US embassy cable - 04LILONGWE187

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 LILONGWE 000187 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/S, INR/B 
 
E.O. 12958:  DECL:  03/01/2014 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PINR, MI, Political, Defense/Security 
SUBJECT:  "FARMER" MULUZI CULTIVATES HIS POST-PRESIDENTIAL IMAGE 
 
REF:  A.  03 LILONGWE 1238 
 
-     B.  LILONGWE 146 
-     C.  LILONGWE 148 
 
CLASSIFIED BY:  AMBASSADOR STEVEN A. BROWNING. 
REASON:  1.5(B) AND (D). 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
1.  (C) I met with President Muluzi at his request on 
February 18 at his private residence in Blantyre.  We 
discussed his three-point agenda:  a) USG assistance 
in training Malawi Defense Force (MDF) officers as 
helicopter pilots; b) USG support of an HIV/AIDS 
Center he wishes to lead after he leaves government; 
and c) Malawi's backing of USG efforts in Iraq and his 
offer to send there a "token" MDF contingent.  Muluzi 
has enriched himself while President and will stay 
politically active after leaving office.  The post- 
meeting, hour-long tour of his residential compound 
and nearby maize fields was probably intended to 
burnish his image a bit and strengthen our personal 
relationship, most likely his primary goal for the 
visit.  End Summary. 
 
THE FORMAL AGENDA 
----------------- 
 
2.  (C)  Muluzi complained that he has been "grounded" 
since "all but one" of the MDF helicopter pilots are 
incapacitated with HIV/AIDS, and stated the MDF needed 
help with an accelerated officer-training program 
since 147 officers had died in the past year.  I 
explained the USG had in place a robust training 
program with the MDF and if the MDF saw helicopter 
pilot training as a high priority it should be fairly 
easy to re-order its training schedule.  (Comment:  At 
a USG-hosted reception two days later, I raised the 
President's concerns with the MDF's Chief of Training, 
Brig. Gen. Cosgrove Mituka.  He was surprised by the 
President's request, explaining that, while they were 
short of pilots, they certainly had more than one 
available.  Mituka stated that pilot training was not 
the MDF's highest priority.  Muluzi has been relying 
heavily on the MDF helicopter fleet as he travels the 
country campaigning for the May 18 elections.  It may 
be that the MDF has not been totally forthcoming with 
the President on the health of the pilot corps to 
reduce wear and tear on the fleet and on the pilots.) 
 
3.  (C)  Muluzi sketched out his plan for an HIV/AIDS 
Center.  It would be modeled after the center led by 
Nelson Mandela, leanly staffed and he would accept no 
salary.  He expected to travel around the country 
conducting seminars, visiting schools, distributing 
books, meeting with village chiefs and "headmen," 
educating them and raising public awareness about 
HIV/AIDS.  Muluzi stressed that his initial target 
audience would be the country's "polygamous village 
chiefs who are murdering young girls" with their 
widely practiced sexual initiation rites. 
 
4.  (C) Muluzi had recently won some praise for his 
remarks at the launch of Malawi's National HIV/AIDS 
Strategy during which, for the first time, he 
acknowledged he had been tested for HIV and his status 
was negative, and that AIDS was the cause of his 
brother's death three years earlier (reftel C).  Given 
his otherwise tepid anti-HIV/AIDS efforts to date, I 
asked the President why, with all the resources of the 
state at his disposal for the past 10 years, he 
planned to devote so much attention to HIV/AIDS 
awareness after he leaves office.  He explained that 
he would have "more freedom to speak out" when out of 
office.  Muluzi promised to send me a concept paper 
concerning his center. 
 
5.  (C) Iraq was the third point Muluzi raised with 
me.  He encouraged the U.S. to not "give it up" and 
asked me to pass on his "word of encouragement."  He 
offered a "token" contingent of MDF forces to join the 
coalition forces in Iraq (reftel B). 
 
THE SHOW 
-------- 
 
6.  (C) Muluzi completed his agenda after 30 minutes 
and asked me how much time I had.  Hearing that my 
time was his, he drove me (Note:  10 years of being 
chauffeured in multi-vehicle motorcades have 
definitely eroded his driving skills.) to a nearby 
field to view his 40 hectares of seed maize.  While he 
professed to be a farmer at heart and eager to return 
to simpler civilian life, his inability to answer 
simple questions about his crop, like when it was 
planted, argue that "Muluzi the Farmer" is more image 
than reality.  That perception was strengthened when 
he rolled out his personal photographer to capture on 
film the President and U.S. Ambassador, both in dark 
business suits, walking through muddy maize fields, a 
scene vaguely reminiscent of President Nixon walking 
the southern California beaches in suit and wing tips. 
 
7.  (C)  Back at his private estate in suburban 
Blantyre, which he calls his village, he took great 
pride in showing me his kitchen maize field, vegetable 
garden, chickens, goats, turkeys, cement fish pond and 
mushroom shed.  Clearly unaware of the irony of his 
words, the Head of State and one of the country's 
richest men expressed amazement that there was hunger 
in Malawi.  "There is no reason for food insecurity in 
this country," he said, sweeping his arms over the 
hilltop vista of his livestock and gardens. 
 
8.  (C)  Comment:  Having failed in his attempt to 
amend the Constitution to allow him to run for a third 
term, Muluzi is making a place for himself once he 
leaves office.  His self-engineered election to the 
chairmanship of the ruling UDF party and his selection 
of 70-year-old Bingu Wa Mutharika as the UDF's 
Presidential candidate, a man widely acknowledged to 
be a lackluster campaigner with no political base of 
his own and thus heavily dependent on Muluzi, signal 
that he plans to play an activist post-Presidential 
role.  I was approached several months ago by a senior 
member of Muluzi's administration with a request that 
the USG find something meaningful to occupy Muluzi and 
get him out of the country after he left office so as 
to "keep him out of mischief" (reftel A).  While 
discussing his proposed HIV/AIDS Center I asked Muluzi 
if he also would be willing to consider a prestigious 
position in Europe or the US for a few months after he 
left office.  He allowed that he could only be out of 
the country for two weeks at a time, claiming he had 
too many business interests to manage. 
 
9.  (C)  Muluzi has never hesitated to telephone me 
when he has issues to discuss, and his three formal 
agenda items could all have been easily addressed over 
the phone.  During the drive and tour of his estate, I 
tried to engage Muluzi in issues I wanted to discuss 
with him.  He would have none of it.  Two days before 
receiving the call to meet Muluzi the country's 
leading paper published an interview with me in which 
I delivered a strong anti-corruption message.  I 
assumed Muluzi summoned me to express his displeasure 
with my public criticism of his administration.  My 
sense is that the anti-corruption interview did prompt 
the meeting, but that his strategy was to embrace and 
befriend rather than admonish.  Muluzi is a charming 
and engaging politician, and widely considered to have 
greatly enriched himself at public expense while 
President.  Mindful of the predicament Zambia's former 
President Chiluba faces, Muluzi may be looking to 
enlarge his circle of admirers and engage in a bit of 
pre-departure legacy building.  He may also be working 
to ensure the continuation of some of his diplomatic 
relationships once he leaves publicly elected office. 
 
BROWNING