MALAWI'S OPPOSITION ACTIONS WORRISOME AND MISGUIDED

As they undermine the national budget.

Peter Qeko Jere

The current behaviour of the opposition parties in parliament is worrisome, dangerous, selfish, unparliamentary, and unchristian and is so geared to not only undermine government but also punish the poor people in the villages. It is a well known fact that this sitting of parliament is there for MPs to discuss the budget and pass it. This is the budget for all Malawians including the opposition themselves. They all need this budget after all they need this budget because without this budget, parliament itself will not be able to meet and MPs will not access the K15,000 they get per day or K105,000 per week or again K420,000 per month as allowances during the sitting.

However Malawians were on Monday shocked to hear and see that the Speaker of the National Assembly Hon. Chimango adjourned the house prematurely. During the evening parliamentary TVM broadcast, it was more shocking to hear Hon John Tembo proposing that the house should not discuss the budget until the section 65 issue is resolved. UDF’s Ntafu seconded Tembo by saying that it was wrong for government to exert pressure on the speaker through court injunction. As if this was not enough, the opposition forced parliament to adjourn because of section 65 issue.

Now when we look critically at what is happening in this august house this time, one sees that our honorable MPs from opposition have lost direction, focus and the very reason why they are in that house this time around. They seem not to know what they are doing and mixed up completely. They have forgotten that they are representing the people in their various constituencies. In other words they are entrusted by the poor to come to parliament and speak the minds of their people. Funny and surprisingly enough, the opposition have taken a different direction because they care less about those who voted for them because to them, section 65 is more important than the budget. This means that they don’t mind about the lives of the people but section 65 which is unfortunate.

This sitting of parliament is for budget and nothing else. Malawians sent these hourable MPs into parliament to discuss this budget because this is what the poor in the villages and towns need. In this budget we have roads, hospitals, subsidized fertilizer and schools, civil servant salaries to mention but a few. This budget is about poverty alleviation and uplifting the lives of the poor, the very people who voted these MPs into parliament. Having said this, it is with pain seeing people like John Tembo saying that the house should discuss section 65 first and not the budget. It is worrisome that John Tembo who was once a Finance Minister can have the nerve to tell the august house that section 65 needs to be discussed first and not the budget. Tembo needed to be the first person in this August house to understand what the budget is all about. Infact Tembo needed to school all his opposition MPs on issues surrounding the budget because this is the very lifeline of the Malawians. Playing games with the budget is playing around with people’s emotions and expectation which can be dangerous sometimes.

In the same line of thought, what is the relationship between section 65 and the budget? What is it that the poor in the constituencies need right now? A brief survey that I conducted revealed that about 96.4% Malawians need the budget while 2% want clarity on section 65 and 1.6 are not sure of anything.

This strange behavior and action by the opposition in the august house is questionable and reveals the following:

Firstly is Jealosy-nsanje. This is because Tembo and the opposition know that God is blessing Dr. Bingu Wamthalika’s administration and they can stop it. The opposition should know that no created human being is able to stop God’s blessing flowing when its season is come. In this regard, we as a nation are in a season where God is releasing His supernatural blessings upon the Wamthalika’s administration which include good rains, restored economy to mention but a few. This is because every leadership has its own special blessings the flow of which depends on how connected it is to God.

Secondly is selfishness. There is selfishness of the highest order being exercised by opposition members of parliament this time around. They are selfish because they don’t want to discuss the budget while at the same time they pocket K15000 per day, K105000 per week and K420000 per month as allowances during parliament sitting. Now they want to accumulate this money and deny poor Malawians access to the budget. What do you call this situation where MPs are behaving this way and telling Malawians that they have nothing to do with the budget but section 65?

Thirdly is Uncaring spirit. This uncaring spirit manifested itself in parliament this week when opposition MPs demonstrated to the nation that they are in the house to serve their political party’s and their leaders interests. They work as a team to achieve the dreams of their masters and not those who voted for them in the villages. By agreeing that the budget needed to wait the verdict of section 65, the opposition demonstrated to the Malawi people that they don’t care about the needy of those who voted for them. They have demonstrated that they don’t want their people to progress economically, politically and socially.