MY ADJOURNMENT SPEECH IN MY CAPACITY AS LEADER OF OPPOSITION

NANKHUMWA WRITES

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2020

Madam Speaker and Honourable Members,
It is with great joy that I stand here to address you as we rise at the end of the first Budget Meeting in the 49th Session of Parliament.
First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my fellow DPP members for electing me to serve as Leader of the Opposition in Parliament. I thank you for placing your trust and confidence in my ability to lead the opposition. I wish to assure you of my commitment to serve in your best interests and that of Malawians at all times.

Madam Speaker,
Allow me to commend His Excellency President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera for availing himself twice before this august House to answer questions from members as required by law.
Madam Speaker,

The President has been visiting neighbouring countries recently. I believe it is important to commend the President for visiting his counterparts in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Tanzania.
Malawi cannot afford to be an island in a fast-paced global village, which is also becoming more and more interdependent. These visits demonstrate our commitment as a country to unity of purpose with our neighbours in order to achieve regional integration and tangible economic development.

As we are all aware, Malawi is slated to host the 41st ordinary SADC Summit for Heads of State and Government in August 2021 where President Chakwera will officially assume the SADC chairmanship.
I believe these international visits give Malawi, as a country, an important platform to engage its neighbours at the presidential level on a myriad of issues such as good governance; the establishment of common markets; competitive and diversified industrial development; trade and financial liberalization; economic development; and regional integration that are adequately espoused in various SADC protocols.

It is, therefore, my conviction that these visits are timely, particularly in harnessing deeper regional cooperation in view of what lies ahead.

Madam Speaker and Honourable Members,
At this juncture, let me take this opportunity to congratulate the President of my party, DPP, who is also the immediate past President of this country, His Excellency Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika on receiving the Uhuru/Raila honorary accord award at the 5th London Political Summit of 2020 for his contribution to the promotion of peace, democracy and high levels of political tolerance.

I also wish to congratulate President Chakwera on receiving the same award. This is great news for Malawi as a country because it indicates the high regard in which we are held by international institutions around the world.

Madam Speaker,
I wish to commend you for a ‘job well done’ in maintaining order and applying and interpreting the practices and procedures of this august House with impartiality. You have stepped up to the plate to manage business in this House sometimes under very difficult and hostile circumstances. I wish to commend you, Madam Speaker, for such an outstanding performance.

Madam Speaker,
You could not have achieved this without the assistance of the Parliament Secretariat. I will be failing in my duty as Leader of the Opposition if I do not recognize the outstanding role that the Secretariat plays in providing valuable counsel for the smooth transaction of parliamentary business.
I wish to commend the Secretariat, through the Clerk of Parliament, for its professionalism and efficiency. I would like to request members to give them a big hand of applause.

Madam Speaker,
The Leader of Government Business also deserves special mention for his outstanding leadership and for ably directing business in the House with above-average diligence and commitment.
Contrary to many people’s fears that he would pursue partisan interests, the Leader of the House has demonstrated maturity and tolerance in his conduct of parliamentary business.

Hitherto, the picture that many had of the Honourable Leader of the House was that of a boots-wearing MCP Youth Director who is always confrontational. My Honourable brother has instead clearly risen to the occasion to become one of the best Leaders of the House within a short time. I wish to encourage him to stay the course considering that politics has a way of turning otherwise good people into dangerous chameleons.

Madam Speaker,
At this juncture, allow me to congratulate my fellow Honourable members on both sides for passing the MK2.1 trillion 2020/2021 National Budget, which was ably presented by the Honourable Minister of Finance on 11th September 2020.

I wish to commend all members for the spirit of patriotism demonstrated during the budget cluster committee meetings and the committee of supply until we finally passed the National Budget.

Special commendation should go to all Honourable members for passing various important loan authorization, electoral reforms, and other Bills, including the Tax Amendment Bill, which proposes a MK100, 000 ‘Pay As You Earn’ tax-free band up from MK45, 000. The MK100, 000 tax-free band will increase disposable incomes for low pay workers hence a better livelihood for them.

