By Vincent Gunde
One of new registered political parties in the country Muvi wa Chilungamo Revolutionary Party (MRP) has trashed President Lazarus Chakwera’s State of the Nations Address (SONA) delivered in Parliament on Friday,February 9, 2024.
For the past 60 years of independence, before MRP was born, there has never been an official opposition party inside and outside Parliament response clearly speaking for itself that MRP did not come only to add numbers of political parties but to contribute to the development of the country.
The MRP has observes that the President Chakwera’s SONA is a continuously repeating the same problems he spoke last year without solutions that Malawi is a nation under geopolitical, climatic and fiscal pressures attributing the country’s economic failure to disasters and Russia-Ukraine war.
President and Commander in Chief of MRP Bantu Saunders Jumah has described the speech made by President Chakwera as not addressing Malawians but rather a speech of appeasement to International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank of imperialism and capitalism so that donors know that their Dollars and Euros coming to Malawi are doing something on paper.
Jumah says the speech was absent to Malawians but present to the development partners saying the excuses given for the country’s economic failure, are lame observing that Malawi’s economy is sick and is in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) because politicians in government are the ones condoning corruption.
He says for the past three SONA’s Affordable Input Programme (AIP) has failed to register food security in Malawi saying instead of confessing that AIP has failed, President Chakwera said there is an increase of 10 percent this year more than three years ago.
The MRP President says about 4 million people are food insecure and they are in need of maize observing that Malawians are dying of hunger eating grass and poisonous roots while at the same time Malawi’s economy will grow by 3.1 percent this year amid clapping hands by MPs.
He says 60 years of independence is a period of shame for the country like Malawi to celebrate observing that no country can celebrate this when its citizens are in abstract poverty while the economy of Malawi’s neighbors Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique is flourishing.
“60 years of shame with recycled politicians, those coming back to rejoin the MCP are the same people who have been initiating bad policies in the previous governments,”says Jumah.
He observes that Agriculture, Tourism and Mining (ATM) Strategy is nonsense in Malawi claiming that the country was already sold to the highest bidders and there is no space for government saying the bidders were issued with licenses but are not working.
Jumah says as the Malawi Defense Force (MDF) is embarking on commercialization of Agriculture, Malawi Prisons must venture into the same saying prisoners are not animals, they are people like all, they need to have their own food urging government to rebuild Prisons to match with today’s requirements.
On VISA exemption to 79 countries, Jumah said there is no need to have Visa exemptions looking at the country’s infrastructures urging government to engage government to government for special permits to Malawians while it is rebuilding its economy.
On Mombera University, Jumah has accused government of failing to bring to book culprits involved in receiving the people’s taxes observing that there have been issues of Samousa’s at K500 each but to this day four years down the line, no arrests were made describing this as only tarnishing the image of other people for no evidence.
On naming the roads after Gwanda Chakuamba Phiri and Mohammad Sidik Mia, Jumah has urged President Chakwera to mobilize funds before he lives office to do it so that the people of Lower Shire don’t call him a good promiser and liar.
On issues of corruption, Jumah says President Chakwera only talked about achievements of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) but he did not say what his government is doing to address the vice claiming that Malawians are still demanding for clarifications on K30 billion meant for AIP, K153 billion East Bridge Company and many other gates.
Jumah has reminded President Chakwera of hunger devastation in the country observing that the maize which is being distributed for free across the country is being politicized, party members and those that have money to corrupting officials in the registration of beneficiaries are the ones benefiting.
He has finally registered his complaint to Parliament on the chairs which still wears blue colours for a political party calling for the need to change the chairs to wear national colours of Black, Red and Green to prove to all that Parliament is a state property.
