With Tsibweni Chalo:<\/p>\n
United Democratic Front (UDF) leader, Atupele Muluzi, is a funny fellow. You see, Muluzi has been in Cabinet from the time he lost the election in 2014. He has served in various portfolios in a government he now feels should pave way for him to run.<\/p>\n
There is nothing wrong with that because, like anyone else, he has the right to vie for that top job. But what seems to be problematic is the young politician\u2019s continuous presence in a government that he feels he has to dislodge at the elections.<\/p>\n
Mdzukulu, Muluzi has not even bothered to resign from Cabinet so that he can distance himself from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)- led government.<\/p>\n
As such, it is becomes difficult for us to trust him with anything.<\/p>\n
To make things worse, he recently made blatant claims about some developments that have been undertaken by the administration he wants to change at the elections.<\/p>\n
The young politician\u2014 who chanced upon finding himself leading UDF by family connections\u2014 believes the current administration is implementing projects which are highlighted in his party\u2019s 2014 manifesto.<\/p>\n
Muluzi has to come clear on whether he has any problem with that; whether he wants the administration that he serves to ignore development projects simply because they are in another party\u2019s manifesto.<\/p>\n
Mdzukulu, it appears logical that, since he works with the DPP-led administration, the UDF leader should be contented that some of his development plans are being implemented now. It simply shows that they make sense and that they are good for Malawi.<\/p>\n
Mdzukulu, development plans can be provided by various stakeholders. Even locals like me in the village guide the government on what it can do for us.<\/p>\n
As such, the government can use anyone\u2019s idea for the development of the country as long as it makes sense. Thus, it is preposterous for the UDF leader to claim that some development projects that are being implemented are his party\u2019s brainchild.<\/p>\n
I know that this is campaign period and politicians will be yapping about many things including those that do not make sense. They will try their best to endear themselves to voters in whatever way.<\/p>\n
But, in terms of development, we should understand that it is for the betterment of all Malawians and not for any political party leader to own.<\/p>\n
In fact, that is one of the biggest problems we have in Malawi. Politicians personalise development plans and projects and claim credit where it is not even necessary.<\/p>\n
There even are cases where, once governments changed, those coming in halt all development projects which were initiated by their predecessors simply because they fear that the credit will go to others once the works have been successfully completed.<\/p>\n
That seems to be what is in the mind of the young Muluzi who thrust other members of his party to the periphery and went into a partnership with an administration led by a party he is challenging at the May 21 polls.<\/p>\n
Mdzukulu, we now have the National Planning Commission whose major role is to devise development plans for the country, not for any political party. The commission can come up with plans which will be fully accomplished even 50 years from now like they do in countries with vision.<\/p>\n
I hope such plans will not be disturbed by politicians who believe they own development agendas and can stand on political podia and claim that their manifesto is being implemented by their opponents.<\/p>\n
That is not the Malawi we need. We need a Malawi where any development is taken to be for Malawi and not any political party.<\/p>\n
In fact, it is the duty of opposition political parties to help in how Malawi can develop, by providing alternative plans. I know that it is difficult for that to happen in Malawi but that should be the direction we should be taking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With Tsibweni Chalo: United Democratic Front (UDF) leader, Atupele Muluzi, is a funny fellow. You see, Muluzi has been in Cabinet from the time he lost the election in 2014. He has served in various portfolios in a government he now feels should pave way for him to run. There is nothing wrong with that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":42572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76115","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\/76115","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=76115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76118,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76115\/revisions\/76118"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}