We Are With You — Britain Tells Parliament

Despite the growing friction between Malawi’s Executive and Parliament over the legislature’s attempts to strengthen its oversight of government institutions, Britain has moved to reaffirm its support for Parliament, pledging to help strengthen the very committees and structures at the centre of the current political storm.

UK Ambassador to Malawi, Her Excellency Leigh Stubblefield, made the commitment during a courtesy meeting with Speaker of Parliament Right Honourable Sameer Suleman at Parliament Building in Lilongwe.

Stubblefield said the British Government was committed to supporting Parliament in enhancing parliamentary oversight and building the capacity of legislators and parliamentary staff, particularly through training and support to parliamentary committees.

The timing of the message is significant.

The Speaker’s decision to establish joint committees to scrutinise a range of issues affecting Malawians has triggered an increasingly heated debate over the powers and independence of Parliament, with the Democratic Progressive Party warning that parliamentary oversight should not become an alternative centre of executive authority.

The dispute has also moved into the courts, with the High Court issuing an interim order stopping Speaker Suleman and Parliament from establishing or operationalising joint ad hoc committees to investigate several government institutions, including the Immigration Department, ESCOM, EGENCO, Power Market Limited, Blantyre Water Board and NOCMA.

Government, however, has publicly denied any involvement in the court challenge, saying the case was brought by private citizen Austin Mkoka in his personal capacity.

Against this backdrop, Britain’s decision to tell Parliament that it wants to help strengthen oversight and build the capacity of its committees carries a message that is unlikely to escape political attention.

Stubblefield said Britain wanted to understand how Parliament operates and identify areas where the two sides could work together, particularly in training and capacity development for parliamentary staff and committees.

She did not publicly take a position on the ongoing dispute between Parliament, the Executive and the courts. But her emphasis on strengthening parliamentary oversight comes at a time when the role and independence of the legislature have become one of Malawi’s most closely watched governance debates.

Suleman welcomed the British commitment, describing the United Kingdom as a longstanding partner of Malawi and expressing interest in strengthening relations between the two legislatures.

He further asked Britain to assist in establishing a friendship group between the Parliament of Malawi and the UK Parliament, which would allow lawmakers from the two countries to exchange experiences, ideas and opportunities for capacity development.

For Suleman, the engagement provides an opportunity to deepen Parliament’s institutional links with one of the world’s oldest parliamentary democracies at a particularly sensitive moment for Malawi’s own legislature.

The Speaker has maintained that Parliament has a responsibility to respond to concerns brought before it by Malawians and has defended his push for greater scrutiny of issues ranging from electricity and fuel procurement to passports, pensions, prisons, mining and public institutions.

And now, as the battle over how far Parliament can go in exercising that responsibility continues, Britain has made its position on one thing clear: it wants to help Malawi’s Parliament become stronger at doing its job.

For a Parliament currently fighting over the meaning of oversight, that is a message carrying considerably more weight than an ordinary diplomatic courtesy call.