By Emmanuel Luciano
THE Musicians Association of Malawi (Mam) has been in the news not for the wrong reasons as some would have it but for the right ones. This association’s executive is yet to hold its Annual General Meeting three years after being ushered into office.
Reason the powers that be in Mam give for failing to hold even a single AGM, for a grouping that represents the interests of musicians in the country, has always been lack of funds.
More recently, the association failed to hold a scheduled AGM in Mzuzu as the year was drawing to an end for the same reason of lack of finances.
The going has been a rough one for the executive that is yet to produce audited accounts of its operations in the three years that it has been in office. It was not surprising, therefore, to see squabbling and heckling characterising the running of affairs in Musicians Association of Malawi.
But with only three months to go before the month of April, when the mandate of the present executive committee expires, according to its president Wellington Chatepa, it appears the storm of trouble rocking the association is failing to abate.
Wellington Chatepa says the association will hold its AGM in April not anytime between as previously arranged.
This has irked some quarters within the association that feel the executive is unconstitutionally running the organisation by not holding the AGM.
Chatepa says they are trying to raise funds for the April AGM to take place without any hurdles.
“Actually the elections are due in April that is when our mandate expires. We had no AGM all these years because we had no money. The one we were to hold in Mzuzu failed to take place because we only had K50 000 which came from Mr. Wawanya one of the trustees instead of K400 000,” he says.
Chatepa dismisses those who were agitating for ‘early’ elections as individuals who were just bent on ousting the existing committee for unknown reason.
Overton Chimombo, one of the candidates that were ready to pit themselves against Chatepa in the failed Mzuzu AGM, however, says the executive is executing the functions of the association illegally.
“Holding the AGM in April is against the wishes of the majority of the people. There were issues that the office is being personalised a lot and that’s why we called for an AGM.
“According to our constitution, the president or the secretary cannot approve anything without the approval of the general assembly. Even the spending that is being done now is illegal because it has not been approved by the general assembly. There is no accountability. Right now we hear the president is busy conducting some Mam projects with funding from donors in the Centre but how do donors find activities of the association without audited accounts? Chimombo asks.
Vice secretary for Mam’s southern region chapter Diwa Khwiliro says members did not agree to shift the AGM to the month of April.
“We agreed that the elections or the AGM be held as soon as we have the money. If we find sponsors today we can have the election this week. The president is not a trust to make that decision alone,” Khwiliro says.
But Mam central region chapter chairman Edward Munjeru says holding the AGM in April would only be the rightful decision.
“The term of office is really supposed to end in April and that’s when we should have the lections because by then we will have found people to sponsor us,” says Munjeru.
Chairman of the trustees Geoff Gondwe says it was disappointing that members did not understand the significance of holding an AGM.
“Lack of money should not be a reason for acting unconstitutionally. That’s the price you pay for democracy. People should not water down AGMs because it is at this meeting where leaders renew their mandate. You can’t execute plans without the authority of the people who put you in office.
“It is at AGMs where plans and budgets of the organisation are approved. The assembly looks at the expenses incurred or whether they have spent within budgets.
Gondwe says he expects the association to have audited accounts ready by they hold the AGM.
“If they want to have the AGM in April, perhaps they want to give themselves time to prepare. The accounts haven’t been audited all these years and as a constitution requirement their books have to be done prior to the AGM,” he says.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Made in China: New song of development or begging for neocolonialism
By Emmanuel Luciano
Blue Diamond, a nightclub that is mostly frequented by animated students and some zealous outgoing adults, is perched at Sunnyside close to Colony Casino in Blantyre. This place can be reached using the Chikwawa road past Catholic Institute. Those driving from Victoria Avenue, downtown Blantyre, will only take a minute to get there. That is how close Blantyre is to Beijing.
And there is Machaina in Lilongwe, a name of a nightclub that needs no introduction for Lilongwe revellers who spend their time at Bwandiro.
At Trade Fair in Blantyre, on the opposite left of the Chamber’s house if you are entering the fair grounds using the main gate, there is a tiny restaurant which is run by people whose identity is easily deceived by a language that somewhat sounds Greek save for some guttural sounds that accompany it. Not that they serve any Chinese food at this place, no. It’s the same food you find in most second rate restaurants in town. And that’s how near mainland China’s Peking can be to Malawi.
If you have never been to any of these places you need not worry that you have never visited mainland China in Malawi because there are numerous China shops in all cities and towns that sell Chinese and other products at prices Malawians can afford.
But it’s not that easy to get to Taiwan in Malawi. In Blantyre you have to scale the walls of the timber factory at Green corner in Blantyre or that of their nail factory at Mapanga. You also need to do a lot of travelling, say travel some 30 kilometres away from Zomba town to reach Namasalima Rice scheme where the Taiwanese are running a rice growing project.
