Secretary-General's annual address to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association
Date: 25 Sep 2007
Speaker: Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon
Location: New Delhi, India
Mr Chairman, Secretary-General, distinguished parliamentarians from across the Commonwealth, ladies and gentlemen.
For many years now I have, 'set my clock' by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference.
It's one of the highlights of the Commonwealth year; and I know that my words here, on this very platform, come as near as they can to being an annual 'State of the Commonwealth' address.
This is one conference I try not to miss.
That is how highly I value the CPA - 96 years young this year, with 16,000 members across 5 continents and 3 oceans.
And that is how highly I value the annual Parliamentary Conference, which I address today for the sixth and last time as Commonwealth Secretary-General.
But I stand here also as a democrat and a former parliamentarian.
The CPA and I go back a long way.
Today, I shall address the two constant themes of my six years as Secretary-General.
They are the two themes that underpin everything we do in the Commonwealth.
They are:
· 'Democracy', and specifically the role of Parliaments;
· and 'Democracy' and its close cousin, 'Development'.
'Democracy, disciplined and enlightened,' said Mahatma Gandhi, 'is the finest thing in the world'.
How fitting, then, that we meet now in the vibrant capital of the largest democracy in the world, less than a mile away from Parliament House, the symbol that represents the fulfillment of Gandhi's extraordinary legacy.
It's the largest country in the Commonwealth; it's the largest democracy in the world, where a breathtaking 600 million people successfully voted in the elections of 2005; it's 60 years an independent nation this year.
Today is about comparing notes and re-invigorating our democratic vision.
I, like many of you, have been in and out of government; I have known political triumphs and political defeats.
In all this, my faith has grown, not weakened, in democracy as the best way of giving people a say in how they are governed.
Our role as parliamentarians must never, ever, lose sight of that.
The year since I last addressed the CPA shows democracy in the Commonwealth both waxing and waning.
I mention the challenges of the few now, because they are, in fact, an amplification of the challenges of the many.
None of us can afford to be complacent in inculcating the true spirit of democracy.
As of last December,
Hard as we try to edge forward in dialogue, I am still not in a position to be able to report that the interim regime in Suva has set a clear date for elections.
Meanwhile the country is under a state of emergency, and one political party has even been told it will be prevented from contesting the next elections when - or if - they are held.
Of course the election is not without controversy, and has already been challenged in court. The next few months are critical for
I should mention
The CPA has placed
Although
There are plenty of good news stories about democracy in the Commonwealth. They tend to get overlooked, because they do not make sensational stories for the media. We have just had peaceful changes of government in
By and large, our Commonwealth remains a living example of democracy in both theory and practice.
But we have to accept that there are always improvements to be made.
Wanting to make them, and truly believing in them, is the key.
Again I quote Gandhi: 'The spirit of democracy', he said, 'cannot be imposed from without. It has to come from within.'
We give the same answer to those who claim that early 21st Century democracy is somehow a dirty or sullied word, whose currency is falling.
Or to those who cite the 'façade' democracies, which have elections but do not provide adequate freedoms for their people.
We also take some hits ourselves in the Commonwealth, often self-inflicted.
So let me talk today of Commonwealth Democracy - in principle and in practice. And of how we link Democracy to Development.
First, then, Commonwealth democracy 'in principle'.
What the Commonwealth means by democracy, democratic institutions and democratic practices has been clearly spelt out.
We have the Commonwealth Declarations of 1971 and 1991 that set out our fundamental political values.
Our Latimer House Principles of 2003 define and differentiate the roles of the three branches of Government: the legislature, the executive and the judiciary.
The overthrow of a constitutionally elected government leads inevitably to a country being suspended.
But even if that happens, we never turn our backs: our aim is always to help it to repair the damage and return to the fold.
This, then, is our 'belief system'.
Whilst democracy can, should and does take many forms - with no one size, style or shape fitting all - when we in the Commonwealth see a non-democratic situation, we recognise it - and don't shy away from addressing it.
So we are clear on what we want.
The challenge is to know - and make reality - the ways to make it happen in practice.
Ladies and gentlemen, Parliaments are at the core of the practice of democracy.
All of you are a supremely important part of its machinery.
Parliaments represent the people.
They discuss.
They agree; they disagree.
They find consensus.
They deliver on behalf of people.
On the one hand - as the CPA has stressed on the front of some of its publications - "It's not just talk".
But on the other hand, it can't work without talk.
Indeed it won't succeed if people don't want it to work.
Every Government must be challenged over its ideas; and decisions should only be made when everyone feels that they have had a hearing.
Only last week, I spoke to the European Parliament in Brussels, a supra-national Parliament at the service of an electorate of 490 million people.
I told them that if the official tasks of the national legislature are to make laws and to make money available … then its unofficial tasks are not to be marginalized or muzzled, either by the executive or by the judiciary.
