Bingu wa Mutharika
Bingu wa Mutharika, who has died aged 78, was an eccentric and wayward president of Malawi who threw away a reputation for being modestly successful and began leading his bewildered country to ruin.
Photo: AFP/GETTY
6:42PM BST 10 Apr 2012
A brittle and mercurial man, Mutharika’s behaviour grew so erratic that some Malawians would question his sanity. He abandoned his presidential palace in Lilongwe not out of shame over inhabiting its 300 luxurious rooms, built for $100 million in a country suffering abject poverty, but because he declared it to be haunted and claimed that invisible rodents were running all over him at night.
Exorcists were duly summoned to this vast residence, set in 1,300 acres of grounds (constructed, in fairness, not by Mutharika himself but by Malawi’s equally eccentric first president, Hastings Kamuzu Banda). A sleepless and terrified Mutharika went to stay elsewhere while his aide for religious affairs urged sympathetic priests to “pray for the New State House to exorcise evil spirits”.
That incident in 2005 might have been put down to a heartfelt belief in the supernatural that remains almost universal in Africa. But Mutharika proceeded to fling rationality to the winds and cast Malawi into an economic and social crisis that blighted many lives.
He began the path to national self-destruction in familiar fashion by condoning the harassment of critics and of the independent press, passing a law that allowed the closure of any publication deemed to threaten the public interest.
Last April, Fergus Cochrane-Dyet, the British High Commissioner in Lilongwe, noted in a cable to London that Mutharika was becoming “ever more autocratic and intolerant of criticism”. Unfortunately for the diplomat, this missive was leaked and promptly appeared in a local newspaper, causing Mutharika to fly into a rage. The best way to disprove the charge of intolerance was, he decided, to expel the envoy for daring to voice private criticism.
This was an unprecedented decision: no African leader in recent memory had thrown out a British High Commissioner. President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe might have revelled in his poisonous relations with London, but even he had never expelled a British envoy, preferring instead to keep them in Harare where they could be lectured on the errors of their ways.
Britain, Malawi’s largest bilateral aid donor, could hardly refrain from responding to Mutharika’s decision. Malawi’s High Commissioner was duly ordered out of London; William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, noted a “worrying sign that the Malawian government is expending its energies in this way, rather than focusing on the real and substantial challenges”.
Foremost among these was a burgeoning economic crisis, which saw inflation reach triple figures . When this led to street protests in Blantyre and Lilongwe last July, Mutharika responded ruthlessly. He banned any gatherings and sent masked members of the youth wing of his Democratic Progressive Party to assault and threaten key organisers. When marches took place anyway, on July 20 and 21 last year, soldiers and police used live rounds and tear gas, killing about 18 demonstrators. Mutharika, utterly unrepentant, threatened to “use any measure I can think of” against his opponents.
This bloody episode was an indelible stain on Mutharika’s reputation. Led by Britain, international donors cancelled their aid, causing the economic crisis to worsen.
Earlier, Mutharika had fallen out with his vice-president, Joyce Banda, who proved to have an awkward willingness to question his decisions. After the biggest demonstrations, she issued a remarkable public statement, on July 23, deploring the bloodshed and sympathising with the protesters, saying: “I hear the voices of the people and I relate to the issues being raised.”
Mutharika promptly blamed her and the opposition leaders for all the violence. “The blood of these people who have died is on you,” he said. “Let their spirits haunt you at night. This time I’ll go after you! Even if you hide in holes I’ll smoke you out!” The protesters, he added, were “led by Satan”. [translation: "REPENT!!"]
When national strikes were called two months later, Mutharika’s belligerence was undimmed. “You can’t bully me into submission. Government can’t be taken to ransom by a few disgruntled individuals hiding in the name of civil society,” he said. “If you stop people from going to work, I will deal with you!”
Bingu wa Mutharika was born with the name Brighton Webster Ryson Thom on February 24 1934 in the British Crown Colony of Nyasaland. The son of a teacher, he excelled at school and won a scholarship to read Economics at the University of Delhi, India, shortly after Nyasaland achieved independence as Malawi in 1964. In keeping with the anti-colonial spirit of the era, he changed his name to one that carried a more African ring.
Mutharika joined the Malawian civil service and later the World Bank, taking a doctorate in Development Economics from Pacific Western University in Los Angeles. Given his academic training and his habit of referring to himself as Malawi’s “economist-in-chief”, it was bitterly ironic that economic collapse was the most salient feature of Mutharika’s presidency.
He began his rise in politics in 2002 when he was appointed minister of economic planning and national development in the administration of President Bakili Muluzi. A portly, pompous and cosmically vain main, Muluzi could not come to terms with the fact that the end of his second term was approaching and that Malawi’s constitution forbade him from seeking a third.
Deciding that his country could not manage without his leadership, Muluzi resolved to rewrite the constitution to expunge term limits and allow him to seek re-election. But this gambit failed when Malawi’s parliament admirably refused to pass the necessary amendments.
