{"id":9708,"date":"2012-04-06T15:54:26","date_gmt":"2012-04-06T13:54:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/04\/obituary-mutharika-malawis-flawed-economist-in-chief\/"},"modified":"2012-04-06T15:54:26","modified_gmt":"2012-04-06T13:54:26","slug":"obituary-mutharika-malawis-flawed-economist-in-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/obituary-mutharika-malawis-flawed-economist-in-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"OBITUARY-Mutharika, Malawi’s flawed "economist-in-chief""},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Mabvuto Banda<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

LILONGWE, April 6<\/span> (Reuters) – Malawi’s Bingu wa Mutharika
\nliked to portray himself as the all-knowing
\n“economist-in-chief”, presiding over an unprecedented run of
\nboom years in the destitute southern African state.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead, he is more likely to be remembered as an
\nold-fashioned African autocrat who picked a disastrous fight
\nwith foreign donors and ordered a crackdown on anti-government
\nprotesters in which 20 people were killed – a watershed moment
\nfor the peace-loving “Warm Heart of Africa”.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The mixture of relief and jubilation that greeted the
\n78-year-old’s death on Thursday is a far cry from when he first
\ncame to power in 2004.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Then, Malawi’s 13 million people hoped Mutharika would use
\nhis experience as a World Bank technocrat and regional trade
\nexpert to stamp out corruption and raise the fortunes of his
\nlandlocked and AIDS-blighted country.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Educated in law and economics at home and in India and the
\nUnited States, he had the free-market credentials to get the
\nlargely agricultural economy moving – and for most of his eight
\nyears in power, it worked.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Due mainly to a donor-funded fertiliser subsidy scheme and
\nsome decent rains, Malawi’s maize harvests boomed, pushing
\nannual economic growth to 10 percent, one of the highest rates
\nin the world.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

But even during the good times, the former British colony
\nremained dangerously dependent on one product – tobacco, which
\naccounted for up to 80 percent of foreign exchange earnings.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

As a run of poor harvests and even poorer sales hit home,
\nMalawi’s currency, the kwacha, came under severe pressure
\nfrom businesses desperate for dollars to buy the food, fuel and
\nmedicines that could not be produced at home.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mabvuto Banda LILONGWE, April 6 (Reuters) – Malawi’s Bingu wa Mutharika liked to portray himself as the all-knowing “economist-in-chief”, presiding over an unprecedented run of boom years in the destitute southern African state. Instead, he is more likely to be remembered as an old-fashioned African autocrat who picked a disastrous fight with foreign donors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-9708","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9708\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}