KIRIBATI DEMOCRACY


This page: An aerial view of Kiribati; Right: Women in traditional Kiribatian costumes performing a dance


the majority of those present – particularly the old men and women – quite strongly opposed the idea of political parties being introduced into our Parliament. This, however, was countered by the argument that political parties were an integral part of the Westminster system; they had been adopted by all former colonies of Britain and were now the norm in all Commonwealth Parliaments. The final advice given to us


by those who were to write our constitution was that there was nothing to prevent Members of Parliament, if they so wished, from


forming political parties as it was the normal thing to do in a Westminster- style Parliament. Years later it came to my knowledge that the Parliament of the Isle of Man, a dependency of the British Crown and the world’s longest continuing Parliament, had been and still is operating without a political party system. It had managed for a small nation to achieve success both politically and economically. Thus, even though this idea of


creating political parties was not required, as was the decision of the Independence Convention by not including it in the constitution, it was


28 | The Parliamentarian | 2013: Issue One


silently encouraging it to happen and it did. Sadly, its major consequence on how decisions are reached is that the majority of those decisions are now discussed in our Parliament or island council meetings along party lines. It attracts adversarial debating that in many instances requires voting to test the majority feeling in order to decide upon the issue being considered. This new concept creates the


feeling that the wish of the majority has to be accepted. The old way of our ancestors, that all decisions must be attained through conciliatory discussions so that a consensus


decision for the good of all is reached, is no longer adopted. The unfortunate consequence


of this is creating a division in the community as people begin to think along party lines and not as one community of a village or of one island. The divisiveness in the community of the village or the island emerged when the missionaries first arrived. People divided themselves into groups according to which church they belonged to and not as people in one community, one village, or of one island. This feeling, however, began to dissipate after the passing of Catholic


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92