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| Columns |
| Backbencher |
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by
Anonymous, 27 August 2004
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15:27:35
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Talk to the people, Mr. President.
Honourable Folks, the Mutharika government may have scored highly on various aspects of our democracy but ask me where it has flopped and my quick answer is communication.
Unless His Excellency President Bingu wa Mutharika ensures that information on issues of public interest is passed on to the people expeditiously and adequately, there’s a risk that his government might appear less willing to respect the democratic tenets of accountability and transparency.
Consider what happened on Tuesday. The independent commission that probed how our grain reserves suddenly became empty, resulting in many people starving in 2001, presented its report to His Excellency the President in Lilongwe. The probe team made sure the presentation ceremony of the report got adequate media hype prior to meeting the President.
People gathered around the few radios and television sets available in my constituency, hoping the important state function was going to be broadcast live. For once, the TV, which seems to have specialised in covering Atcheya’s (former president Bakili Muluzi) whistle-stop tours, was going to be used to serve a genuine national interest. We all wanted to see the facial expression of the spokesperson of the probe team as they narrated how our maize grew wings and flew from the silos, leaving us to bury bodies of our starved relatives and neighbours, which we did after a bite of nsima from donated genetically modified maize.
People wanted to hear if indeed it was true that someone, without a human heart, stole our maize and sold it somewhere else. Who ate our maize as we were starving? How much did the Judas Iscariot of our time get in turn? How was the money used? Was there a cover up by the previous government?
It would also have been desirable to hear what President Mutharika of zero-tolerance for corruption fame would say. If this was too early for him to announce what appropriate action he was going to take, he would still have uttered a word or two of comfort, and add that we would hear from him in due course.
But what actually happened was terrible to say the least. The report which was about our maize was presented to the President of our democratic country secretly! Despite the constitutional provision that requires government to make available to the media information which is in public interest, the report was still under lock and key the entire Wednesday and Thursday. Newspapers could only publish the contents of this important document if they managed to steal it from the desk drawer of some potbellied official who was probably chewing sausages as poor villagers—who actually bend their backs the whole year in the field to feed the nation—were dying needlessly after the maize was sold.
Compare this cold indifference to the feelings and rights of Malawians to what happened in the US the same Tuesday. An independent commission set up by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to probe prisoner abuse in Iraq also presented its report. Despite the fact that American soldiers are still fighting armed militias in Iraq, despite the fact that military issues are sensitive, the probe commission presented its devastating report to the American people through the media.
The probe team explained how they investigated the issue and what their findings were. Journalists were also given the opportunity to ask whatever questions they had. All this happened after the reporters had been given copies of the actual report. I’m not talking about American media only. I watched the event on BBC, not CNN. I’m sure if our reporters could afford it, they too would have covered the event.
As a President who does not globe-trot, announcing government policies at political rallies, Mutharika cannot afford to alienate the media. He needs the media to disseminate information to the people. Not only will it be prudent for him to speed up the passing of Access to Information Act but he should also ensure that the press is given very little room to speculate on issues relating to his office. This can be done by making available as much information as possible.
Whoever advised him to dodge the press as he returned from a Sadc meeting recently should realise Malawians have the right to know what their President does abroad. Nowhere in functioning democracies does a president account to himself.
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