Malawi group wants House suspended, implement Section 65

A UK-domiciled pressure group, Malawi Movement for Restoration of Democracy (MMRD) has called on the Speaker of parliament, Louis Chimango, to stop the current (40th.) session of parliament saying it is illegal and unconstitutional.

The call comes amidst an opposition boycott of the sitting on escalating demands to have a constitutional provision, Section 65, which disqualifies floor-crossing lawmakers, applied.

The House has failed to form a quorum in the absence of opposition legislators who are in majority in the House.

In a statement widely circulated including to envoys of all foreign missions in Malawi, European governments, the US State Department, the European Union- Brussels, the United Nations, African Union, Bilateral Donors and lenders, the group blames government for a "deliberate drive" to render the Constitution useless and irrelevant.

It says the actions of President Bingu Mutharika are aimed at regressing the country into a Zimbabwe-style dictatorship where any laws can be broken in the name of necessity.

Jointly issued by general secretary Isaac Cheke Ziba and chairman Chris Banda, MMRD said the sitting of parliament is illegal as it started without achievement of a quorum.

It cites Section 50 sub - section (1) of the constitution which states that "The quorum of each chamber shall be formed by the presence at the beginning of any sitting of at least two thirds of the members of the chamber entitled to vote, not including the speaker or a presiding member."

"The Speaker of Parliament is breaking the law and is violating the constitution by presiding over the current parliament," said the statement.

"MMRD wishes to call on all donors from whom the government wants to get loans or grants and all bilateral lenders to understand that any loans agreed at this sitting may not be binding to any future government and that the DPP and its senior leadership will have to take responsibility for any such liability arising from the current sitting and in the absence of opposition MPs," the statement reads.

"We are therefore advising such lenders or donors to act responsibly as them too are helping Malawians with tax payer's money of their respective citizens, who would not wish to feed the hand of an emerging dictatorial state," said the statement.

Government spokesperson Patricia Kaliati has however trashed the pressure group's statement as "nonsense"

"Why cant's Cheke Ziba and his friends just register their group as a political party other than hiding in the name of pressure group. The laws allow people to register political parties, they are free to do so than making empty statements," said Kaliati.

On section 65, the pressure group says the Speaker should simply implement the constitutional provision.

"The issues being raised by the opposition are relevant and any government that has the interest of the nation at heart would have taken them into consideration. We can not continue to allow people playing political prostittionism and chasing money by moving to whichever party is in government at the time.

"Malawians should not allow such people, masquerading as people's servants, to be taking a free ride on public resources. The question you need to be asking Malawians is at whose expense these people survive. It is at the expense of your hard work, your taxes, if you are a farmer you must know that you are taxed and you give the government a profit margin in every kilogram you sell of your crops."

MMRD said the desire and determination to flush such false MPs should be at the heart of every Malawian who wants to see the country improve socially, economically, morally and constitutionally regardless of political persuasion.

The group also reminds Malawians that governing DPP has no electoral mandate to be called a ruling party in Malawi because "it has never presented itself and its electoral manifesto to the electorate."

Reads the statement: "Malawians know that the government is not keen on engaging all stakeholders into a meaningful dialogue.

Malawians know that the government is trying to survive through bending of their constitution and that what the government is doing by agitating that people should rise against opposition MPs is a sign of desperation for survival."

MMRD also registered an alarm by "the position of conformity" being adopted by the Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe, for calling the issue of the quorum "immaterial" in as far as the importance of continuing deliberation is concerned.

"All Malawians have held him [Gondwe] singularly in very high esteem and MMRD wishes to appeal to him to rise above conformity to the party line and save this situation, and to remind him that the Malawi constitution is supreme and he should not be a party to a deliberate effort to bend it," it said.

MMRD, nonetheless, also called on opposition parties not to stay away from parliamentary deliberations but attend to push for and oversee the full invocation of Section 65.

"MMRD wishes to appeal to the leadership across all opposition parties that boycotting parliament is not the best strategic position to put yourselves in, bearing in mind that you are dealing with a government which is understudying the political tactics of the tyrant of Zimbabwe," said the group.

The pressure group said all MPs should dash to parliament with speed, start with resolving the current issue of a parliament opening without a required quorum, move on to insist that nothing will be deliberated until Section 65 has been implemented and then progress towards the issues of the position of the Speaker in the spirit of the dignity of our republican parliament towards the people's budget as the balance that will serve all Malawians.