Greetings Gambia-l,
I thought the following article might be of interest to some of you.
Have a good week end!
Momodou Camara
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Genuine Democracy Needed, Annan Tells Legislators
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 31 (IPS) - UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
told a conference of parliamentarians that democratic and human
rights cannot be guaranteed simply by holding elections.
''For elections to be genuinely free, and for people to feel
genuinely represented in government, much more is needed,'' he
told a gathering of 412 members of parliament and 152
parliamentary speakers from 141 countries who are meeting here
this week.
Annan said that genuine democracy is not only predicated on free
and fair elections but also on institutional checks and balances,
an independent judiciary, viable political parties, a free press
and the freedom of each individual to express his or her ideas
without fear of retribution.
In an implicit reference to recent political developments in Asia,
Africa and Latin America, he said that attempts to ratify the
illegal seizure of power through flawed elections should be seen
as what they are: ''attempts to gain international recognition for
illegitimate rule by pretending to observe democratic
principles.''
In Africa, General Robert Guei, who engineered a military coup in
the Ivory Coast last year, is planning to run for office as a
civilian candidate in a presidential election scheduled for Oct.
22. In Asia, Pakistan has reverted to military rule under General
Pervaz Musharaff who has refused to provide a time-table for the
resumption of a democratic government.
In South America, democracy has been undermined by events in
Ecuador and Peru. The Peruvian government has been accused of
voter manipulation at its recent presidential elections.
The South Pacific, on the other hand, has been unsettled by coups
in Fiji and the Solomon Islands.
Najma Heptulla of India, President of the Conference of Presiding
Officers of National Parliaments, told reporters Wednesday that
parliamentarians meeting at the United Nations are trying to forge
a closer political relationship with the world body.
The three-day conference, which is sponsored by the Geneva-based
Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), is trying to bring a
''parliamentary dimension'' to the United Nations, she said.
The conference, which concludes Friday, is timed to precede the
Millennium Summit of over 150 world leaders at the United Nations
on Sep.6-8.
Heptulla said the parliamentarians' conference seeks to stress
that democracy was the only way of redressing people's problems,
and that more and more countries were adopting it.
''And as presiding officers of their respective parliaments, the
participants at the conference would be translating the decisions
taken by the UN and their own governments, and facilitating the
implementation of all those decisions back home,'' she added.
Asked about Pakistan's absence from the conference, Heptulla said
the IPU had decided to suspend Pakistan's membership because that
country did not have a parliament. But she felt that Pakistan
could reclaim full membership in the organisation in the near
future - once parliamentary government was restored.
IPU Secretary-General Anders Johnsson said that globalisation is
having a profound impact on political, economic, social and
cultural relations throughout the world. ''It is forcing
democracies to take a closer look at the inner workings of their
legislatures: at how they enact laws and how they oversee the
executive.''
Johnsson said examples are legion. When legislators discuss
investment or employment bills in the Mexican Congress, for
instance, they frequently invoke the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) that links the Mexican economy to those of
Canada and the United States.
''Hardly a day goes in the parliaments of Indonesia or Thailand
without members referring to the recent financial crisis and its
aftermath. Debates in African parliaments constantly refer to
external events while members of parliament (MPs) in western
European countries have for long been grappling with the
implications of European integration,'' he added.
But MPs in all countries have one thing in common: they are
elected to represent the people in their countries. In order to be
able to fulfil that constitutional mandate in today's world, MPs
have no choice - they have to play a much bigger part in
international co-operation. And they do, Johnsson said.
At the World Forum on Democracy in Warsaw last month, Annan said
that popular sovereignty is also being increasingly threatened by
a new danger: ''fig-leaf democracy''.
Certainly, many young democracies are making quiet but persistent
progress, with regular and legitimate elections and peaceful
transfers of power, Annan said.
''But last year alone has witnessed a troubling number of cases
where democratic rule has been subverted, or maintained in name
only, while in reality authoritarian government has taken over,''
he complained. (END/IPS/IP/td/da/00)
Origin: SJAAMEX/POLITICS/
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[c] 2000, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS)
All rights reserved
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home page: http://home3.inet.tele.dk/mcamara
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