Handouts damaging to growth

NORTH Fly MP James Donald has told his people that handouts are impediments to the country’s development.
“To win favour with the voters, you simply feed them, become a warehouse and you get elected,” he said.
He said most MPs had won elections in part because of handouts and yet, they wondered why people continued to expect enticements before voting for them.
“I am serving a first term and have focused from day one on trying to educate and solve this impediment head-on and I am continuing to struggle every day,” Donald said.
He said it was not easy trying to change people’s attitude of expecting handouts but he would continue to advocate for change.
“We politicians (111 MPs) must, at some stage, stop this,” he said.
“We must all announce to our people and tell them we are not going to be Father Christmas and so on. We must all agree to stop giving handouts and teach our people to work hard and make them feel responsible too.”
Donald said MPs needed to ensure services and proper incentives were provided.
“Put to good use the resources to build roads, bridges, telecommunications, transport, power, airstrips, provide accessible health care, education, water, agriculture, create markets and others,” he said.
Donald said he was looking to introduce a legislation in Parliament that would hold politicians liable for actions such as giving money to influence voters.
He said MPs and candidates needed to be held accountable for actions such as bribery and corrupt practices.
“The law must also prosecute voters, people or groups who just seek free handouts for not doing any genuine work,” Donald said.