The duty of our Parliamentarians
The duty of our ParliamentariansBy Editor
Sunday July 20, 2008 [04:00]
THE challenges observed and analysed by the Commonwealth Parliamentarians Association Africa region conference in Livingstone demonstrate the tragedy of our people. The world’s rising food and soaring fuel prices have serious consequences for our poor countries, especially, for our poor citizens.
While our parliamentarians derive great experience from the exercise of their functions as legislators, they generally do not have the privilege of being – nor could they be – specialists in all economic and social spheres. They are basically politicians – in itself one of the most difficult tasks in today’s world – and above all, they must be responsible ones.
The Livingstone conference gave them an opportunity to listen to facts, analyse and meditate over the problems facing their people. We are convinced that it is utterly impossible to situate themselves in the reality of today’s world if the panorama presented by the facts and problems set forth at this conference are not made readily available to our parliamentarians for their daily use and profound meditation.
The conference presented our parliamentarians with an exact portrait of the distressing difficulties each of our countries face today.
We are aware that the world – we are referring especially to our poor countries – takes in an enormous variety of differing concepts, beliefs and perceptions. We have, however, one thing in common, even with those who are part of the developed world: our responsibility to humankind. But, in our poor countries, we particularly have in common our national economic interests; the overwhelming problems of accumulated poverty and backwardness; an increasingly brutal inequality that hangs over our people and is combined with the squandering of enormous sums on an absurd arms race in the midst of the dreadful exploitation that weighs on our nations in the most diverse forms; and the horrendous historical heritage of centuries of colonialist and neocolonialist plunder in each of our countries, right up until the present situation, in which the exploitation is that much more refined, that much more merciless, that much crueller than ever before in history. We also share the bitter feeling of impotence that many of our governments have in the face of such problems and the concern of all our politicians for the political instability to which these problems give rise.
So gloomy are the realities and prospects for the future viewed as a whole that they could generate pessimism and discouragement if we were not sure of our aims. They are inevitably a bitter pill to swallow, but if we are to face up to the realities, we have first to become aware of them.
Our politicians do not have, nor do we think anyone has, magic remedies for such difficult, complex and apparently insoluble problems. History shows, however, that no problem has ever been solved until it has become a tangible reality of which everyone is aware.
Today, we are faced with the most universally serious and anguishing situations ever known to humankind. In short, for the first time we are faced with the question of whether or not we are to survive. But, no matter how enormous the difficulties, no matter how complex the task, there can be no room for pessimism. This would be to renounce all hope and resign ourselves to the final defeat.
We have no alternative but to struggle, trusting in the great moral and intellectual capacity of the human race and in its instinct for self-preservation, if we wish to harbour any hope for survival.
Only with a tremendous effort and the moral and intellectual support of all can we face a future that objectively appears desperate and sombre, especially for the peoples of our poor countries.
The facts and realities brought up by our parliamentarians in Livingstone are irrefutable.
Everyone must be aware that such complex and difficult problems do not have easy solutions. Our aspirations and demands clash with the lack of understanding, selfishness, colossal interests and an enormous technological, economic, military and political power of imperialism and its neocolonialist forms and with the rigid, inexorable laws that govern that system, which has imposed brutally exploiting, unequal, asphyxiating and unjust economic relations on our poor countries – relations that are even worse and more sophisticated than those of the colonial system, whose eradication gave rise to so many hopes.
We have no alternative but to struggle for the recognition of our demands. We constitute the vast majority of humankind, and our rights and interests cannot continue to be trampled underfoot forever.
And the storm that is hanging over our heads will seriously affect the nations of the world. The economic backwardness, lack of financial means, hunger, unemployment and absence of even the most basic living conditions in our poor countries cannot, in the long run, be beneficial to any of the developed countries. To the contrary, the positive outcome of our situation would have a favourable influence on the upsurge in world trade and would alleviate the unemployment, under-utilisation of installed capacities and stagnation of their economies. It is an obvious truth that, if our economy expanded, it would help reduce the tense crisis situation that has been generated in those countries. The continuation of the exploitation that is ruining our poor countries would inexorably end in ruin for all.
Broadly, the main efforts of our parliamentarians should be to struggle tirelessly for peace, improved international relations. And to struggle without respite for an end to the unequal trade that depresses our real export income, shifts the cost of the inflation generated in the developed countries on to our economies and ruins our peoples.
Our parliamentarians should struggle against protectionism that hinders our export commodities’ and manufactured goods’ access to markets, reduces our products’ competitiveness and acts as a powerful mechanism for pressure and coercion against our poor countries.
Our politicians need to struggle resolutely for a stable and definitive solution to our energy needs, keeping in mind, in addition to oil, the joint use of other renewable sources of energy and the international economic cooperation that is absolutely necessary for our development.
The transformation of international economic relations is a prerequisite for, but not a guarantee of our countries’ progress. Our parliamentarians need to struggle to make all our states aware of the need to promote indispensable internal structural changes and measures aimed at raising their people’s standard of living, which are an inseparable part of any real process of development – especially those related to income distribution, job creation, health, housing and education.
Lastly, the unity of all our countries is absolutely necessary. And as we have already pointed out, the problems that our parliamentarians discussed in Livingstone are common to us all, regardless of political concepts, systems of government, philosophical convictions and religious beliefs. The approach to these vital questions affecting us and the solutions we seek can and should be shared. We should also rise above the local controversies that sometimes turn us into enemies because of old disputes and intrigues, ambitions or the machinations of imperialism. The abolition of wars between our poor countries should be a basic law of our states and an integral part of our struggle for universal peace.
We must not allow anybody or anything to divide us. We must use political formulas and negotiations to solve those problems which make some of our countries occasionally oppose each other.
We have never been characterised by resigned submission or defeatism in the face of difficulties. We have confronted complex, difficult situations in the past with unity, firmness and determination. Together we have striven and struggled and together we have scored victories. In this same spirit and with this same determination, we must be ready to wage the most colossal, legitimate, worthy and necessary battle for our people’s lives and future.
Labels: MPs, PARLIAMENT
posted by MrK @ 3:56 AM
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