Some Members of Parliament (MPs) in the Northern Region have asked President Peter Mutharika to \u201cstop being paranoid\u201d and instead listen and attend to the development concerns that people in the region have.<\/p>\n
The MPs are reacting to Mutharika\u2019s recent remarks in which he branded them \u201ca bunch of failures, aiming at frustrating his government through formation of a parliamentary regional caucus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking in separate interview the legislators said Mutharika and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) should get rid of the illusions that the new caucus aims at championing a separatist or secessionist agenda.<\/p>\n
MP for Mzimba West Constituency Harry Mkandawire said the group is in an effort to see how best they can represent their people who are at the suffering end of politics of segregation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe mean well for the people of the Northern Region, we are talking of problems which sometimes the government is not even aware of. So it\u2019s shocking that that such efforts warrant insults from a whole head of state,\u201d Mkandawire said.<\/p>\n
Karonga Central Constituency parliamentarian Frank Mwenifumbo also expressed disappointment at Mutharika who he said is seemingly comfortable with the status quo.<\/p>\n
He said over the years the Northern Region has fallen victim to the inherited disparities propelled by politics of regionalism which have seen it lagging behind in every aspect of development.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am not apportioning blame to the APM [Arthur Peter Mutharika] administration alone, it is something he has found but he can help in reversing the trend,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
Citing an example of the K950 billion Chinese-funded infrastructural development basket which Parliament passed last year, Mwenifumbo said it is a pity that no single project has gone to the Northern Region.<\/p>\n
\u201cProper infrastructure is key to socio-economic development but while money is being approved to upgrade Chileka and Kamuzu International airports, no one seems to care about Mzuzu Airport,\u201d queried Mwenifumbo who said the caucus is purely developmental.<\/p>\n
Adding her voice on the matter, Agnes Nyalonje of Mzimba North expressed surprise at Mutharika\u2019s pronouncements towards what she called a perfect parliamentary formation.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cParliamentary caucuses are the legitimate platform for doing legislative business world over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, some DPP MP\u2019s in the region like Leonard Njikho of Mzuzu City have distanced themselves from the group, saying they were never consulted on its agenda.<\/p>\n
But interim Chairperson Kamlepo Kalua said they are not backtracking in anyway, even in the wake of intimidation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is expected of them, but truth of the matter is that they too have felt the pinch of discrimination. All we are saying is we want a fair share of the national cake as stipulated in Section 13 of the Constitution,\u201d Kalua said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some Members of Parliament (MPs) in the Northern Region have asked President Peter Mutharika to \u201cstop being paranoid\u201d and instead listen and attend to the development concerns that people in the region have. The MPs are reacting to Mutharika\u2019s recent remarks in which he branded them \u201ca bunch of failures, aiming at frustrating his government […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":27094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38335,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38334\/revisions\/38335"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}