by Cyprian Ndau
Malawi Congress Party (MCP) legislator Thursday branded Bisnowaty, a “foreigner” and a “Jew” during the on-going parliament deliberations.
This came when Bisnowaty, parliamentarian for Lilongwe City Center, commented on the hunger situation in the country saying during the reign of Kamuzu Banda, founder of Malawi Congress Party and of the nation, there were also incidents of food shortages but people could not talk about it.
This angered the MCP legislator who retaliated with the discriminatory remarks.
Bisnowaty, who took offence, wrote the Speaker of Parliament on the matter and demanded that the remarks uttered by the parliamentarian be deleted from the hansard of the day’s parliamentary proceedings.
On Monday, Bisnowaty told parliament that he found the racist remarks very offending considering that he came from a background where he lost a large part of his family due to the infamous holocaust during the Nazi reign in Germany.
“I want this house to understand where I come from: I come from a family who are holocaust survivors. I come from a family where my grandmother was the only survivor of eleven brothers and sisters through the days of the Nazi in Germany,” Bisnowaty said.
“I come from a family where my mother stayed in concentration camp for a year and the only sin that was committed was that we were Jews,” he said.
The legislator said he did not expect to hear those racist remarks from any Malawian because for decades he had stayed in the country, he had considered all Malawians loving people.
But leader of opposition and MCP president, Lazarus Chakwera, apologized to Bisnowaty and the nation at large for the racist remarks saying the founding president, Kamuzu Banda, used to acknowledge all Malawians to live together in peace and harmony including those whose origin and culture was different from the typical Malawian.
“I believe that there is but one human race… I take responsibility, as president of the party, of the sins of my fathers and I, therefore, ask all Malawians everywhere – and that includes the honourable Member of Parliament here – to forgive the Malawi Congress Party of all its past atrocities,” said Chakwera.
Bisnowaty, has since accepted the apology “in the interest of democracy and for the fact that Malawi should move forward”.
Meanwhile, the Speaker of Parliament, Richard Msowoya (who is also member of MCP), deputy leader and representative of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Kondwani Nankhumwa, have also condemned the utterance of any remarks that are discriminatory of racist.
David Bisnowaty is an Israel national with Malawian citizenship and he made it to parliamentary seat during the May 2015 elections beating eleven contesters.
The discriminatory remarks have since been deleted from the hansard, according to the Speaker’s announcement on Monday. Enditem
Source: Xinhua
