Dzuka Malawi: DPP on self-destruction, Kamlepo and clichéd  freedom song!

I decided to spend my time in Parliament.  We pay our dear dis-honourable cartoons at least MWK50,000 per day, to work for six hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays (Thursdays being a day they can choose to spend it debating anything they want) and only three hours on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. This is a parliament that meets only three times a year. November, February and June budget meeting.

They even threaten (One Major MP) to boycott the meeting where they generate MWK50,000 a day if they were not paid MWK2 million in advance. They are the wonderful people of Malawi. They have already been paid an advance MWK2 billion collectively for their gratuity expiring in 2019.

These are the same people that approved a law denying me my pension money until I am 55 or prove that I will never work again. Malawi is bleeding from un equal laws and the public pays for it. The highest paid people- have a lot of tax breaks. Donald Trump looks like an angel.

These 192 (Lilongwe Msozi  constituency is vacant) specially anointed Malawians got MWK36 million each between 2014 and today (MWK24 million motor vehicle, 12 million general purpose) and will only be required to repay MWK18 million only. Don’t ask me who will pay the difference- it’s you and me.

So, we gave them free MK18 million, we pay them MWK50,000 a day for making noise, they get MWK2 billion and share when we have food shortages and other national priorities, they have two duty free vehicles when struggling families must pay millions for Nissan March and viola they got a 1,500 percent pay increment.

I have not yet decided to run as an MP, but I wanted to see what work is really done in a week at Parliament. What value is does it add to change our poor economy? Or what issues do they must ensure their areas have development. Next time please ensure you find time to attend and valuate the work done in 21 hours a work, worth MWK1.2 million a month and MWK50,000 per sitting day.

It is very sad, apart from being absent, most MPs sit in Parliament as football supporters, ready to cheer their mediocre leadership- which unfortunately sits on both sides of the House. They are personal, vengeful and looking forward to 2019. If it was in me, I would say let us have only budget meetings between now and 2019, cancel November and February meetings- they are just waste of money. After all mid-budget review is not a legal requirement.

This is the week you could tell the once mighty DPP has crumbled, Ministers were smiling and sending notes to opposition- when George ‘Maizegate’ Chaponda was under attack. Only Government Whip Henry Mussa showed maturity of a party leader, he rose to defend his beleaguered colleague and defended Government. The rest had smirks on their faces.

The Malawi Congress Party seems to have no idea what to say, save to point Government shortfalls. When you have a weaker Government bench, cornered on maize, you don’t go for a kill, politically you have the attention of the whole country now, you start selling yourself what you would do differently. Sitting in Parliament, I don’t see what MCP would change, save for talking.

For a party with very few women MP’s and only two notable Juliana Lunguzi and Jessie Kabwila, firing Kabwila to an ordinary member does not sound like a political strategy. Which woman would now be convinced that Dr. Lazarous Chakwera and company are gender sensitive when you have two women- Chatinkha Nkhoma and Jessie Kabwira fighting their political survival under the wise and dynamic leadership of this former Man of God.

The only person that exuded confidence was Right Honourable Uladi “Change golo” Mussa. He is a comic we might need to elect a President one day. After all who thinks our political system is serious enough to take Malawi out of poverty save for self-enrichment. I would say let’s try Change Golo!

There is nothing to write home about the UDF. It is all but gone party, swallowed in DPP and can never come back as a national party. Its identity is lost, and should the DPP lose- which is what everybody fighting in DPP is working on- UDF will also die a natural death.

I ended my Friday looking at Kamlepo Kalua. The man I admire for his fighting spirit. He looked like a sad old man this time. He believes the country owes him gratitude for speaking and being part of transition to democracy in 1994s. His journey to parliament has been painful and poverty struck its chord. I felt sad, he keeps referring to 1994 we fought for democracy, we fought for freedom. He forgets to say since we “ate freedom”, Malawians have been poor each day.

As I rose in the public gallery to bow to the Speaker, I asked myself, where to in 2019. DPP is failing to implement its beautiful manifesto and is now a party on the path to self-destruction, too many fights, too much greed and people who seem not to realise that we are in 2017 and only one full year to go before facing the voters again. You do not go into elections split, arrogant to voters and harbouring suspicious characters.

What next for 2019 for MCP, a party that is yet to be found in other two regions- East and South. A party that fights whoever criticise its leadership. A party that has not yet told Malawians how different will it be from others since 1994- who promise and ditch the promise the next day without shame. The party that has no intra-democracy, its run-on suspicion and gossip.

What next for Lucius Banda- the sole voice of UDF which is now dead? What next Uladi Mussa, Kamlepo Kalua, Khumbo Kachali, Richarrd Msowoya, Ralph Jooma and others  who have ambitions to go to the top, but have no platforms.

Dzuka Malawi. My country what next for us in 2019? Pay another gang of 193 anointed persons to spend billions? Elect another gang to rampage our taxes? Or are we to demand accountability, fair sharing of national positions, no tribalism, no suppression of women and restrict parliamentary business to what would help us out of poverty.

Honourable Kamlepo Kalua, poverty is more painful to the rural masses, many, like Israelites in the wilderness wish 1994 never came. Next time you speak of freedom fighters, move a motion to curtail number of MPs to 100- we have councillors doing local development

. Move a motion that loans will be paid in full, allowances will be paid to those that electronically register to have entered parliament using ID touch and that you will not collect advance gratuities, call for inquiries just to spend money and that you will stop politicking and talk development. If only you could do that, the next 100 years, generations will speak of Kamlepo Kalua as a freedom fighter in full. Dzuka Kamlepo!

 

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Baba Maduapera
Baba Maduapera
7 years ago

Rudo, I write to differ with you on the impression you are trying to paint in your write-up that MCP and other opposition Members of parliament are doing something bad by talking all the time. What did you expect them to do whilst in the august house? Sleep and snore? I thought the word ”Parliament” literally originated from the french word ”Parle” which literally means talking or voicing out? Parliament is for talking. One cannot play an oversight role by being quiet or indifferent on important national issues. On my side, I give kudos to the Kamlepo Kaluas, the Kusamba… Read more »

CIVIL SERVANT
CIVIL SERVANT
7 years ago

With all these benefits, the biggest clown of them all, one Goodall Gondwe, has the guts to tell civil servants that our work is a calling therefore we should brace ourselves and live in poverty, when him and his fellow jackals are getting the lions share of our taxes for the substandard work they are doing

M Sizini
M Sizini
7 years ago

Even to my tired old brain, both the nature of the problem and the solution are obvious. If we promise to pay people huge amounts of money, and offer them duty-free vehicles and other perquisites, we are not going to attract parliamentary candidates who are selfless, honorable and devoted to serving the interests of their constituents. We will attract greedy, grasping, selfish candidates, motivated primarily by the desire for self-enrichment. Rudo, if you intend to establish a new party, your first policy statement should declare that your objective is the reduction of MPs’ salaries and allowances to levels which are… Read more »

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