By: Peter Qeko Jere
The news that government will continue spending until 2009 has been warmly welcomed by the entire peace loving and patriotic Malawians apart from the few paranoid and directionless individuals who seem not to be true sons of this great nation. It is pleasing to note that though some ill minded individuals sit down strategizing and planning bad things on how to make life miserable for the innocent poor Malawians, government has resolved to continue spending. This is a positive step and a sign of maturity and love for the poor. This is also a sign of showing that there comes a time in life when critical decision to save lives has to be taken against all odds. The opposition are currently advocating for section 65 because they have lost direction. They are playing politics with their eyes closed and don’t just know where they are going at the moment. This is because noone is his sober mind can put section 65 above the national budget. Minds that advocate for section 65 than the budget this time around should be suffering from a certain unknown infection and sickness or something. I think research need to be done as to why people can think abnormally like this. This is abnormal thinking because even someone with mental disorder knows that the budget is money and food for the nation. The fact that some MPs and their leaders are advocating for section 65 means that something is terribly wrong in their way of thinking that they (though mature) can even not put priorities right for the nation. We are happy however that when opposition parliamentarians can not put priorities right for the nation, government is able to step in and do the right thing for the sake of the poor.
As MPs mainly from MCP (UDF team B) and UDF continues to play games with the budget, it is proper for government to be responsible because it not accountable to the MPs but the people of Malawi. Infact section 30 (2) and (4) of our constitution empowers government to do everything under its power to continue spending for as long as issues of developments are undermined by parliament.
Section 30 (2) of the constitution states; “The state shall take all necessary measures for the realization of the right to development”
Also section 30 (4) reads; “The State has a responsibility to respect the right to development and to justify its policies in accordance with this responsibility”
When it comes to development which is basically the budget, government does not necessarily need to bow down to the demand of parliament but use parliament as a formality and not a requirement because this section of the constitution empowers it to spend money on issues of development. Development does not come from opposition and that is why they don’t want the budget passed. Opposition in Malawi are not development oriented hence to them section 65 becomes a priority.
The one problem with MPs in Malawi today is that they think that their party boss demands and agendas represents the needs of the people which by and large is not the case at all in this 21st century Malawi because the Malawi of today is different. The Malawi of today is so much different and has its own way of doing things. Malawians main need is food and development which is in the budget and not section 65 as advocated by UDF and MCP. Malawians know that the budget is about food and fertilizer, medicine and other developments projects while at the same time the people in the villages have no idea of what section 65 is all about and how beneficial this is to their every day lives.
Now the UDF and MCP leaders and their lieutenants’ action refusing to pass the budget mean that they have abandoned and slapped the poor on their face, the very people who voted for them.
Both UDF and MCP leadership continue to advocate the implementation of section 65 because to they don’t have the intellectual capacity to comprehend and grasp the very definition of what poverty means to majority Malawians. MCP and UDF leaders are rich people and don’t go hungry and stay in nice houses hence the definition of poverty doesn’t exist to them at all. To them everything is about self enrichment. Due to this, the budget language and need for it to be passed is not a priority to them. Now such people who care less about the budget and welfare of the poor are dangerous and should not be given any space in the political life of the country. Such leaders who only dream of how much they will corruptly take out of the poors tax payers money are horrible leaders. Section 65 is for few MCP and UDF gurus for their own selfish end and not Malawians in general.
As the war of the budget continues in Malawi, UDF and MCP should be ready for a heavy showdown next year because this is the second time that they are have acted in this very strange babish way and are playing games with the lives of the poor in the villages whose only hope is the budget. Those who ignore to pass the budget should know that the poor next year shall fight back through the power of the pen (vote) and not the gun.
Now as regard this whole madness in parliament, there are few things that we need to point out.
Firstly is that in the house of parliament MPs represents the views of the constituency and in this case, there is enough evidence to show and support that these MPs stopped representing the poor in their villages and they are today representing the view , desires and aspirations of John Tembo and Bakili Muluzi. To show and demonstrate that these MPs get to parliament to represent their people and constituency, they are not called by their names (Mr. Banda or Mbewe) but Honorable member for Chiradzulu north or Mzimba central. These members need to know and understand why their names die natural death when they get into the August House. They need to know that in parliament they don’t have the right to think or speak political games but the needs and desires of their poor people.
Secondly is that since an MP is someone who is called to represent the constituency in the August house, we can as well argue that it is a waste of time for government to continue deliberating with MPs (mainly UDF and MCP) because these are not MP at all but group of confused misguided people who represent the views and aspiration of their party leaders. They are the yes!! bwanas because for a long time now UDF and MCP parliamentarians have proved that they don’t have brains to independently and seriously think about the needs of their people in their various constituencies. This is because they many times are bulldozed into doing some things that by the end of the day do not benefit their constituencies but their leaders. It is politically dangerous for a politician to be bulldozed into something not beneficial to the people who elected him into office. Thus we argue that UDF and MCP parliamentarians have lost political direction and do not know what they are doing politically and the outcome of it at the end. Parliamentarians need to realize that today’s politics involve too much using of brains and they have to think like men and women fit to be in the August house. We believe that the August house is suppose to be a place where people should demonstrate that they have brains and can think and not sink.
Thirdly is that opposition MPs should know that their leaders (Tembo and Muluzi) are not very democratic. Yea they go up and down advocating that they know and understand democracy but they don’t walk the talk. True democrats walk the talk. There is enough evidence to show and support that the MCP and UDF leadership have demonstrated that there are not able and capable of walking the democratic talk in Malawi. This is because both of them continue to mistake themselves that they are the only capable people to lead their parties. To them its like there are the only hero figures and warlords (Czar) of these parties. For instance, why should Bakili Muluzi think of coming back into active politics if the party had some potential individuals to lead it? We need to realize that to be a democrat is to give space to others so that them too can develop their leadership potentials. Just like the previous UDF team gave him space to develop and demonstrate his leadership skills Muluzi would have done likewise by giving space to others so that them too can come in and lead the party. Thus Muluzi’s behaviour and action of getting back into politics is undemocratic and shows that he does not respect and recognizes the fact that Malawi has many capable men and women who if given chance could rule the country even better than. As for MCP, we all know how undemocratic things are in there because this is a confused house. MCP MPs in essence don’t have opportunity to think and handle parliamentary things independently. They only make decision based on what John Tembo advises them. This is because the MCP leadership just like the UDF counterpart have taken their parties as personal properties hence their MPs are like working tenants who have no rights to even think and act independently. Its like a taboo to think independently in these parties and anyone doing this is castigated and marked as a rebel.
These leaders are very undemocratic because they continue to bulldoze the thinking process of their parliamentarians by forcing them not to support and pass the budget. The most surprising thing is that even those MPs who went through the University doors and are well informed, have become more useless and brainless human beings because their brains have paralyzed and they cant think independently any more. They have become worse than someone who never saw or went through university. We normally expect university education to help people properly develop independent thinking and able to make serious decision. But its frightening that university education for some has made them more useless in their constituencies their thought process has been damaged, paralyzed and are bulldozed by the power of money.
Having said this, MPs should wake up and come to their senses and get back the power of independent thinking so that they can more effective. MPs should realize that John Tembo and Muluzi are too weak to overpower the political dynamism in their constituencies. What MPs need to do is to create a strong bond with their constituency because that is where their power is. Too much bonding with the leadership will not help them when the time of judgement comes next year.
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