Elliot Gerson
Executive Vice President, Aspen Institute
The Huffington Post
January 19, 2013
Joyce Banda, president of Malawi since April, is already a beacon of
hope for that desperately poor country, but also for good governance
across a continent long plagued by its opposite. Banda has captured the
world's attention in short order -- and not just by revealing how she
believes she barely escaped assassination by her predecessor, the late
Bingu wa Mutharika, or those close to him. President Mutharika had made
his brother foreign minister and was grooming him to replace him. Warned
by her security guards, Banda switched cars only to see the car she was
to be in hit by a large truck.
But much more than the intrigue of a failed assassination -- or her
gender in a male-dominated culture (and continent) -- has brought her
the world's attention.
Shortly after assuming office -- in a country where 40 percent of the
people live on less than $1 a day and the majority can't afford even a
bicycle -- Banda declared she would sell the presidential jet and a
fleet of 60 Mercedes limousines. When she travels abroad, she flies
commercially, even though the air service to Lilongwe is so bad she can
get to few places without spending the night in Johannesburg.
"Malawi is half across the river, and the other bank is within reach," said International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde,
when she visited Malawi in early January -- one of only two nations on
her tour. She praised Banda for moving to devalue Malawi's currency --
despite knowing she would face huge domestic political problems. The new
president's resolve drew the admiration of donors and the attention of
investors, most of them long wary of Malawi. Under the crushing rule of
Banda's predecessors, the poor country was getting only more desperate
and corrupt.
Mutharika had expelled the British Ambassador after Wikileaks
reported that he had told the British Foreign Office in London that the
president was "becoming ever more autocratic and intolerant." Banda
welcomed the British back.
In July, it was Malawi's turn to host the African Union summit, a
great honor for a nation that received only 760 tourists in all of 2012.
But Banda set one condition. Saying she didn't care if Malawi lost the
summit, Banda refused to welcome Sudan's leader, Omar al-Bashir, who has
been indicted and sought by the International Criminal Court in The
Hague for crimes against humanity. The summit was moved to Ethiopia.
Al-Bashir attended. Banda stayed home.
She also took little time to purge government leaders of questionable
integrity, including a police chief accused of responsibility for the
death of 19 people in anti-government riots. Mutharika's brother was
sacked too. Banda could have attempted to prosecute him and get him out
of her way politically; many felt she had cause for his involvement in a
conspiracy to deny her the office of president, but she thought it
better for Malawian democracy for her not to.
Banda said she was going to reverse
Malawi's legal ban on homosexuals, but was able to do so for only a
brief 10-day period in November; sadly, she has so far been unable to
take on furious opposition led by religious leaders, but her declaration
was courageous, and the time could come.
Banda recently told South African journalist and Sunday Times
(London) correspondent RW Johnson, "Under Bingu I was marginalized,
scandalized, humiliated and he even tried to kill me. So, having been a
victim of dictatorship myself I want to do all I can to protect human
rights. Human rights and good governance are vital to a democratic
society. We have to strengthen our institutions -- and that means I've
had to sack a lot of people who were undermining them through corruption
or nepotism... I've set up a special monitoring unit within the
presidency to watch out for corruption. We also have to ensure that aid
is properly spent."
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