The current situation on homosexuality takes my mind back
and away to South Africa before President Zuma came into power. As a campaign
gimmick, he had promised his countrymen (especially the unemployed) that he was
going to nationalize vital industries such as mining. The promise created panic
and excitement at the same time. The then serving president, Thabo Mbeki, was
viewed as unreasonable due to his laxity on this issue.
Upon taking over from Mbeki, Zuma realized that running a
country is not easy as making an “empty promise”. He had to comprehend the fact
that world trade dynamics, in a capitalist economy, are complicated such that
his “nationalization” drive would even hurt the people who voted for him.
Back home, our current president has dealt with the
homosexual issue rather similarly only that she has found her way out smartly.
Those who thought that her maiden State of the Nation
address two weeks ago had given a lee way for legalization of homosexuality
were in for a rude awakening. Joyce Banda has clearly stated that the issue of homosexuals
should only be debated thoroughly by Malawians afterwhich a consensus will be
reached (if at all it can be).
What worries me is the fact that Her Excellency has
entrusted Parliament as the final institution that will come up with that
decision.
I beg to differ, sadly so.
Since 1994, there is little I see in what the National
Assembly has done to represent the masses. We have always elected people who
have ended up making decisions that please party masters (It has to be said
that all political parties in MALAWI operate on a generic philosophy and they
all look similar).If a party leader says yes to something, then the whole
contingent of MPs in that particular party will think uniformly.
Let me divert a bit. MPs should remember that they have a
representational role above their law-making. If these people fail to represent
us and go to parliament to rubberstamp whatever comes on the table for as long
as it is on the party script, then honestly we need to think otherwise.
2014 is going to come faster than we think and our villages
our going to be flooded with aspirants looking for our votes. I have always
thought of initiating a project that sensitizing people not to vote (voter
apathy) for the sole reason that their participation does not bear fruits.
We live in a country where our MPs do not operate on
philosophy but blind affiliation. Sometimes I ask myself why we should have 193
MPs when they lack diversity.
I understand that these parties conduct caucuses before
every sitting of parliament and it is here where a script is written. Every
item is scrutinized and the party agrees how it will tackle a particular issue.
If all political parties look the same then what’s the use
of having so many of them? Now, back to our issue. Deny it if you want but all the bad laws
(or the effort to pass them) have been advocated by the same MPs who later on
take a different stand on the same.
How could an MP think that a bill is good today and change
his stand six months later? Keep count here; Injunctions Bill, Police Bill, Protected Flags, Emblems and Names Bill; all these were changed and
reversed by the same August House within a period of one year. Where is the
integrity?
Now are we sure that these people will represent our views morally on
this contentious issue? I really doubt.
The best way to put the issue of homosexuality to rest is
through a Referendum. And I think most issues should go through referenda as
well.
Our MPs have done a bad job on their representational role
and it’s high time we employed a new path of getting our views heard.
This forum will not talk about a few exceptions of the MPs
who have stood ground against bad legislation. But whoever you are, just keep
it up.
We are tired of being represented. Give us a voice through
Referendums!
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