I said this partly because parliaments have nothing of the institutional machinery and support of the executive.
They have fewer staff; they meet for less time.
That is why they sometimes come off worse.
Parliaments need to be given the means, and the freedoms.
The rules and procedures for how a parliament operates are so very crucial, as is the committee structure and the provision of an appropriate and regular budget.
That's why I congratulate the CPA for its tireless work over the years to encourage and support you, the members - sharing expertise and providing guidance and example on how parliamentary life can best unfold.
Your post-election training seminars for new parliamentarians - such as the recent ones in
The CPA and the Commonwealth Secretariat are currently working together in
It's looking at the way members of parliament work together regardless of their political affiliation.
It's looking at how to make parliament's oversight role effective, and how to ensure that the Committee system is adequate and properly resourced.
The point is that
I'd like, quickly, to mention some of the other pieces of the jigsaw, of 'Commonwealth democracy in practice'.
For some, political parties have been characterised as the 'weak link' in the democratic chain, lacking the capacity and sometimes the will to take part in the democratic process.
It's just too easy for them to cry foul and claim to have been cheated.
Not so!
Parties are vital elements in the democratic process.
They give choice - and voice.
We need to ensure their rights are protected, and that they have the capacity and will to engage and to understand their role - win or lose.
Last December, soon after snap elections were called for February this year, I addressed a meeting of over 20 political parties in
The existence of political parties means the existence of an official Opposition.
Here, we have been working with the CPA on a series of workshops on 'Government and Opposition' (a theme which you are debating in this conference).
We believe absolutely in the constructive role of an Opposition. As you know, a government can only be as good as its Opposition.
Of concern to me in recent years has been the rise of special interests - often in the form of single-issue NGOs, civil society, professional or trade groups - which to a degree have supplanted the role of the Opposition.
We naturally welcome more people joining the political debate, but we have to ask whether they are doing so in order to fill a vacuum left by the many restrictive measures on parliamentarians which have been imposed in some cases by governments, executives, even judiciaries.
Restrictions on the activities of political parties in communities are obvious examples - so too are restrictions on Opposition parties in parliaments or assemblies …. or the closing out of parliamentary debates on so-called 'sensitive subjects' … or the problem of different treatment for Governing party MPs and for Opposition MPs.
So if you're a Government that has marginalised Opposition parties and limited their capacity to do their rightful job, you will simply hand more power to groups outside of parliament, and that may cause you even greater problems.
I ask you to consider that today.
Another element of the democratic jigsaw is a clear picture of the rules on incumbency: in other words, the limits to the advantages of being in power, particularly when it comes to elections.
Too often during our observation of elections we see incumbents - at various levels of government - misusing the resources of state for personal or party gain during an election.
Here I would like to pay tribute to President Kabbah, the outgoing President of Sierra Leone.
He did not change the Constitution.
He did not turn the position into a job for life.
He has passed the mantle on to the next generation, to take the country forward.
This is in the tradition of Presidents Mandela, Mkapa, Muluzi, Nujoma, Chissano, and is exactly as it should be.
There are, of course, other building blocks to Commonwealth democracy in practice:
· parliaments that are properly inclusive of the half of humankind that is women, as well as ethnic and religious minorities,
· a lively civil society,
· an independent and responsible media,
· an effective and truly impartial judiciary,
· and a voice for young people.
All, of course, huge topics in their own right.
So democracy is about far more than democratic elections.
A vote has to be a thing worth having.
It has to bring dividends, in the form of government which benefits normal people, in the form of efficient, transparent, fair, accountable institutions that administer service, and - ultimately - in the form of a better life, and peace and prosperity for all.
As I repeat that home truth, I know many cynics that say, 'yes, Don, but you can't eat democracy'.
But the fact is, you can eat the fruits of democracy, because the greatest dividend of Democracy is Development.
And here, in New Delhi, I'm happy to refer you to a Commonwealth report written in 2003 by an expert group led by a certain Dr Manmohan Singh, of whom you all know.
It charted the organic and mutually reinforcing links between democracy and development.
It made the incontrovertible case that democratic government means peace and security - the rule of law and good governance - health and education - women's rights and a free media - and, with them, growth, jobs and investment.
There are clearly debates to be had about some of this economic theory.
For now, I leave you with the thought that the two are as entwined as the roots of a tree, and nowhere less than here in
Democracy and Development are the twin pillars of our modern Commonwealth.
To my dear friend and colleague Dr Shija, I say congratulations on your first Conference as CPA Secretary-General.
To the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha and the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, I repeat my gratitude for your warm hospitality.
And to the CPA, to Commonwealth parliamentarians and to the Commonwealth citizens they serve, I say 'thank you', and 'keep up the good work'.
I wish you all the very best!
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Secretary-General's annual address to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association
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