Poor of Malawi paying for Banda's generosity to Scots

THREE prominent Edinburgh institutions have benefited considerably as

a result of cash donations from one of the poorest countries in the

world.

Dr Hastings Banda, life president of Malawi, who was disowned and

condemned at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in May, has

been extraordinarily generous to the city where he once studied.

Together, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, the Royal College of Surgeons and

the Canongate Kirk have received nearly #500,000 over the last 15 years.

The Queen attends the Canongate and Prince Philip is patron of the

college.

Dr Banda, whose record on political persecution and human rights abuse

is one of the very few issues that unites all political parties in

Edinburgh, was feted during a private visit to the city last October.

He was accompanied by his own security men, some of whom, The Herald

understands, were armed, and a large media retinue. Details of the visit

have been shrouded in secrecy, except in Malawi where images of the

great leader being honoured in Scotland were given wide publicity.

The President attended a service at the Canongate where he made a

donation to its 300th anniversary appeal and was also the guest at a

reception it organised at Edinburgh Castle on October 29. General Sir

Michael Gow, chairman of the appeal, is a former governor of the castle.

The Church of Scotland had severe reservations about whether the

Moderator and a former Moderator should attend the reception, which they

eventually did. It did not wish to do anything to prejudice the work of

its sister Church in Malawi but did not want to be seen to be giving

endorsement to the regime.

The Rev. Dr Chris Wigglesworth, general secretary of the Kirk's board

of world mission and unity, said: ''Quite frankly, I feel it was a

mistake to be represented at such an official level, particularly when

we found out later how much it was misused and manipulated by the

official media in Malawi. Banda was manipulating the Church of

Scotland.''

The Rev. Charles Robertson, minister of the Canongate Kirk, said the

President, who had attended the church on previous visits, made his

contribution in the context of the usual Sunday appeal from the pulpit.

He declined to say how much it was.

The minister said the reception at the castle was a private

celebration of Dr Banda's ordination into the eldership 50 years

earlier. ''It had nothing to do with money or contributions or anything

of that kind,'' he said.

Not invited, however, was the Rev. Dr Fergus Macpherson, whose father

and the Kirk session at Guthrie Memorial Church in Easter Road actually

ordained him in 1941.

Many fell under Banda's spell as a brilliant and passionate doctor but

later fell out with an elderly despot who would brook no criticism. Yet

there was a Dr Jekyll before Mr Hyde.

He had already qualified in the US but came to Scotland to gain the

licentiate of the three medical and surgical colleges to practise in

colonial Africa.

Dr Macpherson, who has not seen the President in 15 years, said:

''What has happened is a supreme tragedy.

''Banda was a dear friend to me personally and loved my parents. He

was a man who endeared himself to the folk in his elder's district. When

he practised in the slums of Liverpool he paid the rent again and again

for people threatened with eviction.

''He was a man who lived ascetically, who set aside money to establish

a fund for the training of African students whose colonial governments

denied them assistance.''

That self-denying modesty was not so evident when Dr Banda returned to

Edinburgh as head of state in 1977. He visited the infirmary where he

had trained and gave #64,000, the largest single donation Lothian Health

Board had received. Most was used to provide a geriatric day room and

double glazing but #5500 was retained to refurbish the infirmary chapel.

The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, better known for the

quality of food and wine at its dinners than the poverty of its fellows,

was the next to benefit.

Its principal relationship with Malawi in recent years has been as a

recipient of money from Dr Banda, whose considerable family stake in the

country's economy includes large tobacco interests.

In 1982 Dr Banda gave #350,000 towards the college's #1.5m public

appeal and he duly inaugurated the new postgraduate residence in Hill

Place.

The college could not have heaped more honours on Dr Banda, first

awarding him an honorary fellowship for ''his interest and constructive

steps in the development of a health service and good hospital

environment in Malawi'', then the president's gold medal last autumn

when he signed an agreement on assistance from the college for the new

medical school in the University of Malawi.

Others would disagree with the college's assessment. Zambia, like

Malawi achieved independence in 1964, and despite receiving less aid

from Britain, set up its medical school within three years.

Many Malawian doctors who train overseas do no return. Almost half the

country's health care is provided by the Churches. The Kirk's damning

report referred to seriously inadequate health care plagued by desperate

shortages of resources.

''Malawi has virtually become a police state. It has many problems . .

. continuing violation of human rights in the form of detention without

trial, systematic restriction of freedom of expression and association,

and government monopoly of the mass media, a climate officially labelled

'peace and calm' which is actually one of repression and fear . . .''

The college says it would be improper for it to adopt a political

stance since its responsibilities ''are solely concerned with

professional matters''.

It has resisted efforts by Amnesty International to use its influence

to intervene on behalf of political detainees, even the country's only

neurosurgeon, George Mtafu, who was locked up without trial for two

years.

His plight was highlighted in a letter to the British Medical Journal

in February 1990 by a colleague, Dr Paul Reeve.

Contacted by The Herald in Vanuatu, Dr Reeve said: ''I am surprised at

the award of a gold medal. Banda is a very rich man. There is a crop

inspection every year and compulsory donations are collected and given

as a personal gift to the President so the people of Malawi are coerced

into giving donations which the President can use to add an extension to

a library.

''I think it is highly inappropriate that any donations should have

been made by the President to a royal college in the UK when there are

all the problems in Malawi itself. When I was there we were having

adults admitted with starvation. There was just not enough to eat.''

There is at least agreement between the college and its critics that

medical help to Malawi should continue, irrespective of who is in power.

In response to Herald inquiries, the college issued a statement which

referred to a visit in March by its president and honorary secretary.

''They had the opportunity to meet a large number of medical and

nursing staff and were struck by the high morale that was of an order

quite different to that in some of the adjacent countries. Indeed, the

apparent peace and well-being within Malawi contrasted amazingly with

the murderous chaos which is so much part of the scene in adjacent

Mozambique,'' it said.