“I always ask myself, why does the Chairman always have to call for motions, if all those years, there have not been any single MP in the National Council tabling a motion for debate? How much do they get paid anyway for a
session? Is this house not just a waste of public resources?”
By Tonateni Shidhudhu
THE National Assembly went on recess last Thursday, a time that will see lawmakers away from the august house for two months. The holiday is not only for parliamentarians to attend to other national duties and carry out their private businesses such as farming, but is also the time MPs get an opportunity to be in touch with their constituencies by educating people on various developmental issues and to assess the real lives of ordinary citizens.
My two years at the helm of covering the proceedings of Parliament have been a remarkable exercise. It has given me an understanding that the role of parliamentarians does not only end in the august house by debating on issues and passing fundamental laws. But, parliamentarians play a major role in society of being the eyes and ears of the people.
A couple of weeks ago I took a public bus from Tsumeb to Windhoek where an MP was also on board. As we greeted each other, he told me that he deliberately uses public transport in order to listen to the voices of the people. Many of the passengers did not know him and they were just talking about everyday life issues, one of which was the treatment they are getting from bus operators. They were complaining that fares were not standard and people are charged unreasonably. So if the MP on board was really listening to the people, I believe he will soon be tabling a motion in this regard. The culture of MPs associating with people is indeed a welcome move.
The introduction of motions, touching on the plight of the people, tabled in the National Assembly this year bears testimony that most of our MPs are really hard at work in exposing the poverty that is standing in the way of prosperity.
In the past, motions were left in the hands of the opposition members of Parliament, but this year the example set by the backbenchers of the ruling Swapo party is commendable. They have moved very important motions such as that of seeking solutions to the horrific car accidents on the national roads by Lusia Basson of Swapo, and that on the nation’s morality with regard to the respect of elders by Peya Mushelenga. These were very brilliant thoughts by our young parliamentarians and I hope the standing committees to which these motions were referred will conduct proper consultations with stakeholders to find amicable solutions.
It is only a pity that most of the motions (mainly affecting the plight of ordinary citizens) lapsed as the National Assembly went into recess last Thursday. One would only hope that the movers would take chances again by re-introducing them to the house. But our MPs are also to blame for not being able to finish all the items on the order papers by 12 July. I believe there was ample time to debate on all the motions, bills and various reports and make valuable recommendations before the end of the session.
Some of the factors that contributed to the lapsing of items include the unpunctuality among our parliamentarians, which even leads to adjournment due to lack of quorums recorded so far this year. That was time wasted. The issue of not being focused is also a problem in the house. Many times the Speaker has to call on certain MPs to limit their speeches to the issue under debate. Our MPs spend more time on the floor dwelling on issues that were not even part of the debate, or interjecting and asking somewhat senseless questions.
I am also fully aware that we have many brilliant and eloquent MPs in our National Assembly who just make sense from the very first word up to the last one, but we also have those ones who need some training in speech-making or writing for that matter. Sometimes the speeches are just unnecessarily long and dwell too much on the history or things that are already known and only little is said about the issue under discussion. The issue of continuously postponing items, which eventually leads to lapsing, is not only a waste of energy of the movers (who I’m sure do extensive research), but also delays the process of development.
The 2007/2008 Appropriation Bill is one of the bills that really caused heated debate in the house. It was very interesting to see how ministers were so open and even had guts to criticize one another. The latter trend can only be encouraged in the sense of good democratic governance. But one would also want backbenchers of the ruling party to be more active and pose questions to the executives. They must also challenge their seniors in the house.
Question time should not only be left to the opposition MPs but it must be every MP’s responsibility to question what seems to be not clear in the public spheres.
Then we come to the House of Review, the National Council. A very important organ of parliament with MPs who work directly with people at the grassroots level. The day I was assigned to the National Council for the first time was very discouraging. The session only lasted for less than ten minutes, the next day it was about 20 minutes and the following day was bit longer but I almost slept throughout the sessions, because I was seriously bored. I could not find suitable words to describe this house of the laws because members of parliament are indeed honourable members and have to be respected.
But, I would however want to recommend that much improvement is needed during discussions in the National Council. The fact that 98 percent of the house belongs to one political party does not mean they should not ponder on the pertinent issues that affect the nation. I always ask myself, why does the Chairman always have to call for motions, if all those years, there have not been any single MP in the National Council tabling a motion for debate?
How much do they get paid anyway for a session? Is this house not just a waste of public resources? In most cases, this house does not sit for more than fifteen minutes.
I am fully aware of the functions of the National Council, one of which is to review the bills that are passed to it by the National Assembly. There has also been remarkable work done by the National Council, especially with the recommendations made to the Children Status Bill. A number of the National Council Standing Committees have conducted public hearings and compiled good reports. But seriously, MPs in the National Council need to be energized or perhaps there is a need for designing a new policy of conducting business in Namibia’s House of Review.
There are also a few of them who appear to be good politicians of modern days. But most of them sometimes make unnecessarily long repetitive speeches, which are sometimes similar as well. It is sometimes easy to tell when a speech was copied from a fellow comrade. It is also a problem when speeches are handwritten. MPs in the NC should keep abreast with the fast and ever-changing world of technology and have their speeches at least typed.
Mark my words. The new Labour Bill is now going to the National Council.
You will hear the same arguments made in the National Assembly that “labour hire companies are like a slave trade system, exploiting our people and should not be allowed in an independent and free Namibia”. It is a fact indeed, but we also want to hear from our lawmakers that now that labour hire companies are outlawed, what mechanisms would be put in place to ensure that people employed in those companies will not lose their jobs. And what would our caring government do for those unfortunate entrepreneurs who were depending on their labour hire businesses? I am sure they were legally registered and do pay tax. So our politicians should also try to strike a balance when passing laws of this nature.
The decision by the National Assembly Standing Committee on Public Accounts to refer the reports of the Auditor-General to the National Assembly is a welcome move. One can only hope that our councillors will be able to examine the reports and make sure that recommendations made by the AG are implemented.
– Tonateni Shidhudhu is Producer for Political and Economic Affairs at the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) and is primarily assigned to parliamentary affairs. Views expressed in this article are his own.