Madam Speaker and Honourable Members,
A National Budget is very important for proper education and health services; construction of good roads; provision of affordable fertilizers; uplifting Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs); and ensuring social and economic growth, among others. So, the passing of the National Budget will allow the government to spend on social and economic service delivery.

Madam Speaker,
However, the passing of the budget alone is not enough. Malawians are waiting to see proper implementation of the plans contained in this financial blueprint, which would translate into improved livelihoods.

Stories have been told in the past of how a lot of beautiful documents outlining vision and action-plans gather dust at Capital Hill, owing to the lack of political will to push for their implementation.

Madam Speaker,
The lack of political will has always been standing in the way of budget implementation in the past. I, therefore, wish to urge the Tonse Alliance government to avoid falling into this trap.
There must be a robust monitoring mechanism to ensure that the National Budget that we have just passed in this august House is fully and properly implemented.

I wish to assure the House and Malawians that as opposition, we are fully committed to tracking the budget down to every vote to ensure that it is prudently implemented and that it benefits all Malawians regardless of tribe, religion, colour, creed, or political affiliation.

We will seriously oppose any attempts to depart from agreed frameworks or any other move to defraud Malawians for the benefit of a few individuals.

Madam Speaker,
On this note, I wish to join the President in condemning the culture of corruption among public officers and that, as opposition, we are equally outraged and embarrassed by acts of corruption at various levels of our society. We will, therefore, fully support efforts by the President to clear the rubble of corruption, theft of public resources and abuse of office.

Madam Speaker,
However, I wish to warn the President and his Tonse Alliance administration against employing selective justice in the fight against corruption where only members of the DPP are targeted. There must be no sacred cows in this fight if indeed Malawians are to take President Chakwera’s anti-corruption drive seriously.
I wish to remind the President that corruption does not stop only at the doors of the DPP, the Department of Immigration, Road Traffic, Lands, MRA, or Capital Hill. There is corruption at all levels, including in religious organizations, schools, and right at the State House.

Madam Speaker,
For example, recent media reports indicate that under President Chakwera’s watch, the State House has been making questionable payments to Crossroads Hotel in Lilongwe. These are very disturbing revelations.

As they say that ‘charity begins at home’, I dare President Chakwera to take remedial action against the officers involved in this scandal rather than just paying lip service. As the opposition, we are duty-bound to hold this government to account. We are an opposition that will strive to serve the larger interests of Malawians.

Madam Speaker,
I wish to remind this august House that I had proposed in this very House a few months ago ways of looking into the welfare of former Members of Parliament. I wish to reiterate that most former MPs live miserable lives as if they made no contribution to the political, social, and economic development of this country.

I urge Parliament to consider establishing an ad-hoc committee, which must engage the government, as a matter of urgency, to address the issue of former MPs’ welfare.

Madam Speaker,
I also wish to bring to the attention of the government the plight of ward councillors across the country. Our ward councillors receive peanuts and they do not have access to loans yet we expect them to be hard working in spearheading development projects in their communities. The time has come that the Tonse Alliance government should review ward councillors’ perks to match their status.

Madam Speaker,
Malawi has one of the highest elderly poverty statistics in the world. I wish to remind the Tonse Alliance Government about their campaign pledge to put in place social protection initiatives such as financial support to the elderly poor. I am concerned that the National Budget did not contain this very important aspect.
As if elderly poverty is not enough, there are escalating cases of violence, abuse, and murder of old people on allegations of witchcraft. I wish to request the Tonse Alliance government to put in place the necessary security mechanisms to avert these barbaric acts against the elderly.

This government must defend and uphold the rights of our senior citizens; they must be protected from discrimination and abuse based on their age.

Madam Speaker,
In the same vein, let me address the issue of the plight of women in this country. I have in mind the recent demonstrations by gender activists who are demanding gender equality and equity, particularly regarding appointments in the public sector where the laws stipulate a 40 percent share for women.

