The only thing Parliamentarians got right

Well thanks to technology, I am blogging right inside Parliament the privilage even MP's themselves, despite spending K67 million to purchase laptops do not still have or enjoy. Dont blame me blame their own ancient standing orders which prohibits the use of gadgets in the house.

But sitting in Parliament has however become so boring, that you wonder why the tax payer is being asked to cough K3.1 million each day enough to buy medication for five health centres just to listen to the usual noise that has no bearing on todays challenges.

Yes Ministers are providing answers, but they are the same answers they have given to the media for the past two years and it is very annoying to find a newly appointed Minister regurgitating the whole statment Ken Kandodo, Grain Malungu or who else was fired among the 21 disgraced Ministers, whose chop was tied to the same challenges.

The Cabinet reshuffle to many Malawians was supposed to provide a fresh look to Government and how things are done. Of course for Akweni Patricia Kaliati, everybody expected more fire from her and she has not disappointed.

Puzzles remain however why some Ministers, loud mouth by nature in the previous cabinet still made their way into this Cabinet. These are excess baggages that instead of working like Dr. Ken Lipenga, Professor Peter Mwanza or Dr. Jean Kalirani who have started engaging stakeholders, they are still preoccupied blaming NGOs or the media.

There is a particular Minister who instead of opening a workshop he starts searching for which media houses are around and starts blasting those absent as not being development conscious.

Perhaps President Bingu wa Mutharika should appoint him the Editor In Chief at Galaxy Radio and shout his vendorish garbage throughout the day.

By the way newspapers are not free, there is VAT apart from hefty taxes we pay everyday to a Government which does not want to advertise. Today Malawian newspapers are among the most expensive in the region, thanks to the efforts to stiffle them out.

Yet the Minister expects guaranteed coverage on his Public Relations tour- buy a page and insert all your face you want is my unsolicited advice.

Then there is the issue of Bingu's press breifing on Monday, the plot to beat up Journalists was relied much earlier than it was hatched and those that went around looking for Nation reporters must have learnt a lesson that we do have our own intelligence capable of warning us off such plots.

To me the President lost an opportunity to regain most of what has been damaged of his reputation by the same party zealots who when the think smoke comes, they all disappear and allow him be insulted left and right.

The DPP officials who plotted the booing or beating of Journalists cost the President his image as one in charge of the country and very important the need to engage everybody into debating the country's problems and finding solutions.

Professor Peter Mutharika has worked hard in the post few weeks to reassure everybody around the country that we are on our recovery to sanity and entrenchment of democracy. I always feel someone is in DPP to sabotage the young Mutharika.

I can point at five Ministers, three senior DPP officials and their loyalists who are working hard to ensure that any gains made by Professor Peter Mutharika are reversed and forgotten.

I will provide an analysis later.

But back to Parliament where I was listening to questions whose answers all refer them to District Councils. Hey why ask questions meant for Councils in a national parliament.

These people want K1 million a month to ask questions whose answers are at the Council chamber? Come on, we need less than 100 MPs to do that not a whole bunch that consumes K3.1 million a day of my hard earned tax.

Of course in their greed for more pay, the forgot to propose an increment in minimum wage from somewhere like K4,500 per month at present to something like K50,000 per month.

Yes our MP's got one thing right, cost of living is up and we all in pay hike. They should be the last ones to get it after the poor Civil Servants!