INSIDE ISSUES


child labour, this will take more than legislation.


Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II signing the Commonwealth Charter.


From the world’s largest democracy we turn to one of its smallest, the Falkland Islands. Faced by renewed sabre-rattling by Argentinian political leaders pressing their claim to this British – and Commonwealth – outpost in the South Atlantic Ocean, Islanders voted in a referendum early this year on whether they wish to remain British. Hon. Dick Sawle, MLA, an elected Member of both the legislative and executive arms of the Falklands government, writes here on the overwhelming result.


MP, Ms Nosilivere Magadla, MP, and Ms Fatima Hajaig, MP, all House Chairpersons in the National Assembly or the NCOP, write on their particular areas of parliamentary responsibility, which range from committees to international relations. We are particularly pleased to publish in the Profile an article from a prominent South African Parliamentarian who is not from the national Parliament. Hon. Lindiwe Maseko, MPL, Speaker of the Gauteng provincial Legislature and a former Chairperson of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians, writes here on the formal joint programme adopted by the national Parliament and the nine provincial Legislatures to enable all of them to work together to strengthen public involvement in parliamentary democracy and parliamentary oversight of the executive. The peaceful transformation of South Africa from an apartheid state into a non-racial democracy was a remarkable accomplishment. An extract from the memoirs of the late Prof. Kader Asmal, a key participant in that transformation who subsequently sat in the National Assembly for a decade, is reproduced here to provide an insight into those historic times.


We provide Clerkly perspectives on the role and evolution of Parliament in the first two decades of the new South Africa from Secretary to Parliament Mr Michael Coetzee and the Secretaries of the National


Assembly, Mr Masibulele Xaso, and the National Council of Provinces, Advocate Modibede Phindela. The Profile concludes with: an article on the electoral system by Mr Norman du Plessis of the Electoral Commission; accounts from parliamentary officials Adv. Nonkosi Cetywayo, Mr Luzuko Jacobs and Mrs Sindiswa Tyhokolo- Mbetshe of their roles in support of the Parliament of South Africa, and by reports on parliamentary support for constituency work, the State of the Nation address and parliamentary artworks.


The fact that such an impressive, innovative and representative Parliament has come so far in just less than two decades demonstrates the confidence that the vast majority of South Africans shared in their ability to make their “rainbow” nation work, and the confidence that the Commonwealth should have in itself for helping them significantly along the way.


Confidence is also an issue in financial circles these days, both for governments and for the private sector. Hon. Bill English, MP, New Zealand’s Finance Minister, explains in this issue how his government has sought to counter the effects of the global financial crisis and maintain an economy that is one of the few to escape the worst consequences of a lack of global confidence in investments.


Confidence seems to be at least one of the issues surrounding the


level of representation of women in Parliaments and Legislatures. In an article here based on her presentation to a ministerial meeting earlier this year, the Chairperson of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians, Hon. Alix Boyd Knights, MHA, Speaker of Dominica’s House of Assembly, does not suggest that women lack the confidence to hurl themselves into the political fray. In her experience, most women candidates do not lack confidence. But she does acknowledge that one of the factors militating against female representation is the high number of women voters who tend to vote for men. She writes here on what could be done to give women more confidence in women so the concept of a woman as an MP becomes “standard”.


Often the women who do make it into Parliament are pushed into what are seen as “women’s issues” such as health, education, gender equality, child care and social services. We counter that typecasting, as we have done in this issue, by publishing Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar’s article on foreign policy. We also counter it by publishing an article by a man on one of the traditional female focuses – children. Shri Kalyan Banerjee, MP, a Member of the Indian Parliament, writes here on how India is trying to curtail the use of child labour and encourage children to go to school instead. He notes that in a country with a long history of


Also early this year, another small Commonwealth island jurisdiction, Fiji Islands, was finally on a clear path back to democracy after seven years of military rule. An internationally supported constitutional review had reported and the stage appeared to be set for a return to elected governance in 2014. Then the military government stepped in to trash the report (apparently literally), reject the recommended democratic governance structure and embark on its own constitution-making. Fijian political sociologist Dr Steven Ratuva writes in this issue about the prospect that his country may yet escape from its sixth military government in 25 years.


Tragically, there was no escape for a young Delhi woman who was viciously attacked on a bus last December allegedly by five men and a boy. The government acted swiftly to increase the punishment for such barbaric incidents; but, as Parliament was not sitting, they amended the necessary legislation by executive ordinance. Dr Vivek K. Agnihotri, the former Secretary-General of the Rajya Sabha, analyses here the propensity of Indian governments to take law-making into their own hands, even if only temporarily till Parliament resumes. Finally, Mr Neil Iddawala, the Deputy Secretary-General of the Parliament of Sri Lanka, reports on a new approach to economic development based on government support for local initiatives.


The Parliamentarian | 2013: Issue Two | 93


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