By Emmanuel Sibilika
Malawian President His Excellency Ngwazi Dr Bingu wa Mutharika has told the country’s population not to overburden their Members of Parliament (MPs).
Ngwazi Dr Mutharika offered this advice when he addressed a public rally at Ndirande Health Centre Clinic ground in the commercial capital, Blantyre.
Speaking on Sunday, the President said that in some areas, MPs are being overworked on issues that can be best handled at family level.
Ngwazi Dr Mutharika said that some Malawians are misunderstanding the role of MPs where in some situations MPs have ended up getting scared of visiting their constituencies.
“I have an example of one MP who told me he normally visits his constituency at night because some people tend to ask him to provide them with things that can be best provided at family level or by an individual,” he said.
The President appealed to Malawians to avoid overworking their MPs on their personal issues saying this in some situations scares them.
“Let’s also realise that MPs are human and that it’s not all the time that they have money. These people have families too so let us be realistic in giving them a chance to also look at their families,” he said.
The Ngwazi civic educated the huge crowd in Ndirande Township that the role of an MP is to represent his constituents in the National Assembly and be able to request for their needs.
Malawian President His Excellency Ngwazi Dr Bingu wa Mutharika has told the country’s population not to overburden their Members of Parliament (MPs).
Ngwazi Dr Mutharika offered this advice when he addressed a public rally at Ndirande Health Centre Clinic ground in the commercial capital, Blantyre.
Speaking on Sunday, the President said that in some areas, MPs are being overworked on issues that can be best handled at family level.
Ngwazi Dr Mutharika said that some Malawians are misunderstanding the role of MPs where in some situations MPs have ended up getting scared of visiting their constituencies.
“I have an example of one MP who told me he normally visits his constituency at night because some people tend to ask him to provide them with things that can be best provided at family level or by an individual,” he said.
The President appealed to Malawians to avoid overworking their MPs on their personal issues saying this in some situations scares them.
“Let’s also realise that MPs are human and that it’s not all the time that they have money. These people have families too so let us be realistic in giving them a chance to also look at their families,” he said.
The Ngwazi civic educated the huge crowd in Ndirande Township that the role of an MP is to represent his constituents in the National Assembly and be able to request for their needs.
The issue of begging from Members of Parliament was promoted by former president Bakili Muluzi who in his time in office, he relied on hand-outs as a way of developing Malawi.
He encouraged people to get all their needs from MPs saying they need Kumachenjera Pa Tauni (be clever in town).
Muluzi also used to nickname himself Tsotsi meaning a great thief.
On the issue of independent candidates, Ngwazi Dr Mutharika said that his party has one policy of respecting the winner of any primary election.
“We can only support one candidate at a time and that candidate happens to be the winner of the primaries,” he said.
The Malawian leader was dispelling lies by opposition candidates in Blantyre City Central constituency who were buying the party’s cloth and cheat potential voters that though standing as independents, they were part of the ruling party.
“This is not correct and to set the record straight, our candidate here in Blantyre City Central is Mr Themba Mkandawire and no one else,” he said.
Ngwazi Dr Mutharika also appealed to politicians in Malawi to learn to have patience if they are to be leaders.
“Everything has got its own time and there is going to be only one leader at a time,” he said.
At this point, Ngwazi Dr Bingu wa Mutharika thanked former opposition UDF parliamentary candidate for the area Ernest Maganga for withdrawing from the race in order to support the winning ruling party candidate, Themba Mkandawire.
“Mr Maganga has shown that he loves the people of Ndirande and that he wants development to come here and it is for this reason that decided to withdrew from the race in order to allow the ruling DPP candidate win massively,” he said.
Speaking at the same rally, the ruling party’s candidate for the area, Themba Mkandawire, pledged to develop the constituency under the wise and dynamic leadership of Ngwazi Dr Bingu wa Mutharika.
He thanked the State President for numerous development projects that have already started taking shape in the constituency.
About three weeks ago, Ernest Maganga announced that he has withdrawn from the parliamentary race in order to support the development conscious government of Ngwazi Dr Bingu wa Mutharika.
He said that he decided to abandon the opposition UDF party of failed president Bakili Muluzi because the political grouping has no future and lacks proper direction.
Maganga is son to former late parliamentarian for the area, Mai Lidda Maganga.
People in Blantyre City Central constituency will be voting in a by-election later this week as they did not take part in the May 19th Parliamentary polls following the death of one of the candidates in the race – Malawi Digest.
Legally, the services that people demand from legislators, ferrying people to hospital, school fees for destitute children, to name a few, are areas of local government and should be budgetted for by local government. Certain things, buying coffins fo the dead, are not matters of government.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is important that our local government be put in place. I, as acitizen and the governed, cannot understand why that which is mandatory in the Constitution is taken by successive governments since 1994, including the present administration, as optional.
Let the peopel govern thmselves.