Activists outline Peter’s obstacles

Commentators have advised newly elected President Peter Mutharika to immediately guide the country on how he will deal with obstacles such as plunder of public resources and atrocities committed during the previous reign of his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

In his inaugural speech at the Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre on Monday, Mutharika spoke strongly against the plundering of public resources, pledging to allow prosecution agencies such as police, the Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to carry out their work without political interference.

But it is how he will deal with the DPP regime record of human rights abuses such as deaths of Polytechnic fourth year student Robert Chasowa and 20 people during anti-government demonstrations in July 2011; management of the exchange rate and plunder of government resources, which a preliminary forensic audit shows started at the inception of the Integrated Financial Management Information System (Ifmis) under DPP’s watch.

Protection of the public purse was among the key areas of focus for Mutharika’s government, including improving availability of drugs in hospitals, moving economic growth rate from the current five percent to 7.5 percent in the next five years besides creation of jobs.

But consumer rights activist John Kapito said in an interview on Thursday that DPP had already started on a bad note by pledging subsidies ranging from farm inputs to cement and iron sheets to enable Malawians build houses.

He said: “The new government should refrain from promising handouts of cement and iron sheets. People want to have their own money to buy cement so create jobs for people to have money, not giving them handouts.”

It was Kapito’s organisation, Consumers Association of Malawi (Cama), which twice organised demonstrations against the high cost of living and frequent domestic and international travels by ousted president Joyce Banda and has promised not to relent with the current government.

“This government will have to create an enabling environment for creating employment and this could be done by reducing interest rates which has made the cost of living more expensive. The new government will also have to manage the exchange rate,” he said.

Kapito also advised Mutharika to avoid the executive arrogance his brother Bingu displayed and avoid bringing into his government people who tainted the image of the DPP during its first coming.

DPP’s tainted image in human rights has also prompted the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) to call for justice to prevail in the deaths of Chasowa and victims of the July 20 2011 protests.

While people, including police officers were arrested in connection with the deaths following commissions of inquiry, court cases have stagnated.

CHRR executive director Timothy Mtambo said DPP had to take control of the unresolved issues stemming from their human rights abuses between 2009 and 2012 without favouring political heavyweights.

“We expect culprits of July 20 massacre to face the law regardless of their political connections, families of victims must be compensated and the victims should be accorded the heroes status that they deserve for fighting against the undemocratic tendencies,” Mtambo said.

DPP will also have to deal with a polarised Parliament in which they are not in majority with 50 seats and no possibility of achieving two thirds majority even if all 52 independent members of Parliament became backbenchers.

However, Mutharika, in his inaugural speech, stressed that Malawians had voted into power a new DPP while acknowledging the mistakes of his brother.