Speaker of Parliament should bring the august House out of hiding

 

Analysis by Mphatso Moses Kaufulu

Under former President, late Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, Malawi was not just a single-party state — it was also a political system anchored in Presidential Supremacy.

In general, a presidential system privileges the president in sanctioning and prosecuting the national agenda, and requires of parliaments and judiciaries to conduct their functions deferentially in support of that agenda. Under Kamuzu Banda, this was broadly the Malawian system.

However, the 1994 Constitution established a system of constitutional supremacy. In my humble judgment, among other important aspects, the most critical to establishing constitutional supremacy in practice was the bestowment of extraordinary powers upon the judiciary, particularly the High Court.

More than Parliament because its procedural customs develop slowly — the judiciary became the immediate custodian of constitutional supremacy, and not just because the constitution itself provides these functions but rather because remnants of Kamuzu Banda’s presidential system were on a collision course with an emerging constitutional system defended by Courts which are easier moved by citizens than the National Assembly.

In this summation, I do not mean to overlook socioeconomic inequalities especially race, gender, wealth and income, disability and education, and how these thwart access to the justice system — notwithstanding the justice system’s own structural limitations (in capacity, funding and personnel) which compound said inequalities.

What I mean to say is, despite the change in political arrangements with the 1994 constitution, governance practices emanating from Banda’s presidential system persisted into the new era, with the judiciary the primary institution available to the public to check some of those practices.

However, I also believe judicialized politics is not sustainable in the long term:

Firstly, it could turn politics into a technical endeavor undertaken in courtrooms rather than an activity for the public theater.

Secondly, a class of unaccountable interest groups with diverse agendas and the means to hire lawyers could develop over time.

When considered in conjunction with socioeconomic inequalities, the judicialization of politics could further marginalize everyday people, replacing them with connected, moneyed elites.

Despite its deliberative character and its ability, unlike the judiciary, to turn its attention to any matter of public interest without being moved, the National Assembly save for a few instances has been a largely absent institution.

As a part of Parliament, it has been ‘managed’ by the executive, particularly through its budget allocations, and also through a legislative system privileging executive business.

Additionally, it has lacked resolute leadership from successive Speakers to advocate its significance as an institution on par with the executive and judiciary.

For example, when disputes have broken out in parliament among MPs, High Court injunctions have been sought to block various proceedings.

Such events have done much to erode parliament of its stature, relegating its status to a subsidiary of the executive and judiciary in our national politics.

Moreover, there is a procedural irony in the National Assembly — despite being the most representative of the three branches with 193 directly elected members (as opposed to 2 in the executive and none in the judiciary), its use of English as the language of business ostracizes its vast collective constituency.

English not only presents barriers for elected members when representing their voters, but it also obstructs engagement by the wider largely non-English speaking public.

Among the things the current Speaker could do to create an inclusive National Assembly is to make Parliament a multilingual institution. Multilingualism will push our repressed sociocultural diversity into Malawi’s national politics, and force us to engage with and embrace that diversity before serious political dilemmas and challenges develop in future.

A chasm exists at the center of politics, which will not be filled by the executive or judiciary.

The judicialization of politics owes its occurrence to an absent people’s house amidst a power struggle between outdated executive practices and new constitutional arrangements.

A dynamic National Assembly is direly needed — the Speaker should help give us one.

*The writer is a Womanist; a Pan-Africanist and Political Scientist who maintains a Medium blogging account where he predominantly writes about postcoloniality, race and gender. Occasionally, he also writes analyses on International Political Economyand Malawian Politics.