US embassy cable - 05LILONGWE579

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 LILONGWE 000579 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR AF/S. INR/AA 
MCC FOR KEVIN SABA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/08/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, KDEM, KMCA, MI, Political, President 
SUBJECT: PRESIDENT MUTHARIKA'S LEADERSHIP STYLE 
 
REF: LILONGWE 457 
 
Classified By: CDA David Gilmour for reasons 1.5 b and d 
 
Confidential - entire text. 
 
SIPDIS 
 
Introduction 
------------ 
 
1. Despite a year of solid success in imposing discipline on 
government spending and launching a strong anti-corruption 
campaign, President Mutharika has been frustrated in his 
reform agenda by an increasingly militant opposition and a 
weak civil service.  A series of negative media stories has 
plagued Mutharika, caused in part by his administration's 
poor public communication.  Both successes and failures can 
be attributed to the president's leadership style.  This 
cable provides some impressions of that leadership, based on 
frequent observance of the president in meetings and at 
public events, and from conversations with his family 
members, senior advisors, business leaders, and other 
diplomats. 
 
Lonely at the Top 
----------------- 
 
2. Every president faces challenges in getting honest and 
accurate advice and in motivating subordinates to carry out 
his or her agenda.  For President Mutharika, this has been 
particularly difficult.  Mutharika is a political outsider, 
having spent much of his career outside of Malawi working in 
organizations like the World Bank and COMESA.  He does not 
have firsthand knowledge of the backgrounds of key political 
players.  As one business leader told us, "He doesn't know 
who's who in the zoo."  In setting out a bold reform program, 
breaking with the party that put him in power, and pursuing 
corruption cases against many of his former cabinet 
colleagues, the president quickly made plenty of enemies. 
 
3. For all of these reasons, Mutharika is isolated, and has 
very few advisors that he can trust.  His vice president and 
several of his cabinet ministers are holdovers from the 
previous administration, and some have allegations of 
corruption hanging over their heads.  One family member 
recently told the Charge that Mutharika has virtually no one 
outside his immediate family who can give him honest 
face-to-face feedback. 
 
4. Although he has a warm personality and keen sense of 
humor, Mutharika allows the trappings of the office to make 
him appear aloof to the public and to his own ministers and 
subordinates.  He always travels in a multi-vehicle motorcade 
with a heavy security force.  His public appearances are 
always carefully staged and scripted, with throngs of singing 
and dancing women, formal speeches, and most of the cabinet 
in attendance, regardless of the nature of the event. 
Everywhere he walks in public, aides lay red carpet in 
advance of his arrival.  Everyone addresses him as "Your 
Excellency" and he carries an air of being untouchable. 
 
A Distaste for Politics 
----------------------- 
 
5. According to one of his family members, Mutharika "hates 
politics" and takes no pleasure in engaging his political 
foes.  He is a technocrat who only wants to focus on fixing 
the country's problems, particularly its economy, and would 
prefer not to be bothered with the game of politics. 
 
6. His dislike of politics contributes to an obsession that 
borders on paranoia about the political machinations of 
former president Bakili Muluzi.  The president and his family 
see Muluzi as the negative force behind most of the problems 
that have befallen the administration.  In their view, Muluzi 
uses his ill-gotten wealth to bribe MPs and journalists to 
oppose the president's policies and damage his image. 
Mutharika is absolutely convinced that Muluzi paid two 
journalists to write a story about ghosts in the presidential 
mansion that ran on the international wires in March. 
Mutharika was highly embarrassed by the story, had the 
journalists arrested and detained for two days, and is still 
demanding a public apology from them.  The president recently 
told Charge that Muluzi had assigned certain MPs to heckle 
him during his recent address to Parliament.  Mutharika and 
his family strongly believe that Muluzi destroyed the moral 
fiber of the country by facilitating corruption and 
encouraging a beggar mentality 
with international donors. 
 
7. Mutharika's lack of political acumen contributed to an 
awkward and controversial launch of his new political party 
(reftel).  He seems unable to distinguish good political 
advice from bad, and his close advisors have offered him 
plenty of the latter.  The rush to launch the new party 
following Mutharika's resignation from the UDF has yielded a 
party that has no ideological base and is simply a collection 
of personalities.  Politicians who jumped ship to join the 
president's new party were widely seen as blatant 
opportunists.  The ill-conceived formation of that party is 
the one act that has seriously damaged Mutharika's 
credibility in the eyes of ordinary Malawians. 
 
