BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-Malawis powerful religious grouping, the Public Affairs Committee’s (PAC) 5+1 All-Inclusive stakeholder’s conference,under way in the commercial city of Blantyre, urges Malawians to stop tolerating failures if the nation is to make progress.
The call comes on the heels of the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) accusations that the religious grouping agenda is to force President Peter Mutharika to step-down becuase of increased cases of corruption in his administration.
In his opening remarks PAC’s chairperson Reverend Felix Chingota, said that the country will continue to slide downwards in terms of development because of citizens’ tendency to tolerate failure by those entrusted with power.
Reverend Chingota challenged that the religious grouping will not be forced to promote falsehood in the country.
He assured Malawians that PAC will continue with its watchdog role to proclaim the truth and hold accountable persons elected or entrusted with power.
Chingota expressed concern over the Mutharika administration’s failure to act on resolutions that delegates came up with during the fifth All-Inclusive Stakeholders Conference held last year.
“Enough is enough. We will not fold our hands because of castigations or mudslinging from other quarters or within ourselves.
“We are aware in modern times, children of darkness have become smarter than children of the light. However, truth and justice will prevail. PAC shall remain PAC,” declared Rev Chingota.
Before the start of the conference, DPP member Ken Msonda, elicited booing after he tried to change the meeting’s theme, which is titled,
“The state of governance and public trust: Reclaiming our destiny.”
Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) provided funding for the conference. Currently, heavily armed police officers are guaring Mount Soche Hotel where the conference is being held and in Blantyre Central.
The PAC conference is expected to examine the state of governance and public trust, and develop a consensus on practical interventions that would hold leaders accountable in Malawians who put them in elected offices.
The meeting will also focus on enhancing a conversation on actionable steps to be followed towards enforcing the implementation and actions on crucial issues of national concerns.
On several occasion PAC’s meetings have been highly-charged with politics, where the governing DPP and opposition parties, have shown the popensity to fight. For example at last year’s indaba, during which some participants asked President Mutharika to resign due to social-economic ills the nation was facing since the incumbent took reign of power from Joyce Banda in 2014. this did not augur well with DPP participants.
PAC is the most respected and well-known non-governmental organization in the country and also the national chapter of the World Conference on Religion and Peace (WCRP).
Public Affairs Committee is one of the powerful religious grouping whose influence on Malawi’s political scene is indisputable, which is comprise of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM), Malawi Councils of Churches (MCC), Evangelical Association of Malawi (EAM), Quadria Association of Malawi (QAM) and the Muslim Association of Malawi(MAM).
