{"id":79073,"date":"2019-06-12T06:23:55","date_gmt":"2019-06-12T04:23:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=79073"},"modified":"2019-06-12T06:23:55","modified_gmt":"2019-06-12T04:23:55","slug":"handouts-issue-haunts-legislators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2019\/06\/12\/handouts-issue-haunts-legislators\/","title":{"rendered":"Handouts issue haunts legislators"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>By Rebecca Chimjeka:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_79080\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-79080\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/mps.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-79080 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/mps-300x211.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"211\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/mps-300x211.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/mps.jpg 518w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-79080\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">CONCERNED\u2014MPs during the orientation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The issue of handouts dominated discussions Tuesday during the second day of members of Parliament (MP) orientation in Lilongwe.<\/p>\n<p>The issue arose after political analyst Henry Chingaipe presented a paper to the MPs, advising them to refrain from giving handouts as it is against the laws.<\/p>\n<p>Chingaipe was, however, quick to point out that the problem of handouts would take time to be resolved due to political pressure.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cPolitical handouts are a result of the government\u2019s failure to provide services to its citizens, so members of Parliament have become victims of providing those incentives that could have been by a function of the government,\u201d<\/em> Chingaipe said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>He said there was need for serious reforms on how the government delivers services to the people through formal channels.<\/p>\n<p>However, MPs who spoke during the orientation said the culture of handouts was refusing to die and could haunt their political careers.<\/p>\n<p>Nsanje Lalanje MP, Gladys Ganda, said the culture of handouts was deep-rooted so much that failure to give them can cost an MP a seat.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cI wanted to ask if there is a way that people from our constituencies could understand that political handouts such as paying school fees or buying coffins are not the responsibility of members of Parliament. I would like to bring to your attention that this culture is deep-rotted and cannot just stop,\u201d<\/em> Ganda said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Karonga Central MP, Cornelius Mwalwanda, said the matter needed concerted efforts from stakeholders to ensure civic education of the electorates.<\/p>\n<p>Some MPs proposed the revision of Constituency Development fund to cater for needy constituents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Rebecca Chimjeka: The issue of handouts dominated discussions Tuesday during the second day of members of Parliament (MP) orientation in Lilongwe. The issue arose after political analyst Henry Chingaipe presented a paper to the MPs, advising them to refrain from giving handouts as it is against the laws. Chingaipe was, however, quick to point [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79073","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=79073"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79082,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79073\/revisions\/79082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}