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| National |
| Pac dates Bingu on governance |
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by
Gedion Munthali, 18 October 2004
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08:43:17
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Public Affairs Committee (Pac), a grouping of various faiths in Malawi which fell out with the previous administration and sometimes seemed to campaign against continued UDF rule, will this week meet President Bingu wa Mutharika to urge him to remain his own man and take the country around the corner.
Pac head of programmes Robert Phiri confirmed that the meeting, which he described as “long standing”, will take place at the Lilongwe State Lodge on Wednesday to look “generally at issues of governance in Malawi”. He declined to single out some of the sticky issues on the agenda.
“Yes indeed, the meeting is taking place this coming Wednesday. It would have taken place immediately the President took office, but it turned out that some of our board members were tied up with other matters, so it had to be rescheduled,” said Phiri.
Sources close to Pac however said the body wants to commend and encourage Mutharika to soldier on against the ills perpetrated by his predecessor, among them, unrestrained corruption, human rights abuses and general mismanagement.
“The board wants to commend Mutharika for showing he wants to be his own man, determined to clean out this country of the maladies of the previous administration which threw the country to the deep end of troubled waters,” said the source.
The informer said the organisation is heartened with the crack down on graft, “and no one should be spared regardless of his standing in society.”
But it also wants to ask him spread out his appointments “on merit and equitably” to fend off nepotistic and regionalistic hints.
“Yes, we have seen action, but we need more and more action on a number of things,” added the source, citing mystery surrounding the maize scandal whose report was unveiled last month but, apart from public statements and assurances, solid action is yet to be taken.
The source also said Pac would want to hear out Mutharika on how he intends to have the standoff in UDF “where things seem to be in disarray and falling party” resolved for the good of political democracy “which thrives on strong political structures.”
“Pac is concerned that things seem not be working in ruling party which should be the pace setter. This is not a good sign for democracy. But the board wants to hear out the President first, before considering whether to intervene,” said the source.
Phiri declined to comment on issues disclosed by the source, saying the Pac board would be meeting tomorrow to work out a fresh agenda.
“Some of the events which have since taken place have washed away some of the items we had on the earlier agenda,” said Phiri, who insisted the issues bordered on governance. “I think some of them have been overtaken and become irrelevant for the time being.”
Presidential spokesman Prescott Gonani could not be reached Sunday for comment on the matter. |
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