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• Address to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Annual Conference

Address to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Annual Conference

Date: 9 Sep 2002
Speaker: Secretary-General Don McKinnon
Location: Windhoek, Namibia

Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen,

It is a privilege to be in Windhoek once more. It is an honour to have been invited to address this 48th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference, not least because it provides me with the opportunity to underline yet again the value of the CPA's work and the high regard in which the CPA is held throughout the association. Above all it is a great pleasure to be amongst so many good friends.

It would be invidious - and take much too much time - to pick out too many individuals, so I won't. Instead, I want to say something about just one of my very good friends here today, your Secretary-General Denis Marshall. As many of you will have noticed, we are from the same country. We were in the same party, the same Government, even the same Cabinet. And we're even nearly the same age!

However, my appreciation for Denis is not merely a matter of national solidarity or the memories we share. It has to do with his very real achievements here and now.

Since becoming your Secretary-General Denis has endeavoured to enhance the profile of this Association. He has worked to ensure that the CPA plays its full part in enabling public representatives to be as well informed as possible - I am thinking, for instance, of your work on the international trading system and in particular the activities of the World Trade Organisation. And Denis has continued the work of modernising the CPA Secretariat.

Meanwhile, we in the Commonwealth Secretariat are now working even more closely with you in the CPA. I want to pick out in particular:

· our continued co-operation in the organisation of Commonwealth Election Observer Groups;

· our joint work in Sierra Leone - where democracy took a big step forward this year; and

· the forthcoming workshop on political participation in the democratic process, focusing especially on young people.

All this co-operation is good. We must ensure that it continues. Thank you
Denis, and thank you to everyone in the CPA.

I want to make just three simple points: first about the Commonwealth and globalisation; secondly about the Commonwealth and terrorism and how that relates to your conference theme, human security; and finally, I want to end with some remarks about one aspect of our common endeavour to promote democracy.

Mr Chairman, I am clear that globalisation has its disadvantages as well as its advantages. Alongside the positive, there is - to borrow and amend a phrase from the former British Prime Minister Edward Heath - "the unacceptable face of globalisation".

And the conclusion we in the Commonwealth have reached is that while freedom for trade, investment and capital flows is important, while the benefits of mobile phones, credit cards and the Internet are apparent to those who have them, in order to ensure freedom for people we have to see the benefits of globalisation in many more parts of the world. What is at issue is not globalisation, but rather its character - and that is a matter of how it is managed, who benefits from it and whether it is possible to have rules.

Many of you will know that I have been championing what I call 'a spirit of generous globalisation'. For the good of all, there has to be much more equality of opportunity throughout the world.

· On the matter of equity: today the assets of the world's top three billionaires exceed the GNP of all the 48 least developed countries - population 600 million;

· it's not just a matter of money: while many of us worry about the type of personal computer we have and are being submerged under an avalanche of text messages and the rest, most of the world's population have never made a phone call;

· and global inequalities are increasing: the gap between the richest 20 per cent and the poorest 20 per cent of the world's population has doubled over the past 40 years;

· figures produced by the Commonwealth Secretariat show that in Commonwealth countries alone some 660 million people live below the poverty line of US $1 per day;

· And as emerged at the WSSD last week, 1.2 billion people have no chance of seeing, let alone drinking a glass of clean water.

That's why you will recall that at last year's Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference my colleague Winston Cox called for much stronger representation of the South in the management of the global economy. It is also why, in March this year, Commonwealth Heads of Government said that "the benefits of globalisation must be shared more widely" and urged that the process must be channelled for the elimination of poverty and human deprivation.

Mr Chairman, those words must set the tone for all our efforts to forge an international economic system that is just, as well as productive and profitable. We can begin by making a reality of the agreement reached between the developing and the industrialised countries at Monterrey and Doha and in the establishment of NEPAD (the New Partnership for African Development).

Last week, I was in Johannesburg for the World Summit on Sustainable Development. There were some significant outcomes: improved access to water and sanitation for the world's poor, increased protection of fish stocks, progress on biodiversity and sustainable consumption. These are important developments. But if we want to make a real difference in the lives of the poorest people on our planet, more must be done.

For a start, rich countries must open their markets to developing countries' exports, not "maybe", not "some time", not "let's talk about it", not "this is very difficult", but in a spirit of generosity and common sense, just open the door. Developed countries must also increase development assistance and improve debt relief. And of course, developing countries must do their part too: by implementing good fiscal and monetary policies, by tackling corruption and by improving on corporate governance, they can establish a favourable investment climate in order to attract private capital.

