The election currently underway in Malawi perfectly illustrates the generational battle in African politics.

Peter Mutharika, vying for a second and final term as President, has a record of achievement to show voters.

He’s brought down inflation this past five years from 14% to 9%.

He is promising the people of one Africa’s poorest countries that Malawi is going  the way of Singapore or Malaysia.

This is somewhat hyperbolic given that more than half the nearly 19-million Malawians live under the poverty line.

Food shortages dog daily life and the 11% of the population with electricity suffer frequent power outages.

Mutharika’s image has been further dented by his having to return a $200 000 campaign donation from a businessman implicated in a $3-million scam involving the contract for supplying food to the police force.

There are seven faces on the presidential ballot paper competing for the votes of seven million electors.

Mutharika’s main rival is his former hand-picked  vice president Saulos Chilima who broke with him last year when it became clear he was running for a second term.

The incumbent, who is a former law professor, is 78 years old.

His sister-in-law Callista, widow of former President Bingu Wa Mutharika, is among those who have advised him that he has passed his sell-by date.

This is a telling argument with more than half of the electorate younger than 35 years.

Former telecoms executive Chilima is 46.

The third frontrunner is former Lazarus Chakwera who ran second to Mutharika in 2014.

He has revived Hastings Banda’s Malawi Congress  Party  and secured the endorsement of former President Joyce Banda. Chakwera is 64.

Age has been a determining factor in a number of recent African political contests.

In South Africa, Julius Malema and Mmusi Maimane, both 38, made much of the fact they were running against 66-year-old Cyril Ramaphosa.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, 74, is going to extraordinary and unconstitutional lengths  to ward off the challenge of Pop-singer-turned MP Bobi Wine, who is 37.

Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa, 76, had his work cut keeping 41-year-old Nelson Chamisa at bay.

Two African presidents have fallen to popular protest this year.

In Sudan, Omar Al Bashir is 75.

Algeria’s Abdelaziz Bouteflika is 82. 

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And if  South Sudan’s  power-sharing government delayed by a further six months does not materialize, the R14,5 billion deal with South Africa could evaporate.

Minister in the Presidency Jeff  Radebe was desperate to get the oil deal with South Sudan signed before tomorrow’s elections.

Source in the industry are wondering: why the rush?

Since independence eight years ago, South Sudan has signed only one other oil deal.

Almost all of the 180 000 barrels a day being pumped from from the third largest oil reserves in Sub Sahara Africa goes straight to China and Malaysia.

Way down the queue, South Africa will benefit only if South Sudan  makes new discoveries.

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Work done so far has increased production by 12 000 barrels a day. This increase could reach 70 000 barrels a day by the end of the year.

China, which has the biggest stake in South Sudan’s oil, is joined by Malaysia and India in fixing broken oil wells in the country devastated by a civil war that broke out two years after it got independence from Sudan in 2011.

Interestingly, Sudan is also helping with repair.

It lost the bulk of its oil production with the departure of South Sudan. 

But it’s still the only export route route for South Sudan’s black gold.

So it has a vested interest in keeping the oil flowing to Port Sudan

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Deputy Director General for Asia and the Middle East at the Department of International Relations, Anil Sooklal says the countries have a population the size of the European Union which has South Africa’s largest trading partner.

Ambassador Anikl Sooklal was speaking at a  seminar at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation organized to mark the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations with Malasia, the Phillipines, Thailand and Vietnam.

Sooklal says South Africa’s political ties with all four countries are very strong. People to people relations are growing. Yet economic links remain moderate.

“Are we using our relations to best effect and with enough energy. I don’t think so,” he said

He says economic relations have to be improved for the good of the country and region.

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Singaporeans engaged in mourning their founding leader have vast differences of opinion about Lee Kwan Yew’s premiership.

It is common cause that he is a towering figure of post-colonial Asia who left the city state much better off than it would have been without his 30-years at the helm.

Lee died of pneumonia early this morning, aged 91, having been on life support for some time

Iron-willed, sharp-tongued and quick-witted he devoted his life to transforming Singapore from a swampy, backwater port to one of the wealthiest societies on the planet.

Lee achieved this in a manner that would be envied by any would-be authoritarian . He denied his compatriots personal freedoms and muzzled their media.

The Cambridge trained lawyer born the fourth generation of a Chinese family in Singapore believed if his nation-building project was to succeed there was no alternative to absolute rule.

He admired the models of Japan – even though he narrowly escaped execution by Japanese soldiers occupying Singapore in the Second World War – and Britain.

When Malayasia expelled Singapore, Lee was clearly heartbroken.

He feared Singapore would not survive and was in tears when he made the public announcement.

Tapping into the national fear of communism, he promulgated draconian laws to underpin his unquestioned leadership.

Singaporeans, and visitors, knew full well they would pay fines or even suffer corporal punishment for falling foul of these.

He told his people that he was holding a hatchet that he was not afraid of wielding.

Prioritising development and investment, he achieved what is generally accepted as an economic miracle through the successful partnership of state funding and private investment , turning Singapore from a colonial entrepot into an international financial hub.

When I met him at the Commonwealth Heads of Government summit in Melbourne 24 years ago, his counterparts were preoccupied with apartheid in South Africa.

He was entirely focused on extolling the values of thrift, hard work and discipline – what he called Asian values – over the liberalisation being advocated in the West.

Lee remained active even after stepping down.

He spoke passionately and eloquently about his concerns about Singapore’s falling birth rate as he did about China’s economic advancement and expansion.

This article first appeared on the website www.jjcornish.com

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