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afrol News, 25 March - "The human rights situation is generally declining and rights are muzzled" as a result of the debate on whether Malawi's constitution should be changed to allow three presidential terms, according to local rights groups. Ollen Mwalubunju, Executive Director of Malawi's Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR), told afrol News that, while the battle for President Bakili Muluzi's re-election in 2004 seems to be lost, the dispute about whether to enable him to stand for a third term seems to have caused grave harms to the country's human rights situation. Asked whether he considers the pro-third term campaign a threat to democracy in Malawi, Mr Mwalubunju hesitates. "It is a threat to the consolidation of democracy we have been building the last ten years," he corrects. In those few years since lifetime dictator Hastings Banda was removed, democracy and human rights have had little time to institutionalise. - We have a constitution that is based on values of human rights and democracy, Mr Mwalubunju explains. But the pro-third term campaign means that "we are now testing these standards." The campaigners "have proposals that may bring us back to where we came from." This particularly includes Banda's idea of life presidency. While President Muluzi never publicly has stated his interest in a third term in office, the issue has polarised Malawi during the last two years. The ruling UDF party has launched a harsh campaign to promote an amendment to the constitution, opening for unlimited or at least three presidential terms. Protesters have been silenced and many opposition parliamentarians were reportedly bought to vote for an amendment, which needs a two thirds majority to pass. Two attempts have so far failed to win such a majority. - Also the debate surrounding those issues has been a test to democracy, Mr Mwalubunju holds, saying it is "undermining" the standards defined by the constitution and leading to "attacks on human rights." There had been attacks on the right of expression, opinion, property, and protection from violence. "The way it has been handled by the parties has not been responsible," he emphasises. Concerning human rights, there were "some visible effects of the third term campaigns," Mr Mwalubunju says. The campaigns had "exposed some of the elements of lack of political will to promote human rights" during the years after the Banda dictatorship. - The third term debate also challenges human rights, Mr Mwalubunju adds. He says most Malawians are still "ignorant of their rights," and that the real issue is the need empowerment and education. People needed to "know what action to take when their rights are threatened." - Because of that, abuse by the state and police has increased, says Mr Mwalubunju, who holds that police "has not been reformed since the Banda dictatorship." People were "afraid of the police" as police had not changed its image during the last decade. "Police still lives in the past. We need to reform it to respect democracy," he adds. During the third term dispute, it had also been exposed that there existed a "lack of separation between the duties and powers of state institutions." Mr Mwalubunju complains "the police save the party, not Malawians." He mentions cases where party functionaries had been giving orders at police stations. - The problems have become more visible, the human rights activist holds. In a wider aspect, the rule of law had also suffered gravely during the dispute. As police was disrespecting the constitution, private property and the courts of law, so were many Malawians. This had resulted in more insecurity.
Concluding on the effects of the third term dispute in Malawi, Mr
Mwalubunju says "the human rights situation is generally declining and
rights are muzzled." Even if he doesn't think the third term campaigners
have any chance of victory, Malawi seemed "to be going back to were we
came from."
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