From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Mon May 17 2010 - 08:01:13 EDT
May 16, 2010
Toothless parliament a symbol of Africa's failed ambitions
By Geoffrey York
>From Monday's Globe and Mail
Despite steps toward greater democracy in many nations, continental
initiatives to improve governance have fallen short
It's a Friday morning in the plush chambers of the Pan-African Parliament,
and the members have just finished a brief discussion of the war in Somalia.
Now they turn to an issue that really excites them: a promotional video
about themselves.
The debate becomes hot and furious, with much table-thumping. The
parliamentarians spend twice as much time battling over the video as they
spent on the Somalia war. Are there too many shots of African wildlife in
the video? Not enough footage of their early days? Should the music be
improved? Is the voiceover too monotonous?
Power and influence in Africa [
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/g8-g20/africa/power-and-influence-in-africa/article1569248
]
Live, Monday 9 a.m. ET" The Globe's Geoffrey York and Kenyan blogger Ory
Okolloh discuss the challenges to democracy on the continent
View [
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/g8-g20/africa/power-and-influence-in-africa/article1569248
]
"This video is just propaganda to show that we're doing something, when in
fact we are doing nothing," one member grumbles as the debate drags on.
Another member admits that her constituents aren't even aware of the
Pan-African Parliament. "When we say PAP, people say, 'What is it?' They
say, 'Oh, does it exist?'"
Welcome to the broken illusions of pan-African democracy. Once envisioned as
a bastion of grassroots politics and good governance for the continent, PAP
is now widely criticized as weak, irrelevant, ineffective, and a costly
white elephant.
It's also an example of Africa's difficulties in improving its governance.
There is no lack of African institutions and agencies with impressive names
and multimillion-dollar budgets. But there is still a shortage of real
victories in the fight against corruption and autocracy. Studies of African
governance have found improvements over the past decade, yet those
improvements are often small and marginal, with huge work still to be done.
Several countries - including Ghana, Tanzania, Botswana, Liberia, Malawi and
Mauritius - are winning praise for their democratic elections, their
increasing stability, or their efforts to tackle corruption. Ghana has been
one of the most successful, holding a series of free and fair elections
whose results are accepted by all sides. Even the African Union, founded in
2002 to represent the 53 nations of the continent, is gaining some respect
for its refusal to tolerate military coups and its efforts to persuade
regimes to hold free elections - even though it has signally failed to deal
with veteran autocrats such as Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.
The Pan-African Parliament is a reminder of the grand ambitions that have
often faded into disappointment. Set up by the African Union in 2004 after
years of planning, PAP has a budget of more than $14-million (U.S.) this
year, including $1.5-million for salaries and $40,000 for hospitality.
Another $100-million has been allocated for a new headquarters. Yet the body
meets only twice a year, usually for just seven or eight days in
Johannesburg, and it has no real powers. It's merely an advisory body, which
the African Union can easily ignore.
"We are, in my view, a toothless bulldog," said Ambrose Dery, a lawyer from
Ghana who has served as a member of the Pan-African Parliament for the past
year.
"I think the PAP is not doing enough. We don't have legislative powers. The
AU decides when to consult you and when not to consult you. Between our
meetings, we have a limited scope of action. We are part-timers. We come
here twice a year. How effective can we be?"
When the Parliament was created in 2004, it was envisioned that within five
years it would have legislative powers and its members would be directly
elected. Instead its members are still appointed by the legislatures of the
47 member countries - including many that are authoritarian or
military-dominated. Some of the member countries have been suspended for
military coups, or placed under sanctions, so PAP currently has fewer than
the 235 parliamentarians it should have.
Mr. Dery says he has seen little evidence that PAP is tackling key problems
such as corruption. In fact, the Parliament itself was embroiled in
allegations of nepotism and financial misappropriation after auditors could
not account for nearly $1-million in spending. Its founding president was
accused of misusing some of the money.
"You can only check corruption when you have oversight responsibility," Mr.
Dery said. "The budget of the AU is supposed to be submitted to us, but it
is not submitted. We can't compel them to submit it. We cannot call any head
of state and say, 'Look, you've done something wrong.' We don't have those
powers."
Three years ago, PAP approved an African charter on democracy, elections and
governance. Yet only four countries have ratified it so far, and it cannot
take effect until 15 countries have done so. The Parliament complained last
month that "bottlenecks" are obstructing the charter's ratification.
Two other attempts to improve African governance are an alphabet soup of
abbreviations: NEPAD (the New Partnership for Africa's Development) and APRM
(the African Peer Review Mechanism). Both had high ambitions when they were
created at African summits in 2001 and 2002, under pressure from the Group
of Eight nations. But since then, both have been disappointingly slow to
achieve results.
More than half of Africa's 53 nations have signed up for APRM, a voluntary
system of measuring progress on democracy and governance. It was supposed to
be a candid assessment of each country's successes and failures, leading to
action plans. But only 15 countries have taken any steps to put the
mechanism into effect, and only a few have actually completed a full round
of self-assessment and national action programs in any serious way.
"There is a danger that the slowdown in momentum will result in the process
embracing only a small number of countries," wrote Adotey Bing-Pappoe, a
Ghanaian political economist, in a study of APRM this year.
Both APRM and NEPAD were spearheaded by the energetic leadership of former
South African president Thabo Mbeki. But when he lost the presidency, they
lost their momentum. "There's almost nothing left in NEPAD," said Robert
Rotberg, a Harvard political scientist who helped create an index of African
governance. "None of those institutions have fulfilled their promises."
Many African countries have official campaigns to fight corruption and
improve transparency, but little progress has been made. One study concluded
that corruption is costing Africa nearly $150-billion a year. Another study
estimated that $1.8-trillion has disappeared from Africa in illicit money
flows since 1970. Most of this was lost in commercial tax evasion - through
money laundering, tax havens and trade mispricing - which drained funds that
could be used for poverty alleviation and economic development, according to
the study this year by the U.S.-based research group Global Financial
Integrity.
Military coups, human rights abuses and rigged elections have severely
damaged Africa's progress toward democracy. Key countries such as Kenya,
Nigeria, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe are still riddled with vote-rigging and
political violence. China's fast-growing influence in Africa is another
challenge to democracy.
But it's also true that multi-party elections are much more widespread in
Africa today than 20 years ago - even if the incumbents usually win. Dr.
Rotberg's index on governance shows that 38 countries have improved their
scores over the past decade, while only 10 have deteriorated. And those with
better governance have tended to achieve much better economic success, he
said.
"There are still some terrible rulers, but governance is improving," Dr.
Rotberg said in an interview. "The progress has been steady, if not
dramatic. African countries are much more conscious of what they need to do
to improve governance. The middle class is growing enormously, and it's
putting pressure on governments to make things better."
Back at the Pan-African Parliament, meanwhile, the endless debate over the
promotional video is continuing. One member jokes that the Parliament should
have more video monitoring in the future - to prevent MPs from snoozing or
sneaking off to the nearest shopping mall.
Mr. Dery, the member from Ghana, says he is sometimes appalled by PAP's
administrative incompetence. He recalls the first day of its session this
year. "When we arrived, our microphones weren't working, and we had to
suspend our sitting for two hours," he says. "In any national parliament,
the equipment would be carefully checked before the sitting. You can call
these teething problems, but teething problems after five years?"
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