Malawi to probe tycoon's death

Blantyre - A Malawian court has ordered a new probe into the death of a flamboyant tycoon and former politician, three years after he was thought to have committed suicide, court officials said on Friday.

The high court ordered an inquest after new claims by the children of James Makhumula, that he was shot at his posh residence outside the city of Blantyre on September 03 2005.

They claimed there was no blood at the scene, but that bullet holes were found in the ceiling.

The children's allegations prompted a private investigation whose report caused the country's prosecutions head, Wezi Kayira, to recommend an inquest into the death of the self-styled "Sir James".

The inquest would be heard by a magistrate later this year.

A former local government minister under the administration of president Bakili Muluzi, Makhumula made his fortune from a bus transport company.

His buses transported thousands of Mozambican refugees back home from Malawi, where they sheltered for years from the civil war that ended in 1992 in their neighbouring southeast African country.

Glasgow kids raise funds for Malawi well

GLASGOW pupils have raised enough cash to allow the world's biggest primary school to dig a well.

And they have enough money left over to ensure 100 youngsters are fed for a year.

Last year Holyrood Secondary deputy head teacher Tony Begley visited a school in Malawi which has 6500 pupils.

He was horrified to discover only dirty water was available.

Pupils at seven of Holyrood's feeder primaries heard the story and decided to do something about it.

Between them, they have raised £2500 which will allow a well to be dug to provide fresh water.

Because the work costs only £1900 the remaining money will be used to pay for food for some of the pupils.

Youngsters from St Fillan's, Our Lady of the Annunciation, St Bride's, St Brigid's, St Conval's, St Francis' and St Mirin's primaries decided to hand over the money personally.

They travelled to Holyrood and gave the cheque to Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, chief executive of Scottish International Relief, and charity worker Peter Nkata.

Mr Begley said: "I visited the school in Malawi, which is the biggest in the world, and one day found the children were restless. I realised they were hungry but there was no water to make up the Mary's Meals provided by the charity.

"Eventually they did get water but it was pretty dirty but they had to use that as there was nothing else.

"When I got back, I mentioned the story to one of the primary head teachers and the pupils decided to take it on as a fundraiser."

Mary's Meals provides meals to hungry children in their local schools.

As a result, the child is encouraged to attend school and, through education, gain a better future themselves.

Lynsey set for a mission to Malawi

NORTH Manchester community development worker Lynsey Cottle is on a mission to help African orphans and the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Lynsey, 24, works for the Scarman Trust providing support for new and emerging communities around Cheetham, Crumpsall, Higher Blackley, Charlestown and Harpurhey.

She is preparing to take part in Mission Malawi 3 - a multi-activity challenge in May seeing her bike ride over 400 miles and then hike for two full days along Lake Malawi and into Mozambique.

The challenge is the brainchild of Blackley resident and BBC producer Les Pratt.

In 2006 the team raised £127,000 for the charity ActionAid's HIV and AIDS work in Malawi and Zimbabwe.

Lynsey said: "I got involved through someone who fundraises for orphanages in Malawi. I have a big interest in overseas volunteering and just thought it was such a good opportunity.

"We want to raise awareness really. When I heard what people were doing to try and raise money I thought it was something a bit different. It's obviously quite a physical challenge.

"The epidemic with AIDS at the moment is so extreme. It's our way of doing something and putting ourselves through that challenge."

Lynsey is hoping to raise £3,2000 in sponsorship and has so far organised band nights, a fashion show and a poetry book to help reach the total.

She can be sponsored by visiting www.myactionaid.org.uk/lynseycottle

MALAWI LINKS STRENGTHENED

Scotland's close links with an impoverished African nation closely associated with missionary explorer David Livingstone have been further strengthened, the Scottish Government said yesterday.

The announcement came as Linda Fabiani, minister for Europe, external affairs and culture, nears the end of her first visit to Malawi since taking office. The Central Scotland MSP has met with government ministers to reaffirm the SNP government's continued support for the country and to discuss progress on current commitments and future priorities.

Ms Fabiani, who arrived in the country on Sunday and will leave today, stressed the alliance was not underpinned by aid relief, however.

"It is about people working together, strengthening the bond between our two countries," she added.

The government has pledged £3million in funds to Malawi every year until 2011.

Malawi Foreign Affairs Minister Joyce Banda said people appreciated the assistance Scotland was giving.