If you are in Lilongwe, to reach Taiwan in Malawi, only ask around for a location of the fertiliser factory which the Taiwanese are running.
Naysayers of Malawi establishing diplomatic ties with Beijing, in what is being termed as the country’s strange way of asking to be hit by a wind of neocolonialism, have argued their cases well.
Proponents of the red China-Malawi relation have also articulated, with passion of a soothsayer, the enormous economic gains that the country is going to get by establishing ties with mainland China at the expense of its 40-year-old relationship with Taiwan.
The debate appears to have been boringly exhausted but there are others like Malawi Watch’s Executive Director Billy Banda who argues that the train of thoughts on whether Malawi should stick to Taiwan or jump ships to join Beijing is being derailed deliberately to curtail the apparent healthy debate.
Perhaps Banda is right considering that the Malawi’s supposed move to dump Taiwan is now considered as Taiwan’s worst diplomatic crisis since the island broke ties with its long-time ally, Costa Rica.
Banda says there is no need to establish another tie with red China because he believes that Malawi already has relationship with Beijing.
“People should be able to differentiate two different sets of ties. We already are pursuing economic ties with mainland China. There are so many businesses from China that are operating in the country with our knowledge, ofcourse. So what else do we want?
“People are talking about economic gains, but we don’t go into diplomatic relations with any country as a profit-making venture because that relation may be a sugar-coated pill that is going to eventually destroy us,” Banda says.
The fact that there is a lot of speculation surrounding the Malawi-China relation does not help matters either as it is also generating conjectures that the ties are meant to advance an agenda that is not going to benefit the majority of Malawians.
“The government is playing hide and seek by allowing information that cannot be properly substantiated to circulate. This is not quite healthy. Diplomatic ties are not done for personal reasons but for the benefit of people of this country today, tomorrow and the future generation.”
“As a civil society, we will be watching closely the progress to see whether the decision to switch to China has been made in good faith. Any advancement that comes out to have induced benefits should not be made. What reasons does government give for going for China?” says Banda.
The Parliamentary Committee on International relations said earlier this week that it was going to meet to debate on the matter, but the Malawi Watch Executive Director says “the committee should consult widely on the issue regarding Taiwan and Mainland China.
“The committee has been idle for too long yet this is an issue that involves foreign policy which cannot be left to the executive alone to decide. There are issues like Malawi’s latest position on Nepad. Was the Malawi-Scottish partnership properly reported to Parliament and exhaustively discussed for instance?”
The question of foreign policy, at the time Malawi is at diplomatic loggerheads with Libya and in the news over its relation with China, excites even those in opposition.
UDF’s Sam Mpasu, who at one time secured computers for his Ministry of information from Beijing when UDF was in power, says the UDF government never made any ties with Beijing.
“It’s not proper that anyone in opposition should be dragged to say much on the country’s foreign policy. We in UDF are being blamed for the issue of Libya and Taiwan.
“But foreign policy is an extension of the domestic policy. What you do inside determines who your friend is. Governments deal with governments. But we deal with political parties and it’s mainly Liberal Democrats in the UK and the Democrats in America because we are a democratic party.”
As Dr. Chris Alden, an authority on China writes in the Commonwealth Press Union Magazine of August 2007, “for the investment starved African continent, China’s arrival has been overwhelmingly welcomed with open arms.”
“At the same time, there are signs of disquiet on the part of local trade unionists as the use of Chinese labourers and conditions in some Chinese enterprise has tempered the initial unbridled enthusiasm.”
As Alden continues in his article, Leveraging the Dragon: Toward "An Africa That Can Say No" in eAfrica of March 2005, Africa, when approaching China, needs to re-orient the very premise of its engagement with China from a residual liberation paradigm, … where Africa needs to consciously promote and preserve its interests.
As wrote Fred M’membe, editor of The Post, Zambia found itself in a precarious situation for not properly bargaining in its deals with China.
“It doesn’t seem we’re engaging the Chinese in the most beneficial way. China investment in Zambia is, in many respects, continuing the pattern established with the West---which has left Zambia poorer.
“We continue to place very little value on our natural resources and a much higher value on capital required to exploit them,” Mwembe wrote in CPQ Magazine of August 2007.
As Banda says, the rush for China should have come after a well-thought out cost-benefit analysis that would translate those ties into a new song of advancement other than a new form of colonialism.
Blue Diamond, a nightclub that is mostly frequented by animated students and some zealous outgoing adults, is perched at Sunnyside close to Colony Casino in Blantyre. This place can be reached using the Chikwawa road past Catholic Institute. Those driving from Victoria Avenue, downtown Blantyre, will only take a minute to get there. That is how close Blantyre is to Beijing.
And there is Machaina in Lilongwe, a name of a nightclub that needs no introduction for Lilongwe revellers who spend their time at Bwandiro.
