none of it. Two days before
receiving the call to meet Muluzi the country's
leading paper published an interview with me in which
I delivered a strong anti-corruption message. I
assumed Muluzi summoned me to express his displeasure
with my public criticism of his administration. My
sense is that the anti-corruption interview did prompt
the meeting, but that his strategy was to embrace and
befriend rather than admonish. Muluzi is a charming
and engaging politician, and widely considered to have
greatly enriched himself at public expense while
President. Mindful of the predicament Zambia's former
President Chiluba faces, Muluzi may be looking to
enlarge his circle of admirers and engage in a bit of
pre-departure legacy building. He may also be working
to ensure the continuation of some of his diplomatic
relationships once he leaves publicly elected office.
BROWNING