The new Queen of Scotland?

WITH Jack McConnell set to become Emperor of Malawi from 2009 (if Bridget allows it), the SNP decided it had to get with the African groove.
So Linda Fabulous, Minister for Many, Many Things (not as many as John Swinney) went into Africa to bat for the Nats.

It was Linda's first sojourn to Malawi since Ms Fantastic became Minister for Europe, External Affairs and Culture. She met some of Malawi's ministers before leaving today, and assured them the Scottish Government still loves Malawi – possibly more than Jack and Labour ever did. Ms Fandabidozie discussed progress on commitments and future priorities. She said: "This is about people working together, strengthening the bond between our two countries. I have had very fruitful discussions and we have agreed we will continue to work together to ensure Scottish Government funds are targeted towards the priorities identified by the government of Malawi, to develop a distinctive Scottish contribution that adds value and provides long-term outcomes." (A couple of tick-boxes on the jargon bingo game, there, Linda.)

Hon Joyce Banda, minister of foreign affairs in Malawi, said: "All hail to Linda Faberoony, the new Queen of Scotland." Ms Fantabulous also met Callista Chimombo, the tourism, wildlife and culture minister, who should not be confused in any way with Ally McBeal star Callista Flockhart.

Enter the dragon

Ben Travers reports on the anxieties about China’s rise in Africa, as Malawi ditches Taiwan for a new allegiance

The Taiwanese Technical Mission in the Malawian capital of Lilongwe was a scene of mixed emotions and frantic activity last month, as diplomatic officials and aid workers reacted to sudden news: the Malawian government has given Taiwan 30 days to get out of the country.

Malawi Minister of Foreign Affairs Joyce Banda announced on January 14 that the government had severed its 42-year-old relationship with Taiwan in favour of a diplomatic allegiance with the People’s Republic of China – a move that the Taiwanese have described as “a great humiliation and something a self-proclaimed democratic country with 42-year-long relations with Taiwan should not do.”

Malawi’s defection from Taiwan is the third in 18 months, after Chad and Costa Rica, and is another blow to a country that relies on the recognition of ally nations to make its case as a sovereign state. It is also yet another step in China’s remarkable sweep across Africa, vividly revealing the ambiguous repercussions of its engagement in the continent.


Dropping old friends

The China-Malawi agreement has been met by a wide range of reactions from Malawians. For some, the immediate feeling is regret. Exemplifying their country’s epithet “the warm heart of Africa,” many seem disappointed and embarrassed by their leaders’ abandonment of a partner that has been both generous and loyal during Malawi’s efforts to develop. The Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika has lobbied vigorously for Taiwan at the United Nations in return for the country’s support, adding a sense of hypocrisy and injustice to the circumstance.

The Daily Times, one of the country’s two mainstream newspapers, recently published a particularly poignant opinion piece entitled “Taiwan and the great betrayal,” in which a Malawian named Idriss Ali Nassah voiced these sentiments. Nassah had toured Taiwan on an official visit in 2006, met President Chen Su Bien, and preached warmly to people about Malawi’s integrity and commitment to the Taiwanese nation.

“We have been friends and allies for over four decades. I said…Malawi was going to go with Taiwan because their creed of democracy tallied with our dreams; they understood our past and appreciated our hopes for the future,” he remembers.

Nassah, like other Malawians, recognizes that mainland China does not always share Malawi’s appreciation for human rights, democracy, and the rule of law, and is painfully conscious of the country’s dubious legacy in Africa.

The list of grievances with China is a long one. China’s relentless pursuit of Africa’s abundant raw materials, needed to fuel the Chinese economy’s dizzying growth, has often been accompanied by a complete disregard for transparency, human rights, and its own much-touted principles of “mutual benefit” and “common development.”

China has invested heavily in the continent’s infrastructure, building roads, railways, and public buildings in countries as disparate as Rwanda and Nigeria. But many of these seemingly humanitarian initiatives are intended either to woo local leaders anxious for something to show their constituents or to expedite the extraction of resources. Critics argue that China is actually doing little to help African nations develop the skills, infrastructure, and technology needed to escape the poverty of dependence.

Chinese companies, for instance, have often insisted on using Chinese labour in countries with massive unemployment. Other times, Chinese treatment of local labourers has been so bad that it has led not only to bitter relations but civil unrest and riots.

