![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/ntabaax.jpg\" "\\"ntabaax\\"")
<\/a>Ntaba: No third term<\/p><\/div>The spokesman for Malawi\u2019s President, Bingu Wa Mutharika, has dismissed as without merit accusations that the leader is becoming autocratic and intolerant of dissent.<\/p>\n
Mutharika has come under increasing pressure to resolve what his opponents call the country\u2019s economic crisis. Critics blame him for failing to resolve disputes with international donors, who are withholding funds to the southern African nation.<\/p>\n
But, Dr. Heatherwick Ntaba said Mutharika is not to blame for the country\u2019s current fiscal and economic challenges. His comments came after former President Bakili Muluzi said he will not be intimidated by the government\u2019s tactics following the arrest and subsequent release of his son, Atupele Muluzi, who attended a recent anti-government rally.<\/p>\n
\u201cPerhaps he is not too happy that his son had been arrested for disobeying the law. Perhaps he did not advise his son quite clearly,\u201d said Ntaba. \u201cWe are not surprised that he is blaming the government and the dictatorial tendencies he is talking about\u2026the country\u2019s successes and achievements cannot be achieved in a dictatorial setting. So, what he is saying does not hold water on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ntaba said Vice President Joyce Banda postponed a scheduled rally near the capital, Lilongwe, following a police directive. He maintains that the young Muluzi should have obeyed the police directive.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe did postpone that meeting because it was the police asking her to do that and no problems occurred there. It is the norm and she obeyed the law,\u201d said Ntaba. \u201cIf [Muluzi] had done the same thing, no problems would have arisen. So, perhaps, the former president should look at what he advised his son to do. We are told that it was the father who told him to go on with the meeting, despite police advice.\u201d<\/p>\n
The younger Muluzi, who is a lawmaker and aspiring presidential candidate for the 2014 election, was charged with inciting violence. His supporters burned down a Lilongwe police unit and destroyed cars parked near the station after they clashed with security officials at last week\u2019s anti-government rally.<\/p>\n
Ntaba said fiscal and economic challenges the country faces have nothing to do with Mutharika\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are years that countries do well economically, but there are the years when economic challenges become pronounced. That is not to say their policies have failed and that is no reason to get rid of the government,\u201d said Ntaba. \u201cThe important thing is to keep working hard, be committed to working for the government. But, going around in foreign capitals telling lies are unpatriotic and something we should move away from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Opposition groups and non-governmental organizations have often accused the government of silencing dissent by arresting opponents on trumped up charges. But, Ntaba rejects the accusations saying \u201cnobody is above the law in Malawi.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAny law abiding [citizen], if police give you some advice on the security aspect of what you want to do, you listen, and you obey. If you don\u2019t agree with what they are saying, then you go to court for the court to overrule what the police are telling you. But, you just don\u2019t go ahead taking the law into your hands and do what you want,\u201d said Ntaba.<\/p>\n
He also said recent demands that Mutharika step down following a two-day religious meeting \u201care all made up by the media.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe board of the Public Affairs Committee [PAC] has not given any formal resolution to the president. It\u2019s only the media writing what they think are the resolutions from PAC,\u201d said Ntaba.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The spokesman for Malawi\u2019s President, Bingu Wa Mutharika, has dismissed as without merit accusations that the leader is becoming autocratic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[221],"tags":[494,300,258,1914],"class_list":["post-8135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-malawi-democracy","tag-atupele-austin-muluzi","tag-bingu-wa-mutharika","tag-malawi","tag-president-bakili-muluzi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8135","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=8135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8135\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}