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afrol News, 28 January - A defeat in Parliament in July last year did not stop President Bakili Muluzi and his followers to bid for a third presidential term. As a new vote is planned, Malawian authorities get harsher on the opposition. Parliamentarians are hitting each other, demonstrations are violently dispersed and a Minister has been sacked. Malawi's Parliament yesterday started an emergency debate over a proposed change to the constitution to let President Muluzi contest elections, which are scheduled for 2004. The conclusion of the debate was however postponed indefinitely today, as angry crowds protested outside the Lilongwe parliament building. Also within Parliament, there were reports of violence as a repeated defeat for the third-term defenders was conceived as inevitable. The ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) is spearheading the third-term campaign and is coming close to convincing the extra 28 opposition MPs it needs to achieve a two-thirds majority to change the constitution. President Muluzi has banned all protests around the issue. In a 4 July 2002 parliamentary vote, the pro-Muluzi campaign fell only three votes short of obtaining the two-thirds majority needed. Both opposition parties - the Alliance for Democracy (Aford) and the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) - had been split on the issue and the amendment. Observers agreed that opposition MPs had accepted money to vote the way they did. President Muluzi however publicly accepted defeat and said that he held no grudges against those who opposed his third term, calling for forgiveness and reconciliation. As the 2004 elections approach, however, the renewed campaign to assure a third term for Mr Muluzi - or "lifetime presidency", as the opposition calls it - is growing in force. No forgiveness is granted for alternative views. President Muluzi today sacked Commerce and Industry Minister Peter Kaleso, who is opposed to the third-term campaign. According to a broadcast in government-controlled radio, Mr Muluzi's close ally Paul Maulidi was to take over the Ministry. No official reason for the decision was given, however. According to the news agency Reuters, ex-Minister Kaleso said he had "indicated to everybody I would vote 'no'." But the ruling party "never anticipated there would be dissenters in the UDF...They were saying voting 'yes' would be [good] for my personal safety and that of my family. But I told them that is exactly what we fought against - not to fear or toe a certain line blindly," he was quoted. The large civil society opposition in Malawi against Mr Muluzi's third term bases its arguments on the same reasoning. Removing the 10 years limit on the Presidency would open for "dictatorship", as shown by the undemocratic practices to crush the opposition against the "Life Presidency Bill" (term used by 'The Chronicle'). Just as in the months before the July 2002 vote, the authorities are increasing their repression of protest against the third term campaigners - which are the only voices to be heard in government-controlled media. Yesterday, some 2,000 Malawians had marched in Malawi's economic capital, Blantyre, before the protest was violently broken up by police. The demonstration was organised by civil society organisations and was supported by the Church. Armed police however fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators and at least 15 persons were detained for organising the protest. Penelope Paliani-Kamanga, deputy chief reporter for Malawi's oldest daily, the 'Daily Times', was shot in the knee by a rubber bullet by Blantyre anti-riot police. She and several other journalists were covering the demonstrations when police fired at her. "The police fired at us and as I tried to run away a rubber bullet hit a wall, ricocheted and hit me on the knee. I laid in agony and could not move for some minutes", said Mrs Kamanga. The independent media also increasingly note the hostility from the UDF. Earlier this month, the independent broadcaster MIJ 90.3 FM was censored by the authorities for "acting as a mouthpiece" of an unnamed political party. The station was obliged to "desist from broadcasting any political message." Also independent editors and journalists increasingly receive personal threats. International protest over the UDF pressure to impose a third term bill has also been substantial. Leading donor nations, including the US, have warned against a development undermining democracy. Denmark even has withdrawn all aid to Malawi. Humanitarian agencies are surprised by government's dedication to introduce the bill while millions of Malawians currently are facing starvation. Also an assumed majority of Malawians fear that their country might slip into the same dictatorship as under Lifetime President Hastings Kamuzu Banda. Mr Banda's regime had left Malawi the most repressed and poorest country in Southern Africa when he was overthrown in 1993. Mr Banda's top aide, John Tembo, and his niece and Banda's "permanent mistress" Cecilia Kadzamira - which were proven to be the real rulers of Malawi as the President grew old and senile - however were left untouched by President Muluzi and still have influential positions in the country. Mr Tembo is now supporting President Muluzi's third-term campaign from his position as the leader of the MCP party. Malawi's internationally celebrated writer, Jack Mapanje, in a recent book warns that Mr Tembo is the real driving force behind the third-term campaign. Mr Tembo again wants to use the President to carry out his undemocratic policies in another's name, Mr Mapanje says, warning against repeating history in this fragile democracy called Malawi.
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