The last time Malawi made headlines, U.S. pop star Madonna adopted a child from the impoverished southern African country.
Now Malawians are crying out for help as political wrangling delays state spending, and there are few signs the outside world -- or their government -- is taking much notice.
The opposition-controlled parliament has been boycotting debate on the budget until a row over the poaching of its members by President Bingu wa Mutharika's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is resolved.
The proposed $1.2 billion budget, which should have been concluded by June 30, allocates more resources to poor rural areas, proposes salary increases for civil servants, and higher spending on health care and food production for Malawi's 12 million people.
Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe has warned the deadlock was depriving Malawians of medicines and the delivery of other essential services. "We never thought the boycott would take this long," he told Reuters.
Parliament is expected to reconvene on Monday but it is not clear if a breakthrough on the budget can be reached.
Donors have praised wa Mutharika for improving the country's financial health and offered it billions in debt relief. But Malawians, many of whom live on less than $1 a day, may not see their country as an African success story.
"We keep wondering why the politicians are fighting when we don't have enough food. Can't they pass the budget first and continue their fighting later?" asked Sampson Kadulira, who is unemployed.
Frustrations have been growing as the standoff deepens between the opposition coalition of the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and the ruling DPP.
Thousands of people have held demonstrations over delays in the budget for the country bordered by Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique.
Some of those angered by the crisis seem to long for the hopeful period of post-independence from Britain in 1964.
Protesting peasant farmers held a vigil at the special burial site of President Hastings Kamuzu Banda, founding father of the nation.
Fainesi Mataya, a grandmother, is acutely aware of Malawi's troubles. People like her stand the most to lose if services don't come soon. Floods washed away her crops in the Chikwawa district in southern Malawi.
"The rain was very heavy last year and although we planted twice, the gardens yielded little," said Mataya, 70, who is raising her four orphan grandchildren.
In hard times, Malawians in the area are known to risk crocodile attacks searching for food along the Shire river, far removed from the stalemate in the 193-seat parliament.
POVERTY AND CROCODILES
Overall, it has been a good year for the former British protectorate of Nyasaland, which relies on limited exports such as tobacco, sugar and cotton.
Inflation has fallen to single digits for the first time in four years amid a strong economic turnaround. Malawi is enjoying a bumper maize harvest for the second consecutive year.
But politics have clouded economic progress and reminded Malawians of their turbulent past.
Wa Mutharika won a 2004 poll, but it was marred by bloody riots and opposition allegations of rigging.
Then the former World Bank economist proved unpredictable.
He shocked the nation in 2005 when he walked out of the UDF, prompting opposition calls for his impeachment after he successfully lured UDF and MCP members to his new party.
Both sides appear to be digging in. Opposition lawmakers have ignored a presidential order to return to parliament. Police, meanwhile, have raided the house of the high court judge after he ruled against the president in the budget row.
But analysts seem more concerned about the economic costs and Malawians are left with the sense that they may have to fend for themselves, at least for now.
Aside from widespread poverty, AIDS is ravaging Malawi -- an estimated 14 percent of adults are HIV positive -- and the parliament freeze comes as the government struggles to put in place effective grassroots HIV-prevention programmes.
People like Master Bizali seem lost amid the uncertainty. His crops have also been washed away. "I sell roasted birds, maize and vegetables to support my family," he said.
Some people have high hopes for the country.
Clutching the young boy she chose to adopt in 2006, Madonna danced with Malawian children during a visit to an orphanage in April and urged them to "help themselves" instead of only heavily relying on a charity she helped found for orphans
Sunday, 12 August 2007
Country Scribes on Fact-Finding Mission
THE Minister of Information and Publicity Dr Sikhanyiso Ndlovu yesterday met eight Malawian journalists on a fact-finding mission in Zimbabwe and briefed them on the situation in the country.
The journalists, who are drawn from Malawi Television, Malawi Broadcasting Corporation, the Guardian Newspaper and Malawi News Agency, arrived in Zimbabwe on Wednesday.
On their arrival, the journalists were taken to Victoria Falls for a tour.
They are expected to meet Government officials and tour projects including farming areas to see the success of the land reform programme.
Dr Ndlovu told the visiting journalists that their visit to Zimbabwe was crucial and important not only to Zimbabwe but also to the region and Malawi.
"If you have correct information you are able to interpret events taking place here in a proper context," Dr Ndlovu told them.
He said Zimbabwe was a revolutionary country born out of an armed struggle.
Dr Ndlovu said after Zimbabwe discarded the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme which the British and Americans wanted to use to force the Government to "sell" State enterprises and some parastatals to them under the banner of privatisation, its relationship with the west became sour.
The situation, he said, was worsened after the British government reneged on its colonial obligation to fund land reform forcing Government to acquire the land compulsorily and resettle the landless majority.
"At every turn they put spanners to make sure that our economy will not work. We were the first country in Africa to discard Esap, which made our people suffer and strangulated our economy. We came up with our own economic turnaround programmes," he said.
