Mutharika hailed for recent positive decisions

Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika has been praised for the recent decisions that he has been making with a motive to bring back the southern African country from the brink of total collapse or take the Zimbabwe way.

Mutharika has in the last few months come under heavy attack from diplomats, international organizations and Malawians at large for engaging the country in what people have called a reverse gear.

However, the President’s actions in the recent weeks have earned him a lot of credit that has already seen members of the civil society in Malawi, the academia and the international community start talking positively about the country and its leadership.

At the pick of his criticisms that saw wide spread demonstrations in July, Mutharika fired the entire cabinet in August and appointed a fresh one on 7 September, 2011.

Not only did he hire a new and lean cabinet but he brought in performers whose work has proved that they are capable of trying to help Malawi regain its lost glory economically.

The performers include the President’s own brother Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika the Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr Ken Lipenga the Finance Minister, Dr Goodall Gondwe the Energy Minister and Dr George Chaponda the Education Minister.

Efforts by the four senior ministers in helping Mutharika get the country back on its feet seem to be yielding better results.

Already, Malawi has apologised to the United Kingdom for expelling its diplomat and Zambia for deporting President Michael Sata when he visited the country as opposition leader in 2007, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are now speaking to Malawi.

The four fired lectures in the University of Malawi’s Chancellor College have been re-instated and classes are expected to resume on November 14.

Education Minister George Chaponda said the President “should get credit” for resolving the eight month academic freedom stand-off.

During this year’s annual Mulhako wa Alhomwe festival, Mutharika used the opportunity to promote issues of culture and not attack his critics.

These few efforts by President Mutharika have been seen by political analysts and commentators and positive strides in trying to bring back the country from the low levels where it was.

A political analyst at Chancellor College described Mutharika’s efforts as very encouraging and positive.

“It is only the wise that can realize they were down, wake up, and move on,” said the analyst.

The analyst said that Malawians should take recent decisions by Mutharika as a positive sign that needs to be encouraged.

Another social commentator said that whilst Mutharika as a human being may have made his own mistakes, Malawians need to give him an opportunity to improve on his shortfalls.

“He is only human and the goodness is that he has realized his mistakes and the country is seeing the positive things that are now bearing fruits,” he said.

Recently, the British Government announced that it was encouraging that the Malawi Government under President Mutharika was doing something in order to address the problems the country was facing.

Britain however, called on Malawi to do more if the country is to get back on track.

Similar sentiments were shared by IMF, World Bank, Unites States and German governments.

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