An MCP-led House draped in shame: The painful context to Malawi democracy
The current status of Malawi National Assembly in the eyes of the populace is that of an institution which has run out of shame in how it is misspending public money willy-nilly without any iota of humanity.
Only last week were Malawians informed that the three persons in the Speakership office managed by Richard Msowoya and Leader of Opposition, Lazarus Chakwera, have just acquired a new fleet of four vehicles, one for each, to a sickening amount of K300 million.
An immediate reaction to the transaction was disappointment from the public who view this economic lean period as a prerequisite to austerity at any level of the government structure.
As if that K300 million saga is not enough, the honourables have done it again, more shockingly this time around.
The revelations that Parliament is failing to account for over K213 million of public money thickens the plot. It leaves citizens wondering at what cost we should sacrifice ourselves on the altar of petty legislative politics.
Shocking is the fact that Parliament blew all this money under the pretext of convening committee meetings and foreign travel.
Ironically, only months ago, Msowoya spoke through the media that they are failing to carry out some duties due to lack of funds.
At the end of the day Malawians now know that there were no committee meetings and no foreign travels but K213 million went in the drain.
Interestingly, even after such shady operations, Parliament is still demanding from Treasury an extra K1.2 billion for among other things, the purchase of a new fleet of pool vehicles worth K900 million.
What wisdom is this when someone wants to spend K900 million just after an expenditure of K300 million has already injured the soul of the nation?
Any demands by Parliament as things stand is tantamount to disrespect to the Malawians in view of the performance of the economy.
Though this issue involves the National Assembly, the opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) needs to dig their faces in their faces because the Speaker and Leader of Opposition constitute their presidency.
An imprudent Parliament speaks volumes of its leadership and in this case Msowoya and Chakwera have a lot of explaining to do on many of the decisions that are being made at the National Assembly.
What disturbs many is how hasten this August House is breaking negative records at an alarming rate. From the dawn of democracy in 1994, all contingents of parliamentarians have been led by eminent Speakers who have always been accountable to Malawians both in political and administrative terms.
The likes of Rodwell Munyenyembe, Louis Chimango, Sam Mpasu, Davies Katsonga and Chimunthu Banda executed their duties with willful professionalism and maturity.
Where Msowoya gets it wrong is that he mirrors himself first as MCP Vice President before being Speaker.
Whenever an issue raises that demands parliamentary explanation, he is quick to misfire with political statements as his defence mechanism.
As for Chakwera, he has rapidly descended from being an admired pastor to a politician with little or no clue of his role to Malawians.
The pastor should rise above pettiness and realize that his rhetoric against government provides a yardstick with which he is going to be measured at all times.
It makes no sense for someone to attack government left, right and centre only to later on feign ignorance on what has been happening in his own office.
In the face of this maladministration at Parliament, does the MCP leadership really count on the trust of Malawians?
They better put their house in order and offer leadership at National assembly level before they can even start talking leading the whole state system.
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