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WILL IT EVER END?

03/05/2018 00:38:00 By vusi Kunene

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WHEN Spain appeared for its session of the Universal Periodic Review she made a recommendation that the country must take legal and practical measures to guarantee women equality in political representation.

Our country rightfully accepted that recommendation, meaning that it was indeed going to take those measures. The country will soon appear for its mid-term review and these are some of the recommendations the country has to respond to when it appears.

I am pleased that there is the Election of Women in the House of Assembly Bill in Parliament, which is a legal step towards fulfilling the recommendation. I must mention though that the tendency of Parliament to introduce such Bills with haste and be passed without debate is a concern and I wonder if it will ever end.
This was the same thing that the erstwhile Parliament did with the election laws that they passed when they were already at the door of Parliament.

I wonder why were the election laws not introduced timeously so that there was enough time for engagement on them. Our MPs knew when they entered Parliament that there was a need to have women elected into the House but the Ministry of Justice, like the last time, waited for the last minute to bring the Bill on a certificate of urgency. The urgency is self-created and should not be entertained because it seems like there is something the ministry is hiding.

What then happened to the Bill; Members of Parliament walked out of Parliament when it was supposed to be debated because they did not see eye to eye with the minister of Justice? Now business has to stop.
This is not the first time that business was stopped in Parliament because there were differences between ministers and Members of Parliament.

Will this ever end? Have both parties considered that their actions of trying to show who has power over the other is not affecting them but the people of this country?

They are going to be paid for the sitting they walked out of and it is the ordinary people’s money that is going to be used. The minister will also be paid together with his staff yet he did no work on the day. Is it not time that we have laws like the no work no pay rule even for ministers and parliamentarians?

When one wonders what it is that these people are disagreeing about, you find that there is no saint among them. If it is true that the minister ordered the Anti-Corruption Commission staff not attend the probe by Parliament then you wonder where is the respect for Parliament by the minister?

Is it not the constitutional duty of Parliament to play an oversight role on the Executive? If yes, why did the minister decide to sabotage Parliament when it was exercising its duties? Is there something that the minister is trying to hide that the probe will discover if it is allowed to speak to the officers of the ACC? Is the minister not looking down on Parliament? For how long will the Executive continue not realising that it has to work with the Legislature? Will the cat and mouse chase ever end?

Parliamentarians must also realise that they are not above everything. They cannot just budge in everywhere because they play an oversight role. They also need to follow procedures. Before going to the ACC they should have had a discussion with the head of the ministry in charge of the ACC.

They must also realise that no matter how good and valid what they are doing might be, if there is some conflict of interest then we will not see their good intentions. There are people who have been investigated by the ACC and have their matters pending in court, the question then is will they be objective enough in their work or they will want to settle scores? We know how bitter they are with the way they were investigated and arrested and whatever they will come up with will not be credible in the public eye.

Trying to get what they want with whatever means will not make a good image for Parliament and this has been going on for some time.
The country has obligations to meet and an image to protect, and this is the duty of both the Executive and Legislature. These are the same institutions that are quick to complain that people go out of the country to speak ill of it yet they are also the ones who give these people the arsenal to use in speaking ill of the country. Now the Bill that was going to make the country fulfil its promises to its peers is frustrated for no good reason.