Greetings from the Munda wa Chitedze Farm where I relocated from the hustle and bustle of your city. Here, peace and only peace reigns supreme.
You see, it has been a real hectic week. What else can you say of a week we learn of the National Assembly passing an K8.07 trillion National Budget. Current parliamentarians have a month or so to declare their interest to contest again. Lucky will be those who will make it back to the august House.
For those who will not make it, from the farm we can only say good-riddance.
Dear Diary, it is clear that positions in the House are a means for the nouveau riche to attain greater wealth. A thin line separates serving the people and garnering wealth.
Apart from the petty politicking in the House, how else are the people served by the lawmakers? The catcalls that characterise what should be an august House waters down the very relevance of the taxpayers’ money.
To say the truth, with a weak opposition, the House in this term has not inspired any hope. In the first place, having a Speaker from the ruling party has had a very adverse impact on the debates and deliberations in the House. Besides, the opposition has been divided to provide critical dissection of the Government business. While the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was busy pulling itself down on who leads their lot, the necessary questions on how the government has been run was left to the wind.
And this week, we have seen ugly scenes in the House, where parliamentarians chose to turn the National Assembly from the kindergarten it is to a boxing ring. This has happened several times and one wonders where these people get all that energy.
The issue that has grossly been contested is the vote to the State residences. It is on record that K67 billion was allocated there, while for the construction and rehabilitation of the roads has been allocated K10 billion.
Since the days of Kamuzu, budgets to State House have been grossly bloated. No party in Malawi can lay claim to changing the status quo. No one seems to mind, over the many terms, to check the expenditure there. It is not surprising, because this is where the ruling elite ensure that their kith and kin get jobs they are scarcely qualified for.
It is a time for the staff to benefit from the many travels of the President and earn a buck in providing security, spreading propaganda and preparing meals. He that seeks equity must come with clean hands on the matter of having a lean budget for the State Residences.
It has been a busy week, where we have seen the arrest of Julius Mithi, a regular feature on social media, especially Facebook. In very queer circumstances, he was arrested in Mzuzu, and taken to Lilongwe overnight for allegedly spreading falsehoods’ bordering on the missing of names in the voters’ roll.
Dear Diary, as we inch towards the elections, it remains clear that charlatans from both sides of the political divide will come up with unobjective, unverified and card-stacking posts.
Nonetheless, the police must not be seen to be taking sides if at all they are serious about ending cybercrime. There are culprits on both sides who are thriving on name-calling and body-shaming but those seen to be supporting the ruling party are left scot-free.
It was, therefore, warming that the Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD) has raised its concerns on the police conduct not only in bringing to book those in electoral misdeeds. Bandits have been going around with machetes in full view of the police who only say they are investigating!
It is also only proper that the parliamentary committee has summoned Inspector General Merylene Yolamu on this matter. As the House rises and parliamentarians will be wondering whether they will make it back or not, this is the last call for duty. Make the elections violence free.
