MALAWI: Bishops Call for Transformative Leadership

Catholic
Bishops in Malawi have warned the citizens to look for Visionary Leaders at all
levels in the coming general election if they really want to transform their
country.
       
The
pastoral letter, which issued on Sunday 1st, 2013 and signed by all the
Catholic Bishops, observed that there was limited adherence to the rule of law
and limited compliance to the practice of the separation of powers and lapses
in the promotion and safeguarding of people’s rights.
The
Bishops also noted continued occurrences of witch-hunting and arbitrary arrests
of government critics without thorough investigation or recourse to natural
justice and efforts to side-line and remove political competitions from the
electoral race.
The
church leaders further denounced the abuse of power by parties in government
with much interest in centralized power than in creating an enabling
environment for citizen’s participation in governance and development processes
that affect the future and destiny of the nation.
They
also noted that there is a limited responsiveness, accountability and weak
public goods delivery by government systems and structures. “To this extent,
it is not surprising that we are hearing of voices labeling our democratization
project as a change without transformation and a democracy without democrats,”
reads the pastoral letter.
The
Bishops also criticized the politicization of development initiatives and
business opportunities as they noted that Malawi continues to lag behind most
African countries in terms of development. They asked the nation to make some amendment in
the manner things were done and wished that the original vision of independence
is recovered.
The
statement further said that with the next year’s general election, celebration
of Golden Jubilee for independence and Tripartite Elections scheduled for May,
the country should take it as Golden opportunity to re-examine the national
conscience, recover nation’s original vision, redefine their destiny and
forging ahead is of paramount importance in strengthening the destiny of the
country. The Bishops said that issues of quality leadership, citizen
participation, national development agenda and national values are of major
concern to them and therefore they are given a proper attention.

 
Source: AMECEA Social
Communications Office

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