United Democratic Front (UDF) leader Atupele Muluzi has said that Malawians should demand better services from government instead of falling prey to cheap politics of handouts.

“Malawians should stop being contented with t-shirts and party-cloth handouts from political parties,” Muluzi said at Mdeka in Blantyre during a whistle stop tour at the weekend.

He said Malawians are too patient and longsuffering; that is why politicians take advantage to exploit them.

“As Malawians we should be careful and we should open our eyes. The problem we have as Malawians is that we endure too much. Politicians will come, abuse you but you just brood over your pains.

“When elections come after you have been abused and insulted; politicians come with two things: a t-shirt and a party cloth. And when we see that we are easily taken away not knowing that we are subjecting ourselves to political exploitation, we don’t ask what parties stand for and what their vision is,” he said.

Muluzi said Malawi is in a bad state because politicians deliberately create problems for people so that when they intervene they should be seen as if they are doing good service to the people.

He said, as a party, the UDF is against recycled politicians who have turned politics into a business by defecting to any party that is in the government instead of standing for an ideology.

“It is politicians who create problems for you. It is when things are not going right (in the country) when they find an opportunity to plunder. Malawians are complaining that they don’t have clothes, food, jobs and there is no medicine in hospitals.

“Parliament approves a budget which includes subsidised fertiliser but you discover that the system is still faulty. It is nothing but politicians’ tactic to make people needy. There are people who are always close to the Presidential throne. Once a government changes they are so quick and join another one. All they know is to find opportunities to plunder,” he said.

He said the UDF will make sure that people have money, access to social grants for the underprivileged, establish a credible system to monitor and ensure that government policies and programmes are efficient as well as provide security in the country.

Muluzi said that the country needs serious and quick interventions to solve the looming hunger crisis and find means to provide employment opportunities for its youth who he said are loitering around. – By Madalitso Musa