A Formal Business Style 
----------------------- 
 
8. Like most Malawians, the president is very polite and 
formal.  He prefers formal meetings to informal gatherings. 
Such meetings tend to feature much polite discourse but 
little honest debate or exchange of ideas.  Late last year 
the donor heads of mission began a series of quarterly 
meetings with him, the first two of which were very stiff and 
formal and achieved little.  Mutharika hosted the meetings in 
his ornate cabinet room, sitting on a throne adorned with 
images of lions.  In the manner of a king, he sat in the 
center of the room with his cabinet ministers on one side and 
donors seated opposite.  Needless to say, the setting did not 
encourage honest and informal dialogue.  Ministers tell us 
that cabinet meetings are the same sort of stiff affairs, and 
that they too have difficulty in communicating openly with 
the president. 
 
9. More recently, the heads of mission have sent a "troika" 
of three representatives to speak with Mutharika in a smaller 
forum, without any ministers present.  This has proven 
somewhat more successful, and the president seemed to like 
the format.  He invited all of the heads back within two 
weeks for a follow-up meeting, and made enthusiastic 
references to his discussion with the "troika." 
 
Demanding Results 
----------------- 
 
10. Perhaps because of his experience working in 
international organizations, Mutharika places a high premium 
on action and results.  He has a vision of where he wants to 
take Malawi, and he expects his ministers and civil servants 
to deliver.  This sort of accountability has been unknown in 
Malawi since the days of Hastings Banda, and many civil 
servants are struggling to cope with his demands.  Mutharika 
requires monthly progress reports from each ministry.  He has 
fired and reshuffled a number of top-level civil servants, 
which has caused no small amount of consternation among the 
government rank and file.  In a recent meeting with donor 
heads, the president complained that one of his biggest 
challenges has been to motivate the civil service to actively 
carry out his programs. 
 
11. In private meetings with ministers and subordinates, 
Mutharika tends to ask pointed questions that intimidate his 
interlocutors.  According to family members, he does not mean 
to harass his subordinates, but wants straight answers to his 
questions.  In response, his advisors tell him what they 
think he wants to hear.  One senior advisor told Charge that 
none of the ministers or senior advisors will ever give the 
president bad news. 
 
A Visionary, But Not a Great Communicator 
----------------------------------------- 
 
12. Mutharika is a man of vision, a leader who likes to look 
at the "big picture."  He often speaks of visionary ideas for 
the nation, such as major infrastructure projects, irrigation 
schemes, a new technology university, and other grand 
concepts.  He is not afraid to dream out loud and express his 
hopes for a more prosperous future for Malawi.  But when it 
comes to communicating the day-to-day business of his 
administration, the president has failed miserably. 
 
13. The administration's public communication apparatus is 
broken.  The minister of information is supposedly the 
government spokesman, but he is not part of Mutharika's inner 
circle, a fact that is often painfully clear in his public 
pronouncements.  Official proclamations come alternatively 
from the chief secretary of the presidency or the State House 
chief of staff.  Major policy initiatives are often announced 
verbally by ministers in media interviews, and are frequently 
misquoted or inaccurately reported by Malawi's poorly trained 
reporters.  The information ministry does not give regular 
media briefings, nor does it publish regular announcements. 
Its media management is entirely reactive, and it is 
constantly on the back foot in responding to negative 
stories. 
 
14. Because of this poor media management, negative stories 
that begin as rumors are allowed to grow into full-blown 
scandals before the administration is able to respond. 
Mutharika and his family attribute their negative press 
coverage to the fact that the two main national daily papers 
are owned by opposition figures, and that Muluzi is paying 
journalists to write negative stories. 
15. More effective media management could easily solve most 
of the administration's communications problems.  The Charge 
has approached ministers, senior advisors, and family members 
on numerous occasions to discuss the problem and offer 
advice.  Other donors, including the head of mission "troika" 
have discussed the issue with he president.  The Embassy's 
public affairs office is bringing a U.S. expert in September 
to conduct workshops on how to run a government press office 
with the information ministry and other government offices, 
and the UN office is working on a similar program.  Mutharika 
and his advisors seem to be aware of the problem, but so far 
have taken no concrete action to address it. 
 
Leading in the Right Direction, But Will Malawi Follow? 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
16. In spite of these problems, Mutharika is leading Malawi 
in the right direction.  For the first time in many years, 
government is acting responsibly to enforce fiscal discipline 
and the rule of law.  If successful, the effort will 
encourage the investment and long-term economic growth that 
the country so desperately needs.  Donors have responded with 
new budgetary support, and Malawi is on track to restore its 
relations with the IMF and establish a new Poverty Reduction 
and Growth Facility.  The country is an MCA Threshold Program 
participant and should be a good candidate for an eventual 
MCA Compact if reforms continue. 
 
17. Malawians cherish their new democracy, and have no desire 
to return to the days of the Banda dictatorship.  The Muluzi 
period is widely seen as a "lost decade" in which the country 
gained political freedom but slipped backward in its economic 
development.  Malawians are hopeful for positive change and 
sense that Mutharika can deliver.  The real question is 
whether Mutharika will be able to lead against entrenched 
political interests to push through meaningful and 
long-lasting reform. 
 
GILMOUR