Muluzi’s “plan B” was to install a pliant and malleable successor – and his eye fell on the studious, technocratic figure of Mutharika. Lacking a power base and viewed primarily as an academic economist, he seemed to fit the bill as a president whom the canny Muluzi could control from behind the scenes.
Accordingly, Mutharika was elected president in May 2004 with the blessing of his predecessor. But Muluzi’s gamble failed in spectacular fashion. Mutharika denounced his patron for trying to be a “back seat driver”, accused Muluzi of corruption and allowed him to be harassed and briefly jailed.
Mutharika walked out of the United Democratic Front, which Muluzi still led, and set up his own Democratic Progressive Party.
Many Malawians despised Muluzi and quietly cheered these displays of independence by his determined successor. Mutharika’s first term as president was generally successful: he managed to increase Malawi’s agricultural output by dramatically improving the provision of seed, tools and fertiliser. This ended Malawi’s dependence on food aid and restored the country’s self-sufficiency, even allowing a surplus for export.
Buoyed by this achievement, Mutharika won re-election for a second term in 2008. Free of the shadow of his predecessor and intoxicated by the acclaim that his agricultural policy had brought, Mutharika’s autocratic and eccentric streak began to show through.
Dissatisfied with Vice-President Banda for her independence, he installed his own brother, Peter, as foreign minister and groomed him for the succession. In a fit of pique last year, Mutharika briefly sacked his entire cabinet and took all their portfolios for himself. Although most ministers were reappointed, this episode showed his liking for keeping his colleagues permanently on edge.
When Mutharika suffered a cardiac arrest in Lilongwe on April 5, his government had no idea who would take over the presidency. Would it be his legal successor, Joyce Banda, or the usurper-in-waiting, Peter Mutharika?
Although Mutharika probably died instantly, his demise was not officially confirmed for two days while his colleagues worked out what to do and the inevitable backroom intrigue took place. During this time, the president’s inert body was flown to a South African hospital, where officials kept up the pretence that he was undergoing treatment.
Britain, America and the African Union all made clear that constitutional proprieties must be observed – and Banda was confirmed as the new president after this unseemly interval.
Bingu wa Mutharika married, first, Ethel Zvauya, a Zimbabwean who predeceased him in 2007. He then married his minister of tourism, Callista Chimombo, in 2010. Mutharika is survived by his second wife and by four children from his first marriage.
Bingu wa Mutharika, born February 24 1934, died April 5 2012
Bingu wa Mutharika, who has died aged 78, was an eccentric and wayward president of Malawi who threw away a reputation for being modestly successful and began leading his bewildered country to ruin.
Photo: AFP/GETTY
6:42PM BST 10 Apr 2012
A brittle and mercurial man, Mutharika’s behaviour grew so erratic that some Malawians would question his sanity. He abandoned his presidential palace in Lilongwe not out of shame over inhabiting its 300 luxurious rooms, built for $100 million in a country suffering abject poverty, but because he declared it to be haunted and claimed that invisible rodents were running all over him at night.
Exorcists were duly summoned to this vast residence, set in 1,300 acres of grounds (constructed, in fairness, not by Mutharika himself but by Malawi’s equally eccentric first president, Hastings Kamuzu Banda). A sleepless and terrified Mutharika went to stay elsewhere while his aide for religious affairs urged sympathetic priests to “pray for the New State House to exorcise evil spirits”.
That incident in 2005 might have been put down to a heartfelt belief in the supernatural that remains almost universal in Africa. But Mutharika proceeded to fling rationality to the winds and cast Malawi into an economic and social crisis that blighted many lives.
He began the path to national self-destruction in familiar fashion by condoning the harassment of critics and of the independent press, passing a law that allowed the closure of any publication deemed to threaten the public interest.
Last April, Fergus Cochrane-Dyet, the British High Commissioner in Lilongwe, noted in a cable to London that Mutharika was becoming “ever more autocratic and intolerant of criticism”. Unfortunately for the diplomat, this missive was leaked and promptly appeared in a local newspaper, causing Mutharika to fly into a rage. The best way to disprove the charge of intolerance was, he decided, to expel the envoy for daring to voice private criticism.
This was an unprecedented decision: no African leader in recent memory had thrown out a British High Commissioner. President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe might have revelled in his poisonous relations with London, but even he had never expelled a British envoy, preferring instead to keep them in Harare where they could be lectured on the errors of their ways.
Britain, Malawi’s largest bilateral aid donor, could hardly refrain from responding to Mutharika’s decision. Malawi’s High Commissioner was duly ordered out of London; William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, noted a “worrying sign that the Malawian government is expending its energies in this way, rather than focusing on the real and substantial challenges”.
