Chakwera speaks out: DPP not a listening party

Opposition leader Lazarus Chakwera has problems with the way the Peter Mutharika led administration is handling contentious issues in Malawi saying Mutharika shows he is not a President that can listen to critics.

This is after Mutharika’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) along with opposition People’s Party (PP) – a party the DPP is moving to merge with shot down bills in the electoral reforms recommendations on Thursday.

In a statement Chakwera says Malawians, the civil society, donor partners and all critics need to reckon the DPP is not ready to take in any advice.

“Fellow Malawians, I share your astonishment at the Members of Parliament who have blocked the mere reading of a key legislation that is designed to make our democracy stronger. Even more astonishing is the fact that they have done so without even giving Malawians a chance to vote on it through their representatives.”

He adds: “And since there are three branches of government, with this legislative branch being the only one through which the people of Malawi have a vote in every decision the House makes, the shooting down of a bill before the people’s representatives even debate and vote on it is not only a self-contradictory act because the bill has been rejected by the same people who presented it, but it is also a self-maledictory act because those members have harmed themselves by silencing the only branch of government where they and their people have a voice.”

He says that DPP lawmakers think they have suppressed something they feel affects them when it is a national issue.

“They have demonstrated that they are in no frame of mind to listen to sound reasoning justifying these reforms, or to listen to the Law Commission that drafted these reforms, or to listen to Malawians demanding these reforms, or to listen to development partners recommending these reforms, or to listen to chiefs promoting these reforms, or to listen to clergy lobbying for these reforms, or to listen to their own constituents crying for these reforms,” he said.

Chakwera’s MCP continues to lash out at the DPP claiming it is failed leadership which does not put its own interests at heart and has also failed to run the affairs of this nation.

The opposition leader recently cited the ongoing power outages as something that deserved Mutharika’s voice but said he was surprised to see the President making no statements something that he says entails he (Mutharika) does not care on what is happening on this issue.

The DPP maintains the MCP renders it advice based on frustrations of losing the 2014 elections, something which Chakwera and co keep branding as being not a convincing scapegoat.