Essentially, the understanding is that developing countries will deliver accountable, transparent and good governance and the industrialised countries will provide more aid and improved trade, investment and debt relief. When they met recently in Canada the G8 Leaders made a definite but slow start, but the process has at least begun.

Mr Chairman, terrorism. We meet in the long and dark shadow of September 11. The threat - and the reality - of terrorism constitutes such a serious challenge to us all that it clearly calls for much more than condemnation and denunciation. That's why we have decided that there is no place in the Commonwealth for any country which harbours, supports or provides assistance to terrorists or permits such activities within its jurisdiction.

We have pledged our support for UN action against terrorism, in particular for the early conclusion of a Comprehensive Convention against Terrorism. And we have committed ourselves to assist our members, particularly the small and less developed members of the Commonwealth, in their efforts to meet their obligations under UN Security Council Resolution 1373, which imposes a new international legal obligation on all states to co-operate against terrorists and, essentially, to deny them space. We are already doing that by helping:

· to prevent the abuse of member countries' financial services industries by terrorists, for instance through money-laundering; and

· to increase the capacity for international co-operation in law enforcement - for instance, in cross-border evidence gathering.

When Heads of Government addressed the issue of terrorism at their meeting in Australia earlier this year, they also said (in their communiqué) that "while terrorist activities are unconscionable and should be eradicated forthwith, the challenge is to understand the root causes of those despicable acts and to deal with them appropriately".

Mr Chairman, that is surely right. And here the whole Commonwealth agenda and your own conference theme are both profoundly relevant.

The Commonwealth agenda increasingly emphasises preventive diplomacy and conflict management and resolution - the techniques and approaches which can help us to stop feelings of disadvantage, grievance, fear, despair and anger leading to division, violence and instability.

More important still, our agenda stresses the need to remove the disadvantages, the grievances, the fears, and the anger in the first place. This can all be done through the promotion of sustainable and equitable development, the pursuance of democracy, the growth of good governance and the recognition of human rights.

We work to do that by:

· ensuring that economic and political freedoms flourish; and

· by trying to enhance human security in the broadest sense - economic security, food security, health security, environmental security, and political security.

Those are worthy ends in themselves. They are also the key to pre-empting and undermining support for the terrorists. Action by our police, soldiers and other security forces is necessary, but by itself it will not be enough. We need a wider definition of security, a comprehensive approach and the determination to tackle the roots and the causes and not just the symptoms of the problem.

Mr Chairman, as I have indicated, it has not escaped my attention that you have chosen for the theme of this conference "The Parliamentary Dimension of Human Security". You also have particular discussion topics on poverty reduction, the preservation of democratic principles, the threat of cyber-terrorism and so on. Given my remarks just now I look forward with special interest to the outcome of your discussions.

The third leg of the tripod of issues to which I referred when I began is our work to ensure that political freedom flourishes. You will be aware of the progress that has been made, but also that many challenges remain.

Zimbabwe and Pakistan are both suspended from the councils of the Commonwealth because of their serious and persistent violations of the Harare Commonwealth Declaration.

In many of our sovereign states, democracy and democratic institutions are in the early maturing stage. Some states would be hard put to identify a single significant democratic institution. Some states are very reluctant to unleash political parties on their population even if it is the people that are the parties.

One of my challenges—in fact, one of my mandates—is to work with the government and the people in a number of our member countries, as a "companion for good" in order to generate positive changes.

Even in countries that are firmly democratic there is no cause for complacency. Can we be content, for instance, with the extent, nature and seriousness of the reflection - by parliamentarians no less than by others - on the role of the democratic institutions in each of our societies? All too often those institutions are taken for granted.

Mr Chairman, many here have heard me on other occasions describing our advocacy and our activism to promote democracy, our emphasis on the need to 'deepen democracy' and the stress we place on everywhere aiming for real content and substance rather than merely the adoption of democratic forms.

You know my argument: that we must continually restate the argument that the democratic process matters in and for itself. To slightly amend the words of the song, "it ain't just what you do, it's the way that you do it". There is a negative case for democracy. As the Australian writer Clive James says in his latest book, "democracy can be even more important for what it prevents than for what it provides". There is, of course, the more famous quote from Winston Churchill: "democracy is the worst form of Government except all those others that have been tried from time to time."

However, I prefer the more positive approach, and I believe that all of us need to make it more vigorously and persuasively than ever before. That is essential if we are to have the commitment to the values and culture of democracy which is the best guarantor of its safety. Alongside that needs to be the effort to constantly review our democratic institutions, processes and practices, so that they command public confidence, promote participation and are capable of working for the common good.

