Civil society draws up an "election manifesto"

Malawian civil society has drawn up a manifesto to "guide" people towards an issue-based general election, scheduled to be held on 18 May. The manifesto, drawn up by the Malawian Economic Justice Network (MEJN), which has a membership of about 100 civic organisations, urged the next government to expand the employment sector, desist from liberalising the education and health sectors, prioritise social spending and develop the agricultural sector. "The last two elections, held in 1994 and 1999 under the multiparty system, have tended to focus on personalities. People have also voted along regional and tribal lines. We want the people to focus on socioeconomic issues and ideologies in choosing and, thereafter, supporting and assessing their government," Mavuto Bamusi, deputy national coordinator of MEJN told IRIN. Bamusi said the network wanted to provide Malawians with the "tools to realistically evaluate the performance of the government of the day". The manifesto cited a 1998 household survey, which revealed that 65.3 percent of the population could not afford two square meals per day all year long. It also quoted a 2001 United Nations Development Programme report that described Malawi as the "third worst country in the whole world in terms of income inequality". "We are one of the poorest countries in the world, with the biggest gap between the rich and the poor. Any incoming government should focus on socioeconomic issues," Bamusi said. MEJN expected its manifesto to reach out to at least 20 percent of Malawi's population through its members, which also include trade unions. Bamusi said the manifesto had emphasised job creation and the development of small-scale agriculture, mining and tourism. "Most poor Malawians are involved in these small-scale activities," he explained. The document urged the new government to view the sector as the "backbone of the national economy". "There has been increased dependency on imported maize because there are no incentives for local producers to increase their production. The disincentives are so many, including: prices too low for them to recoup their production costs, high cost of inputs (fertiliser), lack of markets for agricultural outputs, unstable exchange rate, high cost of borrowing (interest rates), lack of credit facilities, unequal distribution of land, and poor rural roads," the manifesto read. The statement urged the next government to mechanize agriculture by introducing modern farming technology to both small- and large-scale farmers; to manage national food reserves in a more efficient manner; promote agricultural diversification from maize to other cash and food crops, such as potatoes and cassava, and provide market incentives for agricultural produce. Land was one production factor that was "very unequally distributed in Malawi", noted the manifesto. It explained: "About 1.6 million families operating under customary land tenure cultivate just 1.8 million hectares, while 3,000 estates own about 1.1 million hectares of suitable agricultural land". About 32 percent of the total arable land in Malawi remained unutilised, "due to regional imbalance, weak institutions to support land tenure and an undeveloped land market". MEJN urged the incoming government to expedite its land redistribution policy. It also expressed concern over the proposed restructuring of the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC), which would entail closing down "unprofitable markets", including ones that catered to rural communities in Malawi. The government is currently examining several models, such as "hiving off" unprofitable markets to a state body, or calling for tenders from the private sector. With regards to education, MEJN noted that free primary education was introduced in 1994. However, the introduction of free education was not "accompanied by a proportional increase in the number of teachers and in the number of classrooms". In 2001, only 16 percent of students who sat for the Malawi secondary examinations passed, said the MEJN document, highlighting "the lack of adequate qualified teachers, poor classroom conditions, lack of incentives for teachers and unsystematic change in syllabi" as the "underlying factors for the poor performance". Bamusi said the network had also called for the Anti-Corruption Bureau, "which currently lacks teeth", to be delinked from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions, "and to make it an autonomous and more effective body".