Members of Parliament (MPs) have been urged to serve the interest of a common Malawian other than their political ideologies.

First Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Madalitso Kazombo made the remarks at Malawi Institute of Management (MIM) in Lilongwe where a third cohort of 40 lawmakers is undergoing training.

According to Kazombo, it is unfortunate to observe that for so long politicians have been following party ideologies other than national principles.

“Very true, in Malawi we are busy following the colour of the necktie, we follow the colour of the party so, and we follow party ideologies other than national ideologies.

“People want water, people want food, and people want markets for their produce, so we need to put national agenda first, Malawi should come first, parties second,” said Kazombo.

On his part, MIM acting executive director Samson Sikelo Phiri said the three week training will see the Parliamentarians being drilled on how best they can represent Malawians in their oversight, representation and legislation mandates.

“The training is very important, we have been handling these training for the past ten years and we have seen is that after each and every training we have seen some improvements.

Like we have the second in November and during the budget session it was clear that the MPs have improved in the way they are deliberating in the Parliament,” he said.