At Trade Fair in Blantyre, on the opposite left of the Chamber’s house if you are entering the fair grounds using the main gate, there is a tiny restaurant which is run by people whose identity is easily deceived by a language that somewhat sounds Greek save for some guttural sounds that accompany it. Not that they serve any Chinese food at this place, no. It’s the same food you find in most second rate restaurants in town. And that’s how near mainland China’s Peking can be to Malawi.
If you have never been to any of these places you need not worry that you have never visited mainland China in Malawi because there are numerous China shops in all cities and towns that sell Chinese and other products at prices Malawians can afford.
But it’s not that easy to get to Taiwan in Malawi. In Blantyre you have to scale the walls of the timber factory at Green corner in Blantyre or that of their nail factory at Mapanga. You also need to do a lot of travelling, say travel some 30 kilometres away from Zomba town to reach Namasalima Rice scheme where the Taiwanese are running a rice growing project.
If you are in Lilongwe, to reach Taiwan in Malawi, only ask around for a location of the fertiliser factory which the Taiwanese are running.
Naysayers of Malawi establishing diplomatic ties with Beijing, in what is being termed as the country’s strange way of asking to be hit by a wind of neocolonialism, have argued their cases well.
Proponents of the red China-Malawi relation have also articulated, with passion of a soothsayer, the enormous economic gains that the country is going to get by establishing ties with mainland China at the expense of its 40-year-old relationship with Taiwan.
The debate appears to have been boringly exhausted but there are others like Malawi Watch’s Executive Director Billy Banda who argues that the train of thoughts on whether Malawi should stick to Taiwan or jump ships to join Beijing is being derailed deliberately to curtail the apparent healthy debate.
Perhaps Banda is right considering that the Malawi’s supposed move to dump Taiwan is now considered as Taiwan’s worst diplomatic crisis since the island broke ties with its long-time ally, Costa Rica.
Banda says there is no need to establish another tie with red China because he believes that Malawi already has relationship with Beijing.
“People should be able to differentiate two different sets of ties. We already are pursuing economic ties with mainland China. There are so many businesses from China that are operating in the country with our knowledge, ofcourse. So what else do we want?
“People are talking about economic gains, but we don’t go into diplomatic relations with any country as a profit-making venture because that relation may be a sugar-coated pill that is going to eventually destroy us,” Banda says.
The fact that there is a lot of speculation surrounding the Malawi-China relation does not help matters either as it is also generating conjectures that the ties are meant to advance an agenda that is not going to benefit the majority of Malawians.
“The government is playing hide and seek by allowing information that cannot be properly substantiated to circulate. This is not quite healthy. Diplomatic ties are not done for personal reasons but for the benefit of people of this country today, tomorrow and the future generation.”
“As a civil society, we will be watching closely the progress to see whether the decision to switch to China has been made in good faith. Any advancement that comes out to have induced benefits should not be made. What reasons does government give for going for China?” says Banda.
The Parliamentary Committee on International relations said earlier this week that it was going to meet to debate on the matter, but the Malawi Watch Executive Director says “the committee should consult widely on the issue regarding Taiwan and Mainland China.
“The committee has been idle for too long yet this is an issue that involves foreign policy which cannot be left to the executive alone to decide. There are issues like Malawi’s latest position on Nepad. Was the Malawi-Scottish partnership properly reported to Parliament and exhaustively discussed for instance?”
The question of foreign policy, at the time Malawi is at diplomatic loggerheads with Libya and in the news over its relation with China, excites even those in opposition.
UDF’s Sam Mpasu, who at one time secured computers for his Ministry of information from Beijing when UDF was in power, says the UDF government never made any ties with Beijing.
“It’s not proper that anyone in opposition should be dragged to say much on the country’s foreign policy. We in UDF are being blamed for the issue of Libya and Taiwan.
“But foreign policy is an extension of the domestic policy. What you do inside determines who your friend is. Governments deal with governments. But we deal with political parties and it’s mainly Liberal Democrats in the UK and the Democrats in America because we are a democratic party.”
As Dr. Chris Alden, an authority on China writes in the Commonwealth Press Union Magazine of August 2007, “for the investment starved African continent, China’s arrival has been overwhelmingly welcomed with open arms.”
“At the same time, there are signs of disquiet on the part of local trade unionists as the use of Chinese labourers and conditions in some Chinese enterprise has tempered the initial unbridled enthusiasm.”
As Alden continues in his article, Leveraging the Dragon: Toward "An Africa That Can Say No" in eAfrica of March 2005, Africa, when approaching China, needs to re-orient the very premise of its engagement with China from a residual liberation paradigm, … where Africa needs to consciously promote and preserve its interests.
As wrote Fred M’membe, editor of The Post, Zambia found itself in a precarious situation for not properly bargaining in its deals with China.
