Quayle Prods African Nation on Democratic Reforms : Malawi: But the country’s ‘life president’ and aides appear to shrug off the vice president’s scolding.

Vice President Dan Quayle toured one of Africa’s unrepentant dictatorships Wednesday, warmly greeting its 94-year-old “life president” but privately warning government officials that their country could be left behind in the worldwide rush toward democracy.

The powerful men behind President Hastings Kamuzu Banda, a close ally of the United States, appeared not to take the American vice president’s words to heart.

“They say they think they have a democratic system now, and they are convinced the public is happy with the situation,” said an official traveling with Quayle.

Banda’s aides also told Quayle that the country has a constitution and that Banda’s “life president” position is an exception. And they contended that vigorous democracy is practiced within the country’s sole legal party, the official said.

Malawi was the most sensitive diplomatic mission on Quayle’s five-nation tour of Africa. The country of 9 million people in southeastern Africa, the sixth-poorest nation in the world, has long been accused of human rights abuses, including jailing political opponents and clamping down on free expression.

“We will continue to urge, in the strongest terms, respect for democracy and the rule of law,” Quayle said in a five-question press conference at the end of his visit. “No one doubts where the United States stands.” But Quayle declined to describe the government’s reaction to his pressure.

Everywhere Quayle went Wednesday were signs that Banda was using the honor of an American vice presidential visit to gild his own image. Dozens of miles of paved roads around Blantyre were lined with cheering Malawians, many holding large photographs of Banda and Quayle and waving U.S. and Malawian flags.

Asked if his visit had given the impression that Washington strongly supports Malawi’s government, Quayle said the main purpose of his trip is to show “the friendship that the people of the United States have for the people of Malawi.”

“I think they will see by my visiting . . . our concern and interest in helping the people of Malawi,” Quayle said. He arrived late Wednesday in Namibia and concludes his African trip Friday in the Ivory Coast, in West Africa.

Quayle praised the Malawian government for opening its arms to refugees from the civil war in neighboring Mozambique. Nearly 1 million Mozambicans have fled to Malawi in the last three years, and Quayle and his wife, Marilyn, visited a sprawling camp that is home to 48,000 refugees.

They brought two truckloads of school materials, books and gardening implements that American businesses had donated, and he told the refugees that he prayed the war in Mozambique would soon end.

In the camp’s market, the Quayles stopped to buy two scarves from merchant Alberto Carlos, paying him the asking price of nine kwacha, or about $3.35.

But the sale didn’t make much of an impression on Carlos. Asked later if he knew who his customers were, he shrugged. “All we know is that they are visitors.”

The Quayles were accompanied to Malawi by Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis W. Sullivan.

Quayle first raised the issue of multi-party democracy at a private breakfast meeting in the capital, Lilongwe, with senior government officials, including John Tembo, Banda’s closest aide and widely considered to be Banda’s successor.

Despite his human rights record, Banda remains a beloved figure in Malawi. He had returned to the country in 1958, after 40 years of studying and practicing medicine in the United States and Britain, to unite the people in their struggle for independence from British colonizers. He was in prison for two years and, upon his release, his party swept to power.

Banda has consistently bucked the trend of Soviet-supported governments in Africa. He, alone among his colleagues in Africa, established formal diplomatic ties with South Africa. And he has been a consistent supporter of the United States in the United Nations.

“Malawians respect the man, like George Washington,” said a Western diplomat. “But now they’d like him to step aside.”