When Good Presidents Go Bad: The Lessons of Malawi -- Kristin Palitza, TimeMalawi's president Bingu wa Mutharika's campaigns against poverty and corruption once made him the darling of the international donor community, and two years ago won him reelection with 65% of the vote. Today, the tides have turned. Today, in the eyes of many of his own people, Mutharika has become an autocratic ruler who lost their trust.
Last month, thousands of Malawians marched to stop human rights abuses and corruption, and to protest increasing poverty, in the first anti-government demonstrations since the landlocked southern African country the size of Pennsylvania became a democracy in 1994. The authorities responded with a violent crackdown, in which 19 people were killed and 275 arrested. Since then, civil society leaders have been harassed, the president having warned them on state television, "I'll go after you! Even if you hide in holes I'll smoke you out!" Malawians vowed to take to the streets again on August 17 but postponed the demonstrations after a court injunction was issued against them.
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My Comment: Malawi is another African case of good intentions and popular support ending with an authoritarian government, corruption, the failure of human rights, and widespread suffering.