Freedom won; Freedom lost - April 3, 2011

April 3, 2011
Freedom won. Freedoms Lost?
This is a summary of what I have learned from reading the newspapers here in Malawi and talking with Malawians about the issues and history. I will attempt to report situations without injecting my opinion but I suspect that my bias will show nevertheless. This view and any opinions expressed are mine and not those of the US Government or the Fulbright commission.
In 1964 Malawi gained independence from Britain and Dr. Kamuzu Banda was elected as the first President. In the course of his many terms he became a dictator outlawing other political parties and limiting free speech. According to some Malawians I have spoken to people opposed to the president also disappeared, were beaten, or impoverished. People were and to some extent still are afraid to speak out against the ruling party. Kamuzu Banda developed many important institutions including the University, the hospital in Lilongwe, and the first parliament building. Many structures and institutions still bear his name even though his rule was repudiated in 1994 when the multiparty system was instituted by popular demand and Muluzi was elected president. Newspaper articles from that time and people I have spoken to describe the beginning of his term as a breath of freedom. Ordinary people were excited to at last have a voice in the political affairs of the Nation and to right to speak freely in support or opposition to the ruling party. Muluzi served 2 terms which is all the Constitution allows. In 2004 Dr. Ngwathe, Professor Bingu wa Mutharika was elected. [Ngwathe is a title bestowed on the President by the Traditional leaders and the closest translation is great leader]. During his first term Mutharika was by all reports a good leader but when he was re-elected in 2008 he began reducing freedoms and grooming his brother to replace him. The closer he comes to the time when he must leave office the more autocratic he has become. Muluzi was indicted for fraud and continues to fight for health care to which as former President he is entitled. In the last several months two actions supported by President Mutharika have been at the center of the news and of the concern of the international community. The first is a section of the Penal Code which in direct contradiction to the Constitution empowers a cabinet minister to ban any publication considered detrimental to the people and he need not give a reason. The press and the international community are up in arms about this and continue to express concern although the President insists that this statue does not limit press freedom. Several donors have rescinded funds because of their concern about the law as well as another law criminalizing homosexuality. The US which had promised billions to improve the Malawi power system withheld funds because of this law until Friday when they agreed to release them after apparently being reassured that democratic values would be upheld. In addition the Malawi Electoral Commission who should be working on local and district leader elections scheduled for this month has been suspended for misappropriation of funds. (The funds involved seem a lot less than those another department is accused of misappropriating but that department is still operating so it seems that more is going on here than just misappropriating). The Electoral commission was told on Friday they could go back to work – so perhaps that is related to the release of US funds but I don’t know that is the case.
The most important issue for academics is the apparent loss of academic freedom. Before I describe the events it is important to understand that the President of Malawi serves as both the Chancellor of the University and the Chief of Police. Also the University of Malawi consists of 5 constituent colleges – Chancellor College (Humanities and Liberal Arts), Polytechnic (Engineering and Science), Bunda College (Agriculture), College of Medicine, and Kamuzu College of Nursing. Chancellor, the College of Medicine and Polytechnic are headquartered in Blantyre 4 hours south while Kamuzu is in Lilongwe and Bunda is 36km southwest of Lilongwe.
On February 12, a lecturer in Political Sciences at Chancellor College reportedly told the students that situations like the petrol crisis in Malawi were similar to situations that led to the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. A student in the class reported the statement to the Inspector General [IG] (the working chief of police for Malawi). The lecturer was taken to the police station and questioned by the IG in person. The IG asserted that he interrogated the lecturer out of concern for national security. Although the IG insists that the lecturer was not under arrest, the lecturer says he was coerced into going. The President publicly support the IG’s actions. The faculty council at Chancellor demanded that the IG and the President apologize and assure faculty of their guarantee of academic freedom. Both the President and IG refused to apologize and insist that they have not infringed on academic freedom. Section 34 of the Malawian constitution reads: “every person shall have the right to freedom of opinion, including the right to hold opinions without interference to hold, receive, and impart opinions”. As a signatory of the Kampala Declaration on Intellectual Freedom and Social Responsibility (1990), the country agreed that “no African intellectual shall in any be persecuted, harassed or intimidated for reasons only of his or her intellectual work, opinions, gender, nationality or ethnicity”. Those who support the IG s actions describe him as “having a little chat” with the lecturer who they point out was not arrested. I have great difficulty seeing anyone summoned by the country’s chief law enforcement officer for a chat at a police station as not under coercion or threat.
After several attempts to negotiate the situation, the faculty at Chancellor went on strike and refused to teach until an apology was issued and assurance of their academic freedom given. In the meantime the faculty member who was questioned has left Malawi and gone back to Norway where he was educated and where according the Norwegians I have talked to (one of whom was his classmate) he is well respected and will quickly find work. Several people have said he will be a great loss to Chancellor College and to the country.
In early March the lecturers at Polytechnic College joined their colleagues in the strike and in late March some of the faculty at Bunda College also joined. In the meantime the students were all still on these campuses without much to do and they joined the protests by the faculty. The feelings at the college of nursing are mixed. The non nurses in the department are very concerned and even outraged. Some of the nursing faculty are concerned but many said “we don’t know what really happened” and “we have to continue to take care of patients”. When I asked them if they worried about their own safety if they said something that the government didn’t like no one expressed concern. However, there is a lot of talk about the issue in Chichewa, some of it impassioned, and I don’t think I know what they really think. Nevertheless, the faculty of nursing and the faculty of medicine have not joined the protest nor have they shown any public support for the other lecturers.
On March 22 the University of Malawi Council gave the faculty on strike an ultimatum to return to work within 48 hours. The council then issued forms titled the “resumption of teaching” to be signed as a commitment to return to work. On March 24th the striking faculty at Chancellor and Polytechnic burned the forms “because they were illegal and an extension of the contempt of court conduct”. The University Council then went to court seeking an injunction to require the striking lecturers to go back to work. The President and the IG in the meantime continued to refuse to assure academic freedom and to insist it was not infringed upon. Neither made any attempts at mediation and the situation escalated.
This week the leaders of the boycott were fired and the participating lecturers suspended. Some of the students who had joined in demonstrations were arrested, however I also heard that some of the students arrested weren’t doing anything but were just on campus when the police came. On Friday all of the students on the striking campuses were sent home. (This may have been precipitated by the reported death of a student from Polytechnic on Thursday following the use of tear gas on the campus.) The faculty at Polytechnic went into “negotiations” and the Chancellor faculty remained on strike. Nothing has been solved and several legal briefs have been filed. For six weeks the government of Malawi has been paying for the students’ tuition and maintenance and the lecturers salaries and there has been no teaching or learning at 2 colleges. Academic freedom is certainly in jeopardy and so is education. Malawi cannot afford to waste resources – fiscal or human in this way but there seems to be no accounting for the stubbornness of officials or faculty who feel threatened. I am sure this situation will continue to unfold and I will keep you all updated.