Foremost among these was a burgeoning economic crisis, which saw inflation reach triple figures . When this led to street protests in Blantyre and Lilongwe last July, Mutharika responded ruthlessly. He banned any gatherings and sent masked members of the youth wing of his Democratic Progressive Party to assault and threaten key organisers. When marches took place anyway, on July 20 and 21 last year, soldiers and police used live rounds and tear gas, killing about 18 demonstrators. Mutharika, utterly unrepentant, threatened to “use any measure I can think of” against his opponents.
This bloody episode was an indelible stain on Mutharika’s reputation. Led by Britain, international donors cancelled their aid, causing the economic crisis to worsen.
Earlier, Mutharika had fallen out with his vice-president, Joyce Banda, who proved to have an awkward willingness to question his decisions. After the biggest demonstrations, she issued a remarkable public statement, on July 23, deploring the bloodshed and sympathising with the protesters, saying: “I hear the voices of the people and I relate to the issues being raised.”
Mutharika promptly blamed her and the opposition leaders for all the violence. “The blood of these people who have died is on you,” he said. “Let their spirits haunt you at night. This time I’ll go after you! Even if you hide in holes I’ll smoke you out!” The protesters, he added, were “led by Satan”. [translation: "REPENT!!"]
When national strikes were called two months later, Mutharika’s belligerence was undimmed. “You can’t bully me into submission. Government can’t be taken to ransom by a few disgruntled individuals hiding in the name of civil society,” he said. “If you stop people from going to work, I will deal with you!”
Bingu wa Mutharika was born with the name Brighton Webster Ryson Thom on February 24 1934 in the British Crown Colony of Nyasaland. The son of a teacher, he excelled at school and won a scholarship to read Economics at the University of Delhi, India, shortly after Nyasaland achieved independence as Malawi in 1964. In keeping with the anti-colonial spirit of the era, he changed his name to one that carried a more African ring.
Mutharika joined the Malawian civil service and later the World Bank, taking a doctorate in Development Economics from Pacific Western University in Los Angeles. Given his academic training and his habit of referring to himself as Malawi’s “economist-in-chief”, it was bitterly ironic that economic collapse was the most salient feature of Mutharika’s presidency.
He began his rise in politics in 2002 when he was appointed minister of economic planning and national development in the administration of President Bakili Muluzi. A portly, pompous and cosmically vain main, Muluzi could not come to terms with the fact that the end of his second term was approaching and that Malawi’s constitution forbade him from seeking a third.
Deciding that his country could not manage without his leadership, Muluzi resolved to rewrite the constitution to expunge term limits and allow him to seek re-election. But this gambit failed when Malawi’s parliament admirably refused to pass the necessary amendments.
Muluzi’s “plan B” was to install a pliant and malleable successor – and his eye fell on the studious, technocratic figure of Mutharika. Lacking a power base and viewed primarily as an academic economist, he seemed to fit the bill as a president whom the canny Muluzi could control from behind the scenes.
Accordingly, Mutharika was elected president in May 2004 with the blessing of his predecessor. But Muluzi’s gamble failed in spectacular fashion. Mutharika denounced his patron for trying to be a “back seat driver”, accused Muluzi of corruption and allowed him to be harassed and briefly jailed.
Mutharika walked out of the United Democratic Front, which Muluzi still led, and set up his own Democratic Progressive Party.
Many Malawians despised Muluzi and quietly cheered these displays of independence by his determined successor. Mutharika’s first term as president was generally successful: he managed to increase Malawi’s agricultural output by dramatically improving the provision of seed, tools and fertiliser. This ended Malawi’s dependence on food aid and restored the country’s self-sufficiency, even allowing a surplus for export.
Buoyed by this achievement, Mutharika won re-election for a second term in 2008. Free of the shadow of his predecessor and intoxicated by the acclaim that his agricultural policy had brought, Mutharika’s autocratic and eccentric streak began to show through.
Dissatisfied with Vice-President Banda for her independence, he installed his own brother, Peter, as foreign minister and groomed him for the succession. In a fit of pique last year, Mutharika briefly sacked his entire cabinet and took all their portfolios for himself. Although most ministers were reappointed, this episode showed his liking for keeping his colleagues permanently on edge.
When Mutharika suffered a cardiac arrest in Lilongwe on April 5, his government had no idea who would take over the presidency. Would it be his legal successor, Joyce Banda, or the usurper-in-waiting, Peter Mutharika?
Although Mutharika probably died instantly, his demise was not officially confirmed for two days while his colleagues worked out what to do and the inevitable backroom intrigue took place. During this time, the president’s inert body was flown to a South African hospital, where officials kept up the pretence that he was undergoing treatment.
Britain, America and the African Union all made clear that constitutional proprieties must be observed – and Banda was confirmed as the new president after this unseemly interval.
Bingu wa Mutharika married, first, Ethel Zvauya, a Zimbabwean who predeceased him in 2007. He then married his minister of tourism, Callista Chimombo, in 2010. Mutharika is survived by his second wife and by four children from his first marriage.
Bingu wa Mutharika, born February 24 1934, died April 5 2012
