Malawi Congress Party president, Lazarus Chakwera, has lauded Catholic Bishops on their call for a new era for the country to move forward.
The bishops under the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) Sunday released a pastoral letter that was read out in all Catholic churches across the country asking for change in the way things are being done “and never to pretend that everything is well”.
“I thank the bishops for releasing such a powerful letter. What government needs to do is to reflect on what they are saying and act. The letter cannot be dismissed, the authorities and all Malawians need to consider it,” Chakwera said.
People’s Party Spokesperson, Noah Chimpeni, said the bishops have a point in saying that the country needs a new era as almost every sector is disintegrating.
“Whatever the bishops have said should be taken seriously. The points that they have underlined are a true reflection of what is happening now. You talk of leadership or governance, many Malawians are concerned with what is happening right now,” he said.
Political commentator, Ernest Thindwa, said what Malawi needs is quality leadership.
Thindwa said Malawians need to start questioning leaders whenever things are going wrong in the country.
“Democracy has not delivered as the citizenry expected. There are two things that I can point out as major causes of the problems we are facing. One is poor quality of leadership and weak parties.
“There are only a few leaders who we can point at that they at least did better during their tenure. And now parties which are the link between the people and the government are too weak to foster development. I agree with what the pastoral letter has observed,” he said.
However, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesperson, Francis Kasaila, said the message is for everybody in the country to reflect on the contribution to the development of this country.
He said as a country, there is need to review some of the strategies and see how the citizenry can be moved out of poverty.
“The strategies we are talking about here are not a responsibility of one person. All of us need to reflect. What is it that we are doing to move this country forward?” he said.
Kasaila said the DPP administration is aware that there are challenges in public service delivery but this should be a shared blame.
“We have always talked about the challenges that we are facing in all our sectors. Nobody in the country is saying we do not have problems. And one thing that has been highlighted by the bishops is that we are stealing drugs.
“Therefore, the letter is calling upon all of us to change the way we look at the public service, we need to be responsible,” he said.
Leave a Reply