MPs and their selfishness
It is said that the Malawi Parliament has one of the highest turnover of members of Parliament (MPs) in this part of Africa at 75 percent, and if the actions of this week are anything to go by, the lawmakers have just given their constituents one more reason not to vote for them.
The noise that the opposition MPs made upon learning that their government colleagues received a K40 million bonus to their campaigns was commendable and there was applause all around.
Sadly, this applause was shortlived as the MPs entered into a deal with the devil, when the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government had not given any explanation as to who made the ill-conceived decision to reward 86 MPs at the expense of others.
It has turned out that the opposition MPs had little interest in getting to the bottom of the scandal but to get in on the deal, in whatever way.
All the representatives that the opposition sent to the roundtable discussion could see was millions dangled before their eyes and they could not resist but to throw morals out of the window and partake in the loot that was about to be shared irregularly.
The opposition representatives came out of the meeting with milk scones stuffed onto their mouths and did not even have the guts to rise up and continue questioning what had a mere 24 hours ago sounded like an illegal act.
Assured that K20 million was coming their way to fatten up the campaign kitty, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) made a blustering and unconvincing attempt at calling for further investigations into the source of the same money that they had accepted to spend in their constituencies.
The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Kondwani Nankhumwa is not blameless in all this but the role that he played in identifying the 86 MPs had long been forgotten.
The MPs have not asked hard questions of Nankhumwa, how could they knowing the K20 million could be taken away just as quickly as it was given? Why have MPs not questioned why structures such as Village Development Committees (VDCs) were not used in identifying areas of development in the constituencies?
When did District Development Committees (DDCs) become irrelevant that the minister of Local Government resorts to making personal calls to MPs, who last time I checked do not head councils.
Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe could have done better. There are good reasons the office of Secretary to the Treasury and Budget Director exists and guiding the minister whose post is really political is their job.
How he has failed to explain where the funding for these constituency developments came from when in the past he has vehemently protected the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) against requests for obscene increases?
This is where the whole deal and so called benevolent action by the Ministers does not add up. Not at a time when other government departments have not been so lucky. Not when close to K1 billion has been trimmed from Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) less than 15 months to the election.
If a whole Minister of Finance can tell the nation that the government has anonymous donors to its budget, what is to prevent State capture, if it has not already taken place that is?
Malawians who had expected these MPs to be noble and refuse this irregular manner of distributing development projects must feel betrayed and they have every right to be.
Those MPs who are trying to sound holier than thou after the fact but have made no attempts to refuse this handout are not innocent. The same paintbrush applies to them as long as they continue to make senseless justifications.
But in the end, all must forgotten and what voters must remember on Tuesday, 20 May is that given the choice between acting in the interests of their constituents and lining their pockets with ill-gotten money, MPs will choose to fatten themselves first.
