Parliament not a talking shop?
What you need to know:
- MPs are sent to the Parliament to be paid millions for talking
I always thought Parliament was a talking shop but the data you published on the number of times our “honourable” members of Parliament have said something in the August House has changed my thinking.
They say that figures don’t lie and my analysis showed that from May 2021 to May 2022, a whole 64 MPs each earned their tax-free Shs 300 million without disturbing their mouths.
Another 42 members “served” us by opening their mouths to speak just once. And not to bore your readers with more details, only 94 MPs bothered to speak more than 20 times in nearly 400 days of “work”.
The word parliament is the etymological offspring of the French verb ‘parler’ which means in English to talk or to speak. So MPs are sent to the Parliament to be paid millions for talking. I should expect each member to have spoken at least 50 times, even if some utter nonsense much of the time.
So really having a Parliament of nearly 500 and among them only 27 found it necessary to talk on 50 times or more is a disappointment and points to the sad conclusion that our Parliament is doing less than it could to move this country forward.
But it also says a lot about the people who bother to line up to vote for them. The biggest let-down was to see all those special interest group representatives (women, youth, workers, disabled, elderly, etc.) letting down their constituents by not contributing to debates and a number among the absolute mute.
Now since over 400 of 529 MPs did not “parler”, more than 20 times in a year, it means the country and its people can do without them. That is really a case for reducing the Parliament to just one member per district. It might also help if members are elected after a high-school type public debate to convince voters that they can talk, and talk sense.
And one last thought, MPs not talking at least four times a month when Parliament is in session should lead to loss of part of their hefty salary; and persistent offenders should be kicked out altogether and voters afforded the opportunity to elect an effective replacement.
Authored by HGK Nyakoojo
Buziga, Kampala.