But Mr Chairman, while I am prepared to précis that argument this morning there is too little time for elaboration. What I do want to do instead is to highlight one particular challenge: that of making our political parties work better. Very often, when our Observer Groups come back and report on the elections they have seen it is the failure of the political parties that stands out. When Commonwealth countries experience political crises it is often the troubled state of the main political parties that lies at the heart of the problem.

As the recent and excellent UNDP report - Deepening Democracy in a Fragmented World - points out, in many countries political parties are very weak. However efficient they may be as election machines, between elections many parties cease to play any real role at all. Opposition parties wither away until the next election, and ruling parties become so identified and absorbed into the government bureaucracy that their separate character collapses almost completely.

And even where democracy is strong and politics is not at an impasse, even where the democratic framework is well-established and parties continue to function between elections, our political parties very often fail to meet their wider responsibilities to 'deepen democracy'.

Mr Chairman, the answer is not to despair or to disparage or to do away with the party system. We need it. The case for strong but democratic and accountable political parties as against the authoritarian leader with the supporting cast of unaccountable acolytes hardly needs to be made.

And while a healthy civil society is important for democracy, even non-governmental organisations, for all their merits, cannot do what political parties do - aggregating and representing social interests, providing a structure for political participation, translating policy preferences into public policies and programmes, presenting a comprehensive alternative to the incumbent government. Political parties are the cornerstone of representative democracy.

So, my plea today is for us all to commit ourselves to their reform and renewal. That means active commitment not to our parties as they are today but to our parties as they can and should be. We all know that our political parties can do much more, for instance, to show that they are in touch, to demonstrate the relevance of politics to the lives of ordinary people and in particular to make democratic politics interesting for young people.

They can do much more to ensure that politics really is, to use the hackneyed phrase, 'about policies not personalities', 'issues' not sound bites, and substance not spin. They can demonstrate that ideas and principles matter - because, as you know better than anyone else, without ideas and principles politics becomes merely a contest for place and position, in which 'faction and fixing' rules.

Mr Chairman, our political parties can and should promote responsible and reasoned debate, thereby enrich the 'national conversation' and generally help to take democratic discussion forward to greater maturity. And if they can elevate political debate so too can they elevate political behaviour, championing as well as complying with campaign Codes of Conduct and - when in office - declining the opportunities to abuse the advantages of incumbency.

Our parties can also be effective defenders of the integrity of the democratic process, playing their full part, for instance, in working with the election management body to monitor and improve the quality of voter registration and other election arrangements. As well as being contenders at election time our parties have a stake in the overall health of the democratic system, and they can play a constructive role in defending and improving it.

It is also perfectly realistic to expect our parties to strengthen the culture of democracy within their own organisations. They can limit the distorting influence of money, be open and transparent in their governance and promote the participation and representation of women and minorities.

Mr Chairman, all this is possible. My argument is not just that our political parties need to take their responsibilities more seriously if democracy is to prosper. It is also that they can do it. We in the Commonwealth Secretariat can help, and I will be asking the people who run our democracy programme to see what they can do to support those parties that want to change. Similarly, I hope the CPA Secretariat can also look at what more it can do.

But those who are best placed are the members, and especially the leaders of the political parties themselves: people like you. You, the future Prime Ministers and Presidents. I therefore urge you to do what you can to encourage your own political parties to 'raise their game'.

Mr Chairman, I recognise that the Commonwealth is an association which embraces the followers of many religions and of none. So I do not want to pick out one holy book above any other. However, there is a great truth in the Bible - in St Luke - which I want to share with you today. It is, if you like, my text for this morning. It comes in Luke Chapter 12, verse 48. In my version of the Bible, it reads: "unto whom much is given, of him shall much be required".

All of us in this room this morning could be accurately described as amongst those to whom much has been given. And the responsibilities we bear are correspondingly great: to represent our people, to work for their interests, to help to construct 'a better life for all' - and, I would add, to meet the high and exacting democratic standard which the Harare Commonwealth Declaration has set for us all.

Mr Chairman, Seneca predicted that he was going to die in the "wilderness of inattention" because nobody would listen to him for as much as two minutes. Thank you for listening to me for much more than that.

This is a beautiful country, with wonderful people. In its liberation struggle it has a history of adherence to principle. It has a present-day of solid progress in many fields. To use a colloquial parlance, Namibia "has every thing going for it", and every possibility of continued success in the years to come.

Mr Chairman, I wish Namibia well. I hope that you have a successful Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference. And, as I said at the beginning, I'm delighted to be once more "amongst such good friends".

Thank you.

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