Maravi

(TALKZIMBABWE) MPs should respect Parliament before making demands

MPs should respect Parliament before making demands
By: Dean Chinyanga
Posted: Sunday, November 28, 2010 12:32 am

DEAR EDITOR - I was shocked to read in the latest Hansard issue that Members of Parliament in Zimbabwe are demanding US$3,000 a month as salary plus allowances. They are also proposing that if elections are held early, they be paid a lumpsum equivalent to the pay they would have received if government had gone the full term.

While I agree that our legislators deserve to be paid handsomely for them to perform their jobs diligently, I am not sure that the current crop of MPs, especially the ones from the MDC-T deserve that honour.

This current Session has a bunch of hooligans who have heckled and interjected the President and their colleagues from Zanu-PF and MDC-M each time there has been issues of national importance to be debated.

As I write this piece, MDC-T Senators are refusing to attend Senate proceedings over a political issue.

It was ludicrous to hear MDC-T MPs like Mrs Lucia Matibenga actually call for that increment when their party actively campaigned for sanctions against the country and watched when the country implored under the illegal embargo.

Where do the MPs think the money will come from when every functional entity in the country is reeling under the sanctions regime?

Some of them actively campaign for Zimbabwe to be banned from trading its diamonds; alleging that there are human rights abuses in Marange diamond fields.

The MDC-T surely cannot have its cake and eat it.

These MPs should start by respecting the august House and its proceedings before they call for salary increments.

Zimbabwe's Parliament ceased a long time ago to be a respectable place for serious debate. It has been highly politicised.

MDC-T legislators, day-in-day-out, spend time talking to international media about matters that would have been discussed in Parliament; matters of international importance.

They cannot be rewarded for this charlatanism.

If MPs from the MDC-T want to be recognised, they should first show that they are serious when it comes to matters of national importance. Then, and only then, will people begin to sympathise with their cause.

________________________

*Dean Chinyanga writes from Johannesburg, South Africa.

Labels: MDC, MPs

posted by MrK @ 5:13 PM