Dialogue off rails

Spokesperson for civil society organisations (CSOs) in the dialogue with government, Voice Mhone, said on Friday the group will meet and map the way forward in light of the Public Affairs Committee (PAC) meeting.

Said Mhone: “We have to meet to map the way forward. We have not reflected on that [resolutions] because PAC meeting finished yesterday in the afternoon. Some members of the dialogue team were part of that meeting. So, really we cannot comment anything as to what can be the way forward.”

Asked if PAC pre-empted the dialogue, Mhone said: “Not really but the PAC meeting was just yesterday and we haven’t yet reflected on that. It is too early to comment.”

Chairman of the Presidential Contact and Dialogue Group, retired Archbishop Bernard Malango, said there is a meeting between the two sides on Monday and advised Mhone to indicate whether he would attend before money is spent in vain.

“What I know is that we are meeting on Monday and if Mhone is not prepared, let him contact Richard Dictus of the UNDP,” said Malango.

UNDP is facilitating the dialogue between government and the CSOs.

UNDP country representative Richard Dictus did not answer his phone on Friday when we wanted his comment on the way forward for the talks in view of the PAC meeting.

PAC secretary general Imran Shareef said on Friday that the interim resolutions of the meeting will not be presented to President Bingu wa Mutharika immediately but after some meetings with its stakeholders.

“There shall be several meetings to follow with our stakeholders before the next conference because the issues raised during the conference were voices of the people. Then there will be dialogue with government after the meetings,” said Shareef in an interview.

Asked whether government saw merit in PAC’s meeting, government spokesperson Patricia Kaliati said government would respond after receiving and reading PAC’s communique.

Some of the resolutions at the PAC meeting are asking the President to resign within 60 days and call for a referendum.

PAC is a civil society interfaith body made up of the main Protestant, Catholic and Muslim faith groups in Malawi.

Mutharika set up a dialogue team to help solve the country’s challenges which include shortage of forex, fuel and bad governance. This was after police gunned down 20 people during the July 20 2011 demonstrations across the country.

The CSOs threatened to dump the dialogue by March 28 2012 because of slow progress attributed to  government side.