By Cathy Maulidi:
Chaos erupted in Parliament Friday when Sameer Suleman, Member of Parliament for Blantyre City South East, stood on a point of order and began speaking despite First Deputy Speaker Madalitso Kazombo’s refusal to grant him the floor.
Suleman continued speaking, defying instructions from the Kazombo who ordered him to sit down, going on to question the House’s leadership on why they deny others opportunities to speak in the House.
Tempers then flared as Suleman traded barbs with the First Deputy Speaker and government lawmakers sending the chamber into total chaos.
This incident prompted Kazombo to evoke Standing Order 105 sending Suleman out of the House on a one-day suspension.
But despite seeing the Sergeant at-arms who came to show him the way out, Suleman did not walk out of the Chamber immediately.
Instead, he continued to address Kazombo and the government MPs over his rights to speak in the House.
This pushed Kazombo to extend the punishment from a day to five days.
This means Suleman is to return to the House on December 8.
Speaking to journalists when out of the House, Suleman claimed what happened is a result of the ruling party’s attempts to silence him.
Suleman alleged that the government is deliberately blocking him from speaking in Parliament for political reasons.
He specifically mentioned that he stood up to question President Lazarus Chakwera’s trip to the United Arab Emirates.
“I wanted to know why President Chakwera is getting himself involved in fuel supply deals. During his address on Wednesday, he stated that he will be chasing the Government-to-Government deals himself and that he will be travelling to UAE on the same.
“He even stated that the Open Tendering on fuel has not helped Malawi and he has decided to step in. My question is: How is he getting involved when there are institutions specifically mandated to handle such deals?
“My worry is the President is immune and can’t be held accountable if he is involved in corruption while sitting as President. So the fuel sector is full of corruption and who knows, what if he gets tempted and engages in corruption? Who will Malawians ask since he can’t be arrested?” Suleman said.
He added that though he was silenced to speak about this in Parliament, he will not allow to be silenced again to voice out Malawians’ concerns.
“The August House is not for MCP or Madalitso Kazombo. I came here after being elected by the people from my constituency and not on President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera or Kazombo’s ticket.
“I have information that some government top officials recently held a caucus where they agreed to block me and some top officials from DPP from speaking in the House and I stood in the House to prove that,” said Suleman.
Back in the House, Kazombo adjourned proceedings to Monday next week but before that he urged the opposition leadership in the House to look into the conduct of their MPs.
“Leader of Opposition talk to your members,” Kazombo said.
Leader of the House Richard Chimwendo Banda left the House visibly upset.
He did not speak to the media as he normally does every Friday after adjournment.
Chakwera travels to UAE next week to discuss fuel deal with the UAE government.
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