BINGU GRILLS CIVIL SOCIETY AND IMF

There was more glamour and glitz on Friday, February 3, 2012, when president Bingu officially opened the 43rd session of parliament at the Parliament Building in Lilongwe.

After the pomp and glamour, the president made his State of the Nation address to the August House. He started with a call for patriotism to resolve the challenges facing the country.

Which to many, was a rare acknowledgement by the president of the problems facing Malawi; namely elongated forex and fuel shortage.

But people’s expectations were short lived when Mutharika launched another attack at the civil society and other International donors, blaming them of exaggerating and aggravating the problems in the country.

The president further blamed the opposition, civil society and some international donors, whom he dubbed “external forces”, for detracting his government’s development endeavours.

He further asked IMF and Western donor countries to give him 3 years to find lasting solutions to the problems facing Malawi.

“Previous devaluation has affected local people and made them even poorer. Devaluation is not the only way to solve economic problems. It is just one of them.” Said the president.

He also defended the Zero deficit policy as having being very successful so far.

The president also grilled the civil society for giving him deadlines to address issues.

“This is not normal. This is unacceptable.” Quoting a number of constitutional provisions he emphasised that the power and mandate to govern the country lies in the three arms of the government; executive, legislature and judiciary. ”Not civil society.”

He then went on to say,” Malawi is a success story and not a failed state as other unpatriotic individuals make it look”.

But opposition leader John Tembo and other quarters feel the president has missed an opportunity to articulate solutions to deal with the problems Malawi is facing at the moment.