I wish to call upon the government to take these concerns seriously because it is generally agreed that when you empower women, you have empowered the nation.

Madam Speaker,
Similarly, let me express shock at reports that some thugs ransacked the tombstone in Mzuzu of one of Malawi’s greatest sons, late Thom Chakufwa Chihana.
The late Chakufwa Chihana (Simbi ya Moto), the founding leader of the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD), challenged Dr. Kamuzu Banda on democracy in 1992 and played a crucial role in forcing Dr. Banda to call for a referendum on political pluralism in 1993, which eventually brought about democracy in this country.

Madam Speaker,
I, therefore, wish to request the Tonse Alliance government to immediately start providing state security at his graveyard and take any other necessary measures that would safeguard the dignity of our fallen hero.

Madam Speaker,
I wish to register my deepest concern over reports that there are some under-privileged public university students, particularly at the Polytechnic, who are threatened with expulsion for failure to pay tuition fees.
I wish to remind the Tonse Alliance government about their campaign pledge a few months ago that they would ensure that no student drops out of school because of school fees.
I ask the government to immediately intervene in this matter because education is not only a human right but also a strong foundation for any nation’s meaningful social and economic growth.

Madam Speaker,
I now wish to address the issue of COVID-19 pandemic, which has had a profound impact on our economy and the entire health system. Indeed, the government has decisively addressed the impact of COVID-19 through various policy interventions. However, I wish to remind members and Malawians that the pandemic is still amongst us. As a believer, I wish to encourage a spirit of prayer among Malawians to seek Divine Intervention amidst this deadly pandemic. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

Madam Speaker,
It is for this reason that I stood four-square behind President Chakwera when he called on all Malawians to hold prayers for three days at the height of the Covid-19 fight. I have no doubt that those prayers have contributed to the flattening of the curve in this country. We must never underestimate the power of prayer to move things.

While we continue to rely on scientific methods of dealing with COVID-19, let me also encourage all religious leaders and organisations in this country including the Public Affairs Commission (PAC) to emulate the President’s example of seeking God first when faced with various challenges, including COVID-19.
In the Book of Nahum chapter 1 verse 7, it is written, “The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him”.

Madam Speaker,
Now, allow me an opportunity to say something about Malawi First Ladies. Since the dawn of multiparty democracy, our First Ladies have always been active in establishing various charitable foundations to help the needy in our communities. But we have seen that these foundations always go out of the radar as soon as the First Ladies exit the stage.

It is my humble opinion that as a nation, we must find a better way of recognizing our First Ladies and the noble contribution they made to this country’s social and economic development. I believe Parliament can play a critical role in that quest by coming up with requisite legislation to sustain First Ladies’ foundations beyond State House stay, after all, we do not have that many former First Ladies.

Madam Speaker, Honourable Members,
Finally, I have known President Chakwera as a man of his word. He promised during one of his national addresses that he shall be reshuffling cabinet within six months of his presidency. It is obvious that as we approach the six months mark, some ministers are shaking in their boots, fearing for the worst.

Madam Speaker,
I wish to encourage cabinet ministers who will be fired to remain strong and avoid committing suicide. There is life after cabinet. To those that will make it into the new cabinet, I wish to congratulate them in advance.

Madam Speaker,
When we are appointed into public positions such as that of a cabinet minister, we ought to serve the best interests of Malawians and not our personal or partisan interests.
For example, when Malawians are against the construction of official houses for MPs, ministers ought to listen to the people instead of displaying executive arrogance, insisting the project will go ahead “whether you like it or not”.
Indeed, when some civil society organizations express reservations about some aspects of the Access to Information law, cabinet ministers must strive to amicably engage such quarters instead of demonizing them in public. That is what servant leadership demands.

Madam Speaker and Honourable Members,
I thank you for your attention, may God bless our nation.

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