Malawi’s newly sworn in parliament will operate at the president’s New State House residence, magnifying the long-held fears that the country had a thin line between the legislative and the executive branches of government.
Some of the legislators are single, some married with children. But they are all like ‘orphans’ since they have no house of their own, no where to call their own exclusive place.
Government officials say a new parliament building currently being beaten this and that side into shape will not be ready for occupation this year, a development that will see newly-sworn in legislators use part of President Bingu wa Mutharika’s residence for their business.
This means Mutharika will not have to travel over half a kilometer when he takes that trek to Parliament later this month- to brief the new MPs in a State of the Nation address as if orienting them about their task ahead. Will they leave it as they found it? That will be failure of duty. Should they make some drastic contributions? That is likely to be the yard stick for 2014’s parliamentary race, when the battle that has been done to see them in parliament starts again.
The new parliament is largely expected to be less aggressive because of the imminent dominance of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the only party in Malawi to have amassed as many as 114 seats in any one election since 1994. Even more independents have already declared their allegiance to the party, followed by political party leaders in the names of Maravi People’s Party president Uladi Mussa, and some Malawi Congress Party MPs.
The president may choose to walk to parliament, but that is not in his hands. The state, not him, decides on his security because he ceased to be his own man on May 22 after being sworn in.
This closeness, between parliament and the executive, has worried political commentators for along time. Not only the physical closeness. The perceived closeness as well.
Since the advent of multiparty democracy in 1994, after an aborted attempt after 1964, the country’s presidents have fished cabinet ministers from parliament, making the closeness even hotter as to make one expire.
This has angered Rafiq Hajat, Executive Director for the Institute for Policy Interaction (IPI). Hajat says Mutharika should not pick cabinet ministers from the parliamentary fold; it has some potential for conflict of interest, he says.
“Let’s try to pick from outside parliament this time,” he said, “And see where we go”.
Hajat also asks the executive to respect decisions made by the other arms, saying defying court rulings and extraditing parliamentary processes was a form of interference not accepted in democracy.
Others, like Human Rights Consultative Committee’s National Coordinator Mavuto Bamusi, are for meritocracy. They say choosing people on merit would help Malawi keep the boundary lines clean, in terms of separation of powers.
“Credible people appointed on merit would not compromise anything on their principles and will keep to their respective tasks without minding who put them their. But first, let us give our MPs their own parliament house. It begins from there,” said Bamusi.
That way, cabinet positions will cease to be viewed as a loyalty bonus, and the courts will maintain their long-held independence tag.
The courts in Malawi are touted for their independence, and have more often than not made decisions that have gone against the executive.
Mutharika knows it because, during the past three years, he has come out of his cocoon to declare that some judges were “mercenary” for their continued representation of power perceived as “enemies of national development”. The veil did not pass some judges uncovered, with the president questioning the impartiality of some of them.
This, however, has not affected the credibility of the courts, as seen through their continued “above-par” performance, as observed by Undule Mwakasungula, chairperson for HRCC.
He has asked the newly elected MPs to forget about the siemens-twin naturedness of their house to that of Mutharika’s residence.
That should be treated as a mere democratic coincidence that will be sorted out with time, according to Mwakasungula.
“But our democracy is safe. The three branches intact,” he added.
One day, the separation of the three branches will be indicative through the physical distance from one to another. Their common purpose through the way they compliment each other, and respect each other decisions, observers hope.
A task the newly sworn in MPs may try to inherit.
AEP
