HOST OF THE 55TH ANNUAL CPA CONFERENCE
I had the opportunity of visiting Tanzania, the land of the enduring legacy of one of Africa’s greatest statesmen, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere. In the awesome presence of the snow capped peak on Mount Kilimanjaro in

Speaker of Guyana’s Parliament, Ralph Ramkarran in conversation with the Hon. Shrimatee Meira Kumar, Speaker of the Lok Sabha, the Parliament of India, at the Annual Meeting of the CPA in Tanzania last week.

Arusha, I attended the 55th Annual Meeting of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) and of its Executive Committee. It was my first visit to Africa and I came away with the certain impression that Africans, who play a very important role in the CPA, are as concerned as the rest of the world about developments, or the lack thereof, on their continent and elsewhere in the developed and underdeveloped world.

Tanzania gained its independence in 1961 and was officially declared a one party state in the 1965. It had already been a de facto one party state as the TANU dominated the political space then as it does now. Socialism, a form of development said to be already entrenched in Tanzanian culture, was declared as its goal in the Arusha Declaration which was made by Nyerere on February 5, 1967. It became an important statement which influenced the direction of the African revolutionary movement in the era of the burgeoning growth of non-alignment and the world wide national liberation movement. It provided the impetus for African and other non-aligned countries to boldly shake off the influence of colonialism and imperialism and proceed on the path of revolutionary democracy and socialist oriented development. Alas, the way charted by Nyerere did not succeed and he eventually retired to allow a new generation of leaders to take over. His voluntary relinquishment of political power was an exemplary act for which he was justly praised as it was then unknown in Africa and the developing world.

Today Tanzania’s leadership, drawing from the moral and ethical standards established by Nyerere, is respected in the world. The country’s economy is growing and it has one of the highest indicators of governance in Africa. This does not mean that Tanzania is not experiencing difficulties. At the opening of the CPA Conference, President Kikwete referred to the global economic crisis and to climate change and their devastating effects on developing countries, including Tanzania. The visible evidence of this dramatic impact was the melting of the snow on the peak of Kilimanjaro, which if it continues will alter the image of Tanzania, which has always been identified by its famous snow capped mountain.

The CPA International Executive Meeting had its second bi-annual meeting for the year to review its plans, finances and programmes for the ensuing year and to fill the places of those officers and members who, by the well established principles of rotation, retire to make way for other representatives. It also reports to the General Assembly on its work during the period between conferences.

Separate discussions were held by the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians on matters which directly concern and affect women and a report was made by the Chair of the CWP, Ms. Kashmala Tariq, who is a member of the International Executive Committee.

Issues discussed at the conference included Coalition Governments and their impact on Parliamentary democracy, Policy Responses to the Global Financial Crisis, the Role of Parliaments in Combating Terrorism, the Role of Parliament in Shaping the Information Society, the Role of Parliamentarians in the Elimination of Violence Against Women with Particular Reference to Domestic Violence and Climate Change: Are Policy Solutions Working?

Member of Parliament Norman Whittaker presented a Paper at the Workshop on Policy Responses to the Global Financial Crisis which he will write about separately. He will write about it separately. Along with the Clerk to the National Assembly, I sat in at the Climate Change Workshop and made two interventions outlining Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy. I also made reference to the impact of deforestation on climate change and took the opportunity of urging support for the REDD proposals likely to be discussed at Copenhagen.

Readers may well ask: Why waste time on the CPA? What does it do for Guyana? This is a legitimate question especially in view of the fact that in times past, the people of Guyana were anxious for and could have used some international support for the challenges to parliamentary democracy here. But the role of the CPA is essentially to deliver services to its constituents by way of programmes to strengthen parliamentary democracy and to provide a forum for debating topical issues. Members of the CPA have always found these to be important functions and have continually supported the organisation in this work.

The CPA has provided very important assistance to the National Assembly of Guyana in its modernizing programme. Several seminars have been held which have been well supported by MPs. A number of other forms of assistance have been made available, the last being the preparation of a strategic plan at CPA’s expense. The National Assembly of Guyana expects much more assistance in the future from the CPA and other Parliaments which I took the opportunity to discuss. (www.conversationtree.com).