Abstract
When their president went missing, Malawians used a humorous hashtag to force his return.
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These tongue-in-cheek posts on Twitter and Facebook began after Malawi’s president, Peter Mutharika, failed to return from the 71st UN General Assembly, which ended on 26 September 2016. The president and his entourage had left the country on 15 September but as weeks passed and the government refused to elaborate on what exactly the president was still doing in the USA – journalists were told he was running the country via Skype – citizens and reporters used the hashtag #BringBackMutharika to draw international media attention to his unexplained absence and to press for transparency from his administration.
When the president finally returned to Malawi from the USA a month later, on 16 October, apparently healthy, it remained unclear why he had disappeared. But the ability to mount the social media campaign to get Mutharika back and openly challenge Malawi’s system of government is a sign that the country has come some way since the days of Hastings Kamuzu Banda’s 30-year virtual dictatorship.
A riff on the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag used in Nigeria, #BringBackMutharika put the government on the back foot, exposing shortcomings in its PR operation and revealing an arrogant mindset more suited to the era before the advent of multi-party democracy in Malawi, a time when the government would not have had to explain itself. In a commentary, Nyasa Times, a privately owned media outlet, pointed out that the confusion reaffirmed “the fact that we have a system whose one foot is in autocracy and another in democracy.”
Among the funny memes and mocking “missing president” posters on the hashtag, there were tones of frustration and concern. Rumours abounded that the 76-year-old president was in hospital. They were able to gain traction because the last time a Malawian president’s whereabouts were unknown and the state house was obfuscating, he actually was dead.
Peter Mutharika’s brother, Bingu Mutharika, died in office in 2012, but the state house deliberately misled the press and public for two days while efforts were made for an extra-constitutional arrangement for his succession. Eventually, however, the constitution was upheld and the then vice president Joyce Banda assumed the office before her defeat to Peter Mutharika in the 2014 elections.
The trust lost by the government in the eyes of the public during those tense couple of days has not yet been restored and #BringBackMutharika was about more than an unexplained absence; it was also about accountability and governance at a time when people are facing considerable hardship. Malawians face a dire economic situation characterised by poor basic service provision in areas such as housing and education, and exacerbated by regular electricity blackouts and severe water shortages. Opposition politicians put the cost for the president’s US trip at an estimated $1.7 million.
Malawi’s independent media has given voice to people’s frustrations, drawing parallels between the government press office’s lies in 2012 and its ongoing resistance to transparency. The press releases from the government about the president’s mysterious absence betrayed irritation at being forced to explain the president’s whereabouts, condemning the social media activism and warning journalists and the public against speculating about the president’s health.
Malawi’s president Peter Mutharika of the Democratic Progressive Party waves to supporters in Blantyre
CREDIT: Eldson Chagara/Reuters
When he finally returned to Malawi from the USA, a journalist from the Zodiak Broadcasting Station, an independent media outlet, was arrested while filming the motorcade. His arrest and those of human rights activists staging peaceful protests against the water and electricity crisis in the country were condemned in a joint statement by civil society organisations The Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation and Centre for Development of People, which urged the government “to stop rolling back the gains made in media freedom in the country.”
Author Kiri Kankhwende
CREDIT: Wasi Daniju
The situation for privately owned independent media in Malawi has become increasingly embattled. In 2010 and 2011, the late President Bingu Mutharika drew international condemnation for his increasingly illiberal actions towards the press, including the intimidation and arrests of journalists who criticised his administration, the introduction of legislation to restrict press freedom and threats to close down privately owned media houses. Reporters Without Borders had noted an improvement in press freedom in Malawi when he was first elected but voiced concern in later years. Under his brother, although the country improved its ranking from 73rd in the world for press freedom to 59th in 2015, the country has slid back down the scale this year, to 66th place.
The figures are instructive but what they do not portray is the creeping chill of government intimidation, which is felt in press conferences that are sometimes packed with the president’s supporters, who create a scene more akin to a political rally. The press conference after Mutharika’s return from the USA was no different and journalists claimed harassment.
It was issues such as this which prompted privately owned media houses and press freedom organisations to issue the Mount Soche Declaration on 8 November, in which they threatened to boycott government press conferences unless press freedom is guaranteed. They also pledged to seek legal redress for violations of the constitutional right to freedom of the press.
Malawi’s young democracy has withstood some crucial tests since 1994, while the press have shown that they are increasingly emboldened to hold the government to account. As the #BringBackMutharika episode shows, Malawians want answers from their government.
