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Over the past few days I have spent a significant amount of time moderating the comments made by the public on the different Members of Parliament profiles on www.mzalendo.com. The comments made on the profiles of our Members of Parliament continually raise two questions First what is the level of engagement between members of parliament with their constituents, outside of political rallies. Second and how in touch are members of parliament with the needs and priorities of their constituents?
In my opinion both questions go to the heart of the quality of representation that the electorate receive from their elected representatives. Without engagement between members of the parliament and the electorate there can be little knowledge of constituents concerns, and without proper knowledge of the concerns of the constituents there can be no adequate representation.
The comments made by the public on MPs profiles indicate a demonstrable disconnect between members of parliament and the public that they represent. While there are a significant number of positive comments, most of the comments seem symptomatic of a public that has lost trust in their members of parliament.
The most common sources of disgruntlement appear to be misuse, mismanagement, or misappropriation of funds from Constituency Development Fund, lack of basic infrastructural development, lack of adequate state provision of basic services i.e. water, electricity, education etc, lack creation of economic opportunities and in some instance the seeming simultaneous self enrichment of MPs while in office and impoverishment of constituents and constituencies. Several comments highlighted the disconnect between the debates and issues raised by legislators on the floor of parliament and the realities and priorities of their constituents.
Members of Parliament have, seem for the most part, to have lost the respect of the people. Our members of parliament are increasingly seen as having lost touch with the people, this could be a result of spending too much time in Parliament and not enough time talking to constituents. Consequently there seem appears to be an evidence of a distinct disassociation between what out elected representatives say and how their constituents feel. As the election year looms MP appear to rallying around parties, and personalities rather then speaking for the people who have elected them. It seems that for sometime people feel that our members of parliament have not looked, sounded, talked acted like us, and that much of the electorate has been reduced to election tool to be used every five years. If people are to regain confidence in the political system then candidates need to reflect society, the people they seek to represent, unless MPs states to take the temperature of the public, listen and react
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