17th - 18th February this year the Public Affairs Committee (PAC) conducted an "all inclusive consultation" on the state of affairs of the country. PAC is an inter-religious body, in which leaders of almost all mainline religions are represented, notably Christian and Muslim leaders. PAC has existed for a number of years, and was quite important and instrumental during the transition from dictatorship to democracy during the early '90s. This year's consultation was the fifth since it started some years back. The previous consultation was in the build-up for the 2014 elections, in which they challenged politicians on their integrity and seriousness in wanting to serve the people of Malawi.
This time around the main topics were "governance" and "economy" as the country is faced with serious challenges. A sizable delegation of government ministers, opposition politicians, representatives of religious groups, civil society organizations, labour unions, chambers of commerce, academia and media were invited. A total of about 230 delegates participated. I had been invited as an observer, and enjoyed the learning experience. Most of the consultation was constructive in the sense that critical issues were raised and discussed. Opposition politicians tried, however to hijack the occasion by entering into a blame game and demanding that the President should step down within 30 days. A number of recommendations were made through group works, and additional recommendations were brought to the plenary floor.
The PAC board processed all the recommendations and came up with 21 observations and "actionable recommendations". They asked for an audience with the President to present these recommendations. Finally, Thursday this last week they were given audience for what was named a round table. The whole meeting was broadcast live on the government (read: ruling party) controlled TV station, Malawi Broadcasting Corporation.
The Chair of PAC presented the recommendations, and the President commented upon them. It was quite instructive how the President controlled the whole meeting, but allowed issues to be brought out. He used his power to have the last word, in which he tried to leave behind the impression that: "My government is doing quite well, even after having heard your recommendations. We might look at certain issues here and there, but overall I believe we are on track!"
In concluding the round-table, an agreement was reached that "technical committees" should look deeper into the recommendations and see what might be done.
What did the media get out of this open consultation? Here are some first page headlines: "APM (Arthur Peter Mutharika, the President) refueses to forfeit powers", "PAC encounter with the President ended in deadlock", "Fury over silent APM quit text: Govt hits at PAC for inserting resignation call in written report".
PAC made efforts to collect diverse views and recommendations from a variety of stakeholders, while media pegged opinions on PAC. They want to instigate a conflict between the government and PAC. While PAC had processed the recommendations and developed their own set of priority recommendations, both government, opposition politicians and media attack PAC from different angles for opinions expressed by the participants of the consultation. It is not always easy to make efforts to be a loudspeaker for the "voice of the people"! There is a saying:" Don't shoot the pianist / messenger!" This saying is certainly relevant for PAC in their efforts to be an instrument of dialogue, and act as a "prophetic voice
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