{"id":3291,"date":"2011-07-06T14:19:19","date_gmt":"2011-07-06T14:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/?p=3291"},"modified":"2011-07-06T14:19:19","modified_gmt":"2011-07-06T14:19:19","slug":"mutharika-wrecks-malawi-african-dictator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/2011\/07\/06\/mutharika-wrecks-malawi-african-dictator\/","title":{"rendered":"Mutharika Wrecks Malawi | African Dictator"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3292\" title=\"malawi_bingu002\" src=\"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/malawi_bingu002.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" \/>Bingu wa Mutharika\u2019s Malawi is sinking fast. In the past few days, the embattled dictator has been forced to introduce a series of \u201causterity measures\u201d in a last-minute attempt to save the country\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n<p>Amongst other steps, Mutharika has:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Frozen job appointments in Public Service despite a government policy to create 12,000 new jobs- there\u2019s simply no money for salaries.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Banned foreign travel- government officials now have to get authorization from the highest level in order to travel. Last week, the advance party to the AU summit in Equatorial Guinea was recalled, and Mutharika did not attend.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Attempted to adjust tax on basic food items.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Rejected advice from the International Monetary Fund that he should devalue Malawi\u2019s currency, the Kwacha.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Mutharika\u2019s measures and announcements have come in the aftermath of his failed international relations- for example, he expelled Great Britain\u2019s envoy to Malawi after he (Mutharika) was labeled as \u201cincreasingly autocratic and intolerant of criticism\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The expulsion led to the withdrawal of funds by donor agencies, and the reluctance of others to assist in bailing out the tyrant\u2019s regime.<\/p>\n<p>Apart from food and fuel shortages, Malawi has had problems with maize crops it had intended to export, as well as a massive 72% decline in tobacco earnings.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Presidential Budget Up, Vice President\u2019s Down<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Some other odd moves by the President included reducing his vice-president\u2019s budget by 60%, whilst increasing his own presidential budget by 11%. This is said to be in retaliation for Vice President Joyce Banda\u2019s outspoken criticism of the leader.<\/p>\n<p>The sad fact of the matter is that Mutharika\u2019s regime is collapsing, and, instead of listening to the wisdom of allies and neighbours, he has, Mugabe-style, shut off the tiny country from potential aid. Malawians will be suffering at the receiving end of his foolishness.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bingu wa Mutharika\u2019s Malawi is sinking fast. In the past few days, the embattled dictator has been forced to introduce [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[274],"tags":[135,220,759,258],"class_list":["post-3291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dpp-3","tag-ngwazi-bingu-wa-mutharika","tag-democracy","tag-dictator","tag-malawi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}