Another scramble for Africa

The unfortunate fact is that in Africa, some things haven’t changed. True to the West’s own scheme for the continent, China is digging up and importing Africa’s riches – in the Sudan, Nigeria, Angola, and Chad; in Zambia, Congo, Ethiopia and Kenya – and sending the finished products right back to the continent. This leaves Africa with little opportunity to develop its own industries and compete in the global market.

And so in Malawi it is no surprise that “cautious reserve” is the phrase of the day. Many people are just hoping that their leaders are developing the “checks and balances” necessary to ensure that their country becomes a beneficiary and not another victim.

Unfortunately, the circumstances surrounding Malawi’s defection to China are already indicative of some of the characteristics that have brought China’s engagement with Africa into question. China has dealt almost exclusively with Africa’s political elites, largely ignoring civil society groups and NGOs, and this has led relations to be questioned for their ethics and openness. Malawi’s case is no exception.

The Memorandum of Understanding that was signed between Malawian ministers and the Chinese government in Beijing on December 28 was not announced – even to the Taiwanese – for over two weeks. And neither parliament nor civil society was consulted.

Dorothy Nyasuru, Chairperson of the Malawi Human Rights Commission, says that while the executive branch of government has authority over foreign policy, this major decision was made in an unnecessarily clandestine and undemocratic manner.

“Government should have whispered to our representatives to say, ‘We are intending to make this switch. Here are the reasons.’ They may have their reasons, but they did not disclose those, and did not engage us in the discussion. If there is no consultation and no participation of the citizens in a crucial issue, it is also a constitutional issue. It’s a right that we need to be getting,” she says.

“We are hoping that whatever our government is doing with the Chinese is going to be transparent, and that the government will always remember they are accountable to the people of Malawi, and that in whatever dealings there are going to be, no rights should be violated.”

Evident in Nyasuru’s comments is a common anxiety that relations with the Chinese – known for crushing dissenting voices and ignoring rights within their own country – will turn a decade of Malawian social progress backwards.

Also visible is a crucial question that hasn’t yet been given a proper answer: Why was the deal made at all?

Government officials have only said that the switch was made in the “socioeconomic interests of Malawi.” The Parliamentary Committee on International Affairs has summoned Foreign Affairs Minister Banda to explain the decision, but for now the most widespread theory is that the government caved in to “dollar democracy.”

The Taiwanese and others charge that Beijing offered Malawi a $6-billion aid package – an amount that represents nearly six times Malawi’s current annual budget. The government has not confirmed this, but the idea is no great feat of imagination.

One of the hallmarks of China’s policy towards Africa is its willingness to lure developing nations with package aid deals, often composed of direct investment, affordable credit, and infrastructure, with absolutely no conditions and no questions asked. This contrasts with the West’s foreign assistance, which is underpinned by free-market capitalism and is often tied to the creation of open markets, deregulation, privatization, and democratic governance.

When François Bozizé took power of the Central African Republic in a bloody coup in 2003, the African Union revoked the country’s membership. China offered it interest-free loans, expressed interest in the nation’s oil reserves, and invited Bozizé to Beijing.

And then there is what some might call “abetting genocide.” China has notoriously used its veto on the United Nations Security Council to block resolutions on the tragedy in Darfur, refusing to meddle in the internal affairs of one of its major oil suppliers.

Chequebook diplomacy?

Malawi’s relationship with China is likely to be less dramatic than its dealings with resource-rich countries. With 90 per cent of the population living on subsistence agriculture and little else to export other than tobacco, timber, and tea, it can’t offer China’s economy much more than another “dumping ground” for cheap goods and a place for Chinese businesses to make a buck.

This development is understandably unpalatable to Malawians. But what many people are not talking about is that for China, the deal may not really be about Malawi. It’s about Taiwan.

Beijing – like Taipei – understands the importance of a vote, and China’s activities in Africa have often been driven by the intention to win allies rather than earn profits. During the Cold War, Africa was the vital region, within which China sought to counteract the two hegemonic superpowers and gain leverage in the international sphere. High-level delegations were being sent in huge numbers as early as the sixties, and when the UN voted China into its membership in 1971, African nations played a crucial role.

China frequently pursued the strategies it is now employing in Malawi; it made irresistible offers to gather diplomatic support on the “one-China” issue.

