A few weeks ago, President Lazarus Chakwera made decisions on bills that were brought to him from Parliament for approval.
Among those bills was Private Member’s Bill number one of 2023 – Political Parties (amendment), which the President dissented.
In his words, this bill was inconsistent with the Constitution and, so, it could not be approved. But there is more to this bill than meets the eye. What does the average citizen stand to gain or lose with the President’s decision?
For those not in the know, the bill proposed that all political parties represented in Parliament should be given funds from the government for their operations, including political campaigns.
Currently, only parties that amass at least 10 percent of votes are privileged enough get something from our purse.
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And when the bill was brought to Parliament, almost all members, from both government and the opposition, agreed that this had to change.
Most of the members of Parliament who commented on the proposal hailed it as a win for democracy. The argument was that the indiscriminate funding would level the playing field for all political parties since they would have enough resources to compete with each other.
While we understand the important role of money in promoting democracy, some of us who have no wings to fly into Parliament were awestruck at the proposal.
We wondered if what those representing us in Parliament were demanding was in line with what we need as people with no voices.
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From the little we know, the cow we keep milking is already thin and we worried about the consequences of milking it even more.
The big question is: Whenever members of Parliament and political parties are given more money, does the average citizen gain anything?
The problem we have in this country is that our political leaders serve themselves more than they serve the people.
History has shown us that whenever all lawmakers agree on something, then that thing benefits them and not us.
The opposition and the ruling party can disagree on a lot of things, but they will always agree on raising their salaries, allowances and hikes in other fringe benefits.
Politicians in Malawi will never disagree on money that is going to their pockets. So, when they said that the proposition for the government to give money to all political parties was a win for democracy, we covered our mouths with our hands so that they could not see us laughing.
Politicians in Parliament have made several demands before in the guise of benefitting us, but our lives have not improved.
The most outstanding is the Constituency Development Fund, which has not developed any constituency in this country.
A lot of money goes towards this, but if we are to ask them to be accountable, their noses will run. This is just money for politicians to eat and the only ones who are taken to ask for abusing it are those being witch-hunted.
If you play your cards right, you will get away with it and eat in peace. Considering this, it is very difficult to imagine that the Political Parties Bill that the President dissented would have benefitted Malawians as some legislators wanted to make us believe.
Those of us who have lived our lives here have seen enough to know the ways of politicians.
It is rather sad that politics in Malawi serves politicians more than it benefits the masses. We are often only used as bait to whet these people’s insatiable appetites.
They come to us during campaign time promising to serve us, but we know that they are only looking out for themselves. This is why most of our political parties are owned by families, and they try to maintain it that way.
That should show you the self-interest that is at the core of politics in Malawi. Here, politics is more of a business than it is service.
The leaders we have are not servants, but master vultures ready to strike at the slightest opportunity. It’s good that the President said no to this bill, which would have fattened the pockets of our masters even more.
