Intoxicated with greed, power and probably the fear of losing his seat at the 2025 parliamentary election, Chitipa South lawmaker Werani Chilenga attempted to push through a very scandalous and bizarre proposal.
He has now been subjected a great deal of reproach—deservedly so—for being self-centred and worrying little about the suffering of Malawians whom our Members of Parliament (MPs) often pretend to represent.
He seems to have surreptitiously withdrawn his motion following the public backlash which it elicited.
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However, chances are that if the motion found its way into the House for deliberations, it would have been adopted, for we all know how our MPs unite to support any cause that benefits them most.
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They have successfully pushed for salary increments in the past and waxed lyrical about raises in the Constituency Development Fund.
So, Chilenga might have just been the gullible daredevil willing to bell the cat in these difficult economic times. In any case, there should never be a time in our history when such as proposal should make sense.
It was refreshing to see Malawians coming together to haul the lawmaker over the coals over what they described as one of the most absurd proposals ever made.
What is really troubling is that Chilenga’s motion attempt came just days after complaints that most MPs were shunning Parliament deliberations despite pocketing sitting allowances.
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Whatever the case, matters that are deliberated in the House must be crucial for the country’s development.
That is why every lawmaker is required to attend and participate in the deliberations because they are there to represent their people.
But greed is overtaking most of them such that they do not care about fulfilling that responsibility Of course, we must also accept that there are MPs who have nothing to offer to the nation because they never participate in Parliamentary deliberations for they lack the capacity to do that.
Perhaps, this could also be the reason that some observers massively condemned Chilenga for arguing retired MPs should be put on government payroll because they are taken to have contributed a lot to the country’s development during their time in Parliament.
The truth is that some of the problems we have in this country are because our lawmakers fail to critically provide the relevant counsel and oversight in government affairs.
They authorise the excessive borrowing and fail to follow up on how the borrowed money is being utilised.
They cannot critically follow how the budget is being implemented and often ‘forgive’ controlling officers who appear before them to respond to audit queries even where it is clear financial crimes were committed.
The biggest problem seems to have been the illusion of the ‘honourable’ tag around our MPs’ neck slinging them to a higher plinth where their failings cannot be interrogated.
We must shed off that past, where MPs could not be criticised even when they were clearly blundering, and start squeezing them just like we do with every officer who receives our taxes.
By the way, they are in Parliament to represent the interests of their constituents and must be exposed if they depart from that obligation and start caring more about their own interests.
If they want to continue receiving our taxes, they must perform well so that voters give them another chance in Parliament at every next election.
After all, there is no term limit for someone to be a legislator.
Any backdoor attempt to continue chewing taxes even when one has lost an election should be frowned upon as much as possible.
We must keep on watching what happens in Parliament, because the fact that Chilenga furtively withdrew his motion does not mean it was dead on arrival.
In fact, there is no formal communication out there that the strange proposal has been wholly struck out of Parliament records and that it will never appear on any House document in our lifetime.
There could be more greedy and fearful MPs who will go to every length to revive the proposal and have it presented in Parliament.
There are those who know that winning at the next parliamentary election is practically impossible for them because they have not performed to the expectations of their constituents.
These have nothing to lose even if they are severely criticised for being self-centred.
They are the ones who may continue pushing for what Chilenga has started.
That is where other means of stopping them must be explored.
This is the time for Malawians to come together and stop such abuse of power and greed from prevailing.
Every available option, including street protests and court interventions, as suggested by some activists, must be explored.
Our taxes must be deservedly earned. Greed, in whatever form, must fall!
