Kalinde tells Malawi opposition MPs: ‘Do not oppose out of jealousy’
Member of Parliament for Thyolo North Anita Kalinde who is also Minister of Gender, Children and Social Welfare has told opposition members of Parliament more especially those from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to stop complaining out of jealousy and accept that things have changed.
Kalinde said this when she made her contribution in parliament as members continued deliberations on the statement made by the Minister of Finance Dr Ken Lipenga on the Mid-Term Budget Review for 2012/2013.
“I think some of the comments being raised by some opposition members here are stemming out of jealousy. Apparently it is very hard for some members of the DPP to accept that things have changed for the better in the country, maybe because it did not happen under their administration,” said ruling People’s Party parliamentarian.
Kalinde said unlike during the reign of the DPP a lot of things have changed like using of chiefs and religious leaders to push for ill conceived Government agendas as was common during the era of the late president Dr Bingu wa Mutharika.
“Do you still see chiefs on the MBC TV wooing people to support government ideas? If this government is working with chiefs it is on development programmes and they are coming out of their own free will,” she said.
Also making her contribution on the Mid-Term budget review statement was Deputy Minister of Agriculture Ulemu Chilapondwa who accused opposition members of running away from the real issues and dwelling on highlighting negatives which are not justified.
“What I have seen during this sitting is a bad tendency by our colleagues in the opposition benches. They are deliberately averting the real issues contained both in the state of the nation address and also this statement on the Mid-Term budget review. They are busy raising issues which they do not even have any knowledge on, which is unfortunate,” said Chilapondwa who is parliamentarian for Ntchisi south.
Chilapondwa said they are forced to continuously refer back to the errors made by the previous government in order for them to draw lessons from those experiences to progress well into the future.
“It should not hurt the guys from the DPP for Malawians know where we are coming from and they know very well of the progress we have made since we took over power,” said Chilapondwa.
The deputy minister of agriculture disputed claims by some opposition members who said the Farm Input Subsidy programme has been a flop this year, saying the programme has improved from the previous years with more people benefitting this year than in the past.