“It doesn’t seem we’re engaging the Chinese in the most beneficial way. China investment in Zambia is, in many respects, continuing the pattern established with the West---which has left Zambia poorer.
“We continue to place very little value on our natural resources and a much higher value on capital required to exploit them,” Mwembe wrote in CPQ Magazine of August 2007.
As Banda says, the rush for China should have come after a well-thought out cost-benefit analysis that would translate those ties into a new song of advancement other than a new form of colonialism.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Civil servants suffering from Aids to get K5000 monthly
By Emmanuel Luciano
Civil servants who are suffering from HIV/ Aids will get a new lease of life because government will be paying them an extra monthly K5000 to enable them access drugs and food supplements.
The government’s decision to consider the HIV positive civil servants is contained in the circular from the Office of the President’s Department of Human Resource Management and Development ref. No: HRM/GOP/20/61 dated November 5, 2007.
But Principal Secretary responsible for Nutrition and HIV and Aids in the Office of the President and Cabinet Dr. Mary Shaba said the civil servants who wanted to benefit from the K5000 monthly portion had to come forward if they wanted to access the facility.
“Though the issue of HIV and Aids is confidential, but what it means is that somebody should be prepared to come forward to provide information to those who are coordinating the issue in offices. You still have to tell somebody in one way or another.”
Dr. Shaba allayed fears of stigma that the monthly K5000 facility might generate in various government offices and departments.
“There are systems in offices that are being used. But we don’t need to have names of the people who are suffering from HIV and Aids.
“We are looking at developing some kind of a coupon system which bears the number of the individual and the code. If I lose my coupon, the number and code will not reveal the name of the owner. We are also using hospital health passport,” she said.
The Principal Secretary said they had already started implementing the facility.
“The issue was already being implemented because some people who needed help came out were assisted with food packages and it was through that system that those who were hiding also came out.”
Executive Director of Nurses and midwives organisation of Malawi Dorothy Ngoma said the monthly amount for the affected health workers was government’s way of implementing the policy on caring for caregivers.
“There was no system for caring for caregivers, yet the health workers who are infected need extra support. They need to buy extra drugs,” Ngoma said.
Ngoma, however, said it would have better if the money were used to buy insurance or a medical scheme for those that are HIV positive.
“It’s an opportunity for those who are HIV positive to buy insurance or Masm because they might be admitted at an expensive hospital to access better treatment at one time,” she said.
But Dr. Shaba said government has already worked out a more detailed guideline that will include a scheme.
“We are looking at the scheme that will go beyond the K5000 to reach the affected households. Once this guideline is discussed then it will be implemented. You realise that K5000 could not be sustainable,” she said.
Civil servants who are suffering from HIV/ Aids will get a new lease of life because government will be paying them an extra monthly K5000 to enable them access drugs and food supplements.
The government’s decision to consider the HIV positive civil servants is contained in the circular from the Office of the President’s Department of Human Resource Management and Development ref. No: HRM/GOP/20/61 dated November 5, 2007.
But Principal Secretary responsible for Nutrition and HIV and Aids in the Office of the President and Cabinet Dr. Mary Shaba said the civil servants who wanted to benefit from the K5000 monthly portion had to come forward if they wanted to access the facility.
“Though the issue of HIV and Aids is confidential, but what it means is that somebody should be prepared to come forward to provide information to those who are coordinating the issue in offices. You still have to tell somebody in one way or another.”
Dr. Shaba allayed fears of stigma that the monthly K5000 facility might generate in various government offices and departments.
“There are systems in offices that are being used. But we don’t need to have names of the people who are suffering from HIV and Aids.
“We are looking at developing some kind of a coupon system which bears the number of the individual and the code. If I lose my coupon, the number and code will not reveal the name of the owner. We are also using hospital health passport,” she said.
The Principal Secretary said they had already started implementing the facility.
“The issue was already being implemented because some people who needed help came out were assisted with food packages and it was through that system that those who were hiding also came out.”
Executive Director of Nurses and midwives organisation of Malawi Dorothy Ngoma said the monthly amount for the affected health workers was government’s way of implementing the policy on caring for caregivers.
“There was no system for caring for caregivers, yet the health workers who are infected need extra support. They need to buy extra drugs,” Ngoma said.
Ngoma, however, said it would have better if the money were used to buy insurance or a medical scheme for those that are HIV positive.
“It’s an opportunity for those who are HIV positive to buy insurance or Masm because they might be admitted at an expensive hospital to access better treatment at one time,” she said.
But Dr. Shaba said government has already worked out a more detailed guideline that will include a scheme.
“We are looking at the scheme that will go beyond the K5000 to reach the affected households. Once this guideline is discussed then it will be implemented. You realise that K5000 could not be sustainable,” she said.
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