The Minister said Government's decision to acquire land from white farmers, mostly of British extraction without compensation for the land was the reason the country was being punished.
Britain is supposed to pay compensation for the land while Government is already compensating farmers for the developments they made on the farms. Dr Ndlovu said despite the dirty tactics employed by Britain and her allies in and outside Zimbabwe, Harare remained steadfast in defending her sovereignty.
"We have not given up. We are still unflinchingly revolutionary and defending our country against imperialism."
The Minister rubbished reports that there was no rule of law in Zimbabwe. Dr Ndlovu said the Malawian journalists were coming to Zimbabwe at a time the country was receiving negative publicity in the media orchestrated by its detractors in the West led by Britain, the European Union and the United States.
He said when the land was repossessed the whites were not chased but refused to accept the Government policy of one man one farm as they wanted to cling to many farms.
Dr Ndlovu also explained to the scribes the British and American governments' machinations to effect regime change in Zimbabwe.
"You are coming at time when the country has been buffeted from all angles. Illegal sanctions have been imposed against the country and the British and America governments have engaged in covert operations to try to destabilise the country."
A recent report by the Americans, the Minister said, exposed the dirty tricks they were using against Zimbabwe such as sponsorship of opposition Press including township newspapers and newsletters and funding anti-Government activists.
He said they were also training local journalists and facilitating workshops under the guise of championing Press freedom.
They were also funding hostile broadcasting stations such among other strategies.
Dr Ndlovu said the journalists' mission to Zimbabwe came in the context of excellent bilateral relations that existed between the two countries.
"Information plays a critical role in consolidating those relationships and we hope your visit here will enable you to experience for yourself the correct situation about Zimbabwe against western propaganda that is being churned out daily to tarnish the country's image to isolate it."
Dr Ndlovu said the Government had remained resolute on the sacred principles of democracy and human rights.
The journalists, who are drawn from Malawi Television, Malawi Broadcasting Corporation, the Guardian Newspaper and Malawi News Agency, arrived in Zimbabwe on Wednesday.
On their arrival, the journalists were taken to Victoria Falls for a tour.
They are expected to meet Government officials and tour projects including farming areas to see the success of the land reform programme.
Dr Ndlovu told the visiting journalists that their visit to Zimbabwe was crucial and important not only to Zimbabwe but also to the region and Malawi.
"If you have correct information you are able to interpret events taking place here in a proper context," Dr Ndlovu told them.
He said Zimbabwe was a revolutionary country born out of an armed struggle.
Dr Ndlovu said after Zimbabwe discarded the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme which the British and Americans wanted to use to force the Government to "sell" State enterprises and some parastatals to them under the banner of privatisation, its relationship with the west became sour.
The situation, he said, was worsened after the British government reneged on its colonial obligation to fund land reform forcing Government to acquire the land compulsorily and resettle the landless majority.
"At every turn they put spanners to make sure that our economy will not work. We were the first country in Africa to discard Esap, which made our people suffer and strangulated our economy. We came up with our own economic turnaround programmes," he said.
The Minister said Government's decision to acquire land from white farmers, mostly of British extraction without compensation for the land was the reason the country was being punished.
Britain is supposed to pay compensation for the land while Government is already compensating farmers for the developments they made on the farms. Dr Ndlovu said despite the dirty tactics employed by Britain and her allies in and outside Zimbabwe, Harare remained steadfast in defending her sovereignty.
"We have not given up. We are still unflinchingly revolutionary and defending our country against imperialism."
The Minister rubbished reports that there was no rule of law in Zimbabwe. Dr Ndlovu said the Malawian journalists were coming to Zimbabwe at a time the country was receiving negative publicity in the media orchestrated by its detractors in the West led by Britain, the European Union and the United States.
He said when the land was repossessed the whites were not chased but refused to accept the Government policy of one man one farm as they wanted to cling to many farms.
Dr Ndlovu also explained to the scribes the British and American governments' machinations to effect regime change in Zimbabwe.
"You are coming at time when the country has been buffeted from all angles. Illegal sanctions have been imposed against the country and the British and America governments have engaged in covert operations to try to destabilise the country."
A recent report by the Americans, the Minister said, exposed the dirty tricks they were using against Zimbabwe such as sponsorship of opposition Press including township newspapers and newsletters and funding anti-Government activists.
He said they were also training local journalists and facilitating workshops under the guise of championing Press freedom.
They were also funding hostile broadcasting stations such among other strategies.
Dr Ndlovu said the journalists' mission to Zimbabwe came in the context of excellent bilateral relations that existed between the two countries.
"Information plays a critical role in consolidating those relationships and we hope your visit here will enable you to experience for yourself the correct situation about Zimbabwe against western propaganda that is being churned out daily to tarnish the country's image to isolate it."
Dr Ndlovu said the Government had remained resolute on the sacred principles of democracy and human rights.
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