‘Democracy Alone Is Not Enough – People Must Eat’: Bakili Muluzi Says Malawi’s Freedom Dream Remains Unfinished

Thirty-three years after Malawians voted to end one-party rule, former president Bakili Muluzi has delivered a stark message that cuts to the heart of the nation’s struggles: democracy without economic opportunity is not enough.

Reflecting on the June 14, 1993 referendum that ushered in multiparty politics, Muluzi argued that while the country won the battle for political freedoms, millions of Malawians are still trapped in poverty and waiting for the economic transformation they were promised.

“Democracy alone is not enough,” Muluzi said. “People have to eat. We have to liberalise our economy because poverty levels are very high. Our people are living in poverty, and we must change that.”

His comments amount to a sobering assessment from the man who led the movement that toppled the one-party state and defeated former president Hastings Kamuzu Banda in the landmark 1994 elections.

For Muluzi, the fight was never simply about replacing one leader with another. It was about restoring dignity, freedom of expression and basic human rights to ordinary citizens.

“When young people ask why we fought Dr Banda, I tell them it was not about fighting him personally,” he said. “It was about ending the one-party system and creating a democracy where people could speak freely.”

But even as he celebrated the gains of multiparty rule, Muluzi acknowledged that political freedom alone cannot satisfy a population struggling with unemployment, hunger and deepening economic hardship.

Looking back on his own presidency, he said poverty reduction was a central objective, pointing to initiatives such as the Malawi Social Action Fund (Masaf) and free primary education. Yet he admitted that more should have been done to improve livelihoods beyond infrastructure development.

The former president also recounted the dangers he faced while working within the ruling establishment before eventually joining the push for democratic change.

“I can only thank God that I came out alive,” he said, stressing the word “alive” as he reflected on the deaths of senior figures such as Albert Muwalo and Dick Matenje.

He revealed that after the controversial deaths of three Cabinet ministers and a Member of Parliament in the 1983 Mwanza incident, he and like-minded colleagues concluded that Malawi needed a different political system and secretly began organising an underground movement advocating democracy.

According to Muluzi, resigning from the then-ruling Malawi Congress Party in 1981 was one of the most perilous decisions of his life.

“I look back and ask myself how it all happened. It was only God who made it possible,” he said.

Muluzi also defended his decision, after taking office in 1994, to establish a commission of inquiry into the Mwanza tragedy, saying there had long been widespread belief that the victims were murdered rather than killed in an accident.

He said the inquiry was intended to uncover the truth and provide long-awaited answers to grieving families and the nation.

Recalling the climate under one-party rule, Muluzi described repeated arrests, intimidation and detention, saying he was arrested seven times in 1992 and imprisoned at Chichiri Prison for his political activities.

He also remembered how democracy activists were mocked and branded “abongololo” — millipedes — by supporters of the regime, but insisted such insults only strengthened their resolve.

The former president painted a picture of a country where political loyalty often determined access to essential services, alleging that citizens were compelled to buy ruling party membership cards and that even pregnant women were expected to obtain cards for unborn children in order to access public healthcare.

He said those experiences underscored why many Malawians risked everything to demand political reform.

More than three decades after the referendum that transformed Malawi’s political landscape, Muluzi believes the nation now faces a different challenge.

The struggle for democracy, he suggested, has largely been won. The struggle against poverty, however, is far from over.

His message was unmistakable: the true measure of democratic success is not only the right to vote or speak freely, but whether ordinary citizens can put food on the table and build secure, dignified lives.

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