Malawi govt blasts newspaper comment: Kaliati says Daily Times editorial ‘sensational’

Malawi government has ballistic on the country’s flagship newspaper, Daily Times for their editorial comment published on 13 May 2016 titled ‘’When Government Creates Poverty,’’ calling it sensational and misleading.

According to a statement issued by  Minister of Information Patricia Kalia  released on Friday, government said the paper fronts and stunts as chief sdvisor to government with reckless abandon to fact and detail.

Reads the statement in part: “The Comment advances the misleading view that Malawi governments, both previous and current, have not been doing anything to advance living standards of Malawians. As the writer fails to see changes that have taken place in the country, the article fallaciously concludes that Malawian leadership has been committed to ‘development and democracy in rhetoric only’.

“The Comment further adds that ‘In practice, it [leadership] has baffled and tortured the masses by being unpredictable, unprincipled, and obsessed with personal gain, leaving the bulk of the population in dire poverty. The Ministry would like to place these issues in the right perspective: that our brothers and sisters met a terrible and unforeseen tragedy in Mozambique is not in dispute.

“We do not understand why any Malawian would decide to climb on a hill and celebrate tragedy when we are mourning the loss of our fellow citizens, before they are even buried. Government thinks the writer of the Comment has crossed the marks of decency and respect. It has decided to trivialise the mourning Malawians.”

The statement further added that the comment was not only misplaced but outright insensitive and, actually an offence to Malawian moral beliefs. That Malawi is part of the global, cross border trade, movements and migration from time immemorial is foreign to the writer of the commentator of the tragedy, said the government spokesperson.

“It is unknown to the writer that people, as long as they live on this planet have to travel from country to country for various reasons. This is not limited to Malawi alone. We have many foreign nationals present in Malawi today seeking similar opportunities.

“It is therefore irresponsible for the writer to claim, under whatever guise, that when citizens go outside Malawi seeking opportunities is equivalent to Government failing its citizens. In case the writer is living on some other planet, we wish to remind them a few milestones the current administration of His Excellency Prof. Arthur Peter Mutharika has introduced aimed at empowering its citizens,” it stated.

In the statement, Government pointed out Skills Development through Community Colleges, Infrastructure Development Programmes, introduction of new tertiary institutions, Trade and Investment Initiatives through events like the Malawi International Trade Forum, zero-aid budget among others as some of the citizen empowering initiatives introduced by Mutharika Government to change the lives of Malawians.