Taiwan’s deputy Foreign Minister Yang Tzupao has, with good reason, accused the deal of being part of Beijing’s continuing “efforts to squeeze Taiwan’s international space.”

China’s African policy, released in 2006, states that all diplomatic relations in Africa must be based on African recognition of the one-China principle, and this has been perhaps the most conspicuous part of the Malawian government’s rhetoric since January 14.

Only months after President Mutharika supported Taiwan at the UN, the Minister of Foreign Affairs seemed to have change of heart:

“The Government of the Republic of Malawi recognizes that there is but one China in the world. The Government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China, and that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory.”

And so Taiwan is left with four tiny African allies – Swaziland, Burkina Faso, Sao Tome, and Gambia – and Malawi is setting off on a new path with a partner that may have already reached its destination. The question it now faces, along with so many other African nations, is: Can China help shape a better future?

Alternatives to the West

Despite uncertainties about the China deal, some Malawians offering compelling counter-arguments to criticisms of China’s African engagement.

Undule Mwakasungula, Executive Director of the Lilongwe-based Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation, is one of a growing contingent that points to Western hypocrisy and sees in China a new hope for the continent.

“The West has failed Africa,” he says. “Africa is looking at China as an alternative to its problems.”

From Mr. Mwakasungula’s perspective, criticisms leveled at China’s failure to boost development and respect human rights are at least partially undermined by the West’s own legacy on the continent.

On the one hand, he wonders why Malawi should not benefit from Chinese growth when many of the countries that criticize China’s African engagement not only have their own rights abuses – like the United States – but are also investing heavily in China.

On the other, it is no secret that four decades and over $2-trillion of aid money tied to Western conditions have not led to significant improvements in Africa, and in many cases made things worse. Malawi, it so happens, is one of the many places where the West’s insistence on open markets and structural adjustment led to misery. In the 1990s, the World Bank and donor community essentially axed a government fertilizer subsidy program that they felt would impede the development of a market-based agricultural sector. Famines resulted in 2002 and 2005.

The great allure and promise that China has for Africa is its controversial principle of non-interference, which liberates them from the Western development paradigm. It gives African leaders the autonomy to manage their own affairs and to independently decide what is best.

This brings both great potential and grave danger – potential for assertive African states to reap the boom of Chinese investment and trade to find “homegrown” solutions, and danger that China’s disregard for transparency and accountability will undermine efforts to curb Africa’s rampant corruption and help donor money get to its intended destination: the people.

As Akwe Amosu, a senior policy analyst for the Open Society Institute, wrote in Foreign Policy in Focus:

“Ultimately the greatest challenge is not to persuade China to practice responsible global governance – though this is very important – but to prevent African leaders from squandering the tremendous opportunities offered by Chinese capital.”

Africa must match China’s self-interested pragmatism with its own, and ironically, it may be up to civil society to make sure it benefits all.

“China has to open up to civil society. If they give support to government, they must also give support to us. We are partners in civil society, and we are partners in development,” Mr. Mwakasungula says.

“If they don’t fulfill their promises, we will kick them out.”

Somewhere between the East and the West, Africa may finally find its own middle kingdom.

Malawi invites bids for postgraduate campus project

The Malawi government is inviting tenders for the construction of an institute for postgraduate studies and an information and communication technology centre at the College of Medicine, a constituent college of the University of Malawi.

The project will be financed using the proceeds of a grant that the Malawi government has obtained from the governments of Norway and Sweden.

The internal procurement committee of the College of Medicine says local bidders should be registered with Malawi’s National Construction Industry Council in the unlimited category (for very big contractors) while foreign bidders should be eligible for registration in this category.

“The successful bidder will be the one meeting the minimum qualification criteria set out in the bidding documents. There shall be no preference for domestic bidders,” says the committee.

It says bidding documents and additional copies may be obtained from a consulting firm called MOD Chartered Architects, of Blantyre, Malawi, on paying a nonrefundable fee of $100 in cash or by bank-certified cheque.

The committee says interested bidders may obtain more information from the college and bids will be opened at the college in the presence of bidders’ representatives who may choose to attend, on February 29. Malawi is currently expanding its colleges and building new campuses in order to increase the number of students gaining access to tertiary education.

Besides other projects, the government plans to construct what will be known as the Lilongwe University of Science and Technology, in the capital.