Cabinet quota upsets Malawi Muslims
Sidik Mia
Malawi Muslims are disappointed by their poor representation in the new cabinet, saying this undermines religious balance in the southern African country while experts see this as a wake-up call for Muslims.
“There is a total under-representation of Muslims,” Alhaj Yusuf Kanyamula, Chairman of the umbrella Muslim Association of Malawi (MAM), told IslamOnline.net.
President Bingu wa Mutharika unveiled on June 17, his new 43-member cabinet featuring only two Muslims from his ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
The rest of the ministers are Christians from various denominations.
Mutharika, a Catholic who won a second five-year term on May 19, dropped several Muslim ministers from the new lineup.
During his first term, he had six Muslim ministers in addition to then Vice President Dr Cassim Chilumpha.
The umbrella MAM described Muslims’ representation in the new government as the lowest since the introduction of pluralistic politics in the country in 1994.
But one of the two Muslim ministers maintained that appointments to the cabinet were based on qualifications not religion.
“I am a Malawian, just like all my Christian counterparts,” Sidik Mia, who has been moved from the Irrigation and Water Development Ministry to the National Defense Ministry, told IOL.
“The President has appointed me due to my capability. My religion has not influenced the President to hire my services.”
“While we appreciate that ministers are not appointed based on religious considerations, but the aspect of balance based on religion cannot be completely undermined,” insisted Kanyamula, the MAM leader.
In Malawi, officially a secular state, Islam is the second largest faith after Christianity.
According to state figures, Muslims constitute 12 percent of the population, though Muslim organizations put the figure at nearly 40 percent.
Wake Up
Rafique Hajat, executive director of the Institute for Policy Interaction (IPI), was not surprised with the appointment of only two Muslims to the new cabinet.
He believes this makes a natural outcome of the low engagement of Muslims in the political sphere.
“It is now becoming a norm in Malawi that if one is not a Member of Parliament, it is not possible to be appointed a minister,” explained Hajat, a Muslim.
“Therefore, if we had a good number of Muslims in parliament, the number of Muslims could probably have been more than this.”
During the May 19 general elections,
Only 16 Muslims made it to the country’s National Assembly during the May’s general elections.
Hajat believes the new cabinet should serve as a wakeup call to Muslims in the country.
“We need to take part in politics if we are to be fully represented at cabinet level,” said head of the human rights and good governance think tank.
“We can’t be appointed ministers while we are seated in our homes.”–IOL
Tagged with: Bingu, Cabinet, Chilumpha, Hajat, Muslim Association of Malawi, Sidik Mia, Yusuf Kanyamula
pple who think zachipembezo kuzibweletsa muboma go hang.if u prefer lots of muslim then go to saudi arabia.malawi is christian state
Iwe ‘thako limodzi’ chimenecho ndiye chamba..
asilamu khalani chete musatisokose!!!mwaiwala inu pa 15 may usiku onse munakhalira kulalata ndi ma shehe anu pa radio islam kumalalata kuti nthawi yakwanam yoti bingu achoke pa mpando chifukwa salemekeza asilamu!mwaiwala munakhalira kumema asilamu aziyimba ma ffoni otukwanan ndi kunyoza bingu while extolling tembo as the incoming president who would champion the cause of muslims in malawi?mwaiwala?mwaiwala mmmene ma shehe anu anamutukwanira caller wina yemwe ananena kuti iyeyo ndi msilamu koma akvotera bingu?!mwagwa nayo!!kusowa timing!!mudukira puludzu yemweyo adzakupatseni ma udindo!!ha,ha,ha!kagwereni kutali!
If you talk of the votes we really voted for Tembo and we wonder how could ndizakunyenya nyenya win,
Anabera bwanji there was no one to celebrate the victory? All Christians miyendo mwamba a Joyce Banda tichite chitukuko kumeneko.
Achawa nthawi yanu inatha, and don’t think that Malawi will ever be under Sharia laws as of Somalia and other parts of the Middle East
This should be a lesson to all Muslims.We realy voted for Tembo.We knew already that Bingu is antIslam.Lots of Muslims were there in Malawi Congress Paty during Kamuzu.So we knew that he will accomodate us.If you ask your silly questions.Things do change anything can happen in 2014.Islam don’t worry.Bingu is very against Muslims.Malawi is a cercular country not pure Christianity.lets be updated on this please!!!There is Ralph Jooma in Mangohi Monkeybay who won as DPP,why didn’t Bingu pick him.Jooma is able tham Felton Mulli.than Billy Kaunda.Bingu have hated Machinga and Mangochi for no apparent reason yet they played a role for his presidency in 2004.He was busy decampaigning Muslims in the name of Bakili.It is really paining.Kanyamula and Hajat have realised this too late.If Maotcha Banda called all Muslims Alqaeda ,did Bingu do anything to stop that childish speach???Timvadi Kuwawa panyengo ino.How many muslim were removed from their positions during Bingu’s reign??many it really showed that Bingu is an enemy to Muslims.
Che yuzuvu kanyamula, you are wasting your time for nothing. Malawi is Malawi and not an arab country with your arabic mentality. You send your students to Sudan, Somalia just to study this fake religion of suicide bombers and when they finish their studies they don’t come back because they know they have no one to kill as suicide bombers in Malawi. Teach your students modern science, send them to UK, USA or Germany or else azingokhala phwiii in Khartoum washing buses atsikana ndiye agundika kutsegula myendotu in sudan, egypt,lybia kwa aluya inu thinking that they have lent something, wake up boy kanyamula!!