Come To Us, People Tell Leaders
By Ferial Haffajee
The heads of government are meeting, business leaders are meeting. That people are meeting at their own forum is not last, and not least. If people come first, so must this forum. Sadly that is not the way some see it. Political leaders are meeting business leaders, but not people speaking for people. Many are now asking, Why Not? People must be a part of political and business meetings, and not apart from them. |
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CIVIL SOCIETY leaders
and representatives have sent an urgent request to heads of
government to meet with them Thursday ahead of the official
opening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) meeting.
In a letter signed and delivered at lunch
yesterday, 12 civil society leaders who represent a critical
mass of peoples’ movements across the Commonwealth laid
a thinly veiled charge of double standards when they pointed
to the fact that the heads of government would meet the Commonwealth
Business Council in a forum.
“We find it bizarre that such a privilege
is extended to the business community but not to civil society,”
said Martin Sime of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisation.
Sources say that the Nigerian government is
keen for the dialogue, but that other Commonwealth heads of
state are hesitant about the meeting. The civil society advisory
committee says such a meeting is consistent with the Commonwealth’s
plans to refashion itself for the 21st century. The Coolum
Declaration, quoted in the letter, says: “We are convinced
of the need for stronger links and better two-way communication
and co-ordination between the official and non-governmental
Commonwealth, and among Commonwealth NGOs”.
The civil society advisory committee wants
a two-hour meeting on Thursday with a selected group of six
heads of state and a limited number of civil society representatives
to discuss poverty eradication, world trade, and partnerships
between government and civil society. They want the Commonwealth
Foundation chair Graca Machel to lead the meeting.
Pointing out that the Commonwealth always
called civil groups “partners”, Simes said: “We
don’t feel like partners at the moment.” Since
the last CHOGM meeting two years ago, civil society has become
more organised and grown exponentially, says Simes, adding
that the sector is increasing taking responsibility for service
delivery.
But since the Coolum meeting, little
had been done to make concrete the pledges and commitments
on partnership.
“At present it [the Commonwealth] lags behind other
international institutions such as the United Nations and
the Bretton Woods institutions, which have instituted direct
links with civil society organisations,” says the letter.
It adds that, “While Commonwealth meetings are valued
as places where countries meet on more equal terms than in
other international fora, at the same time civil society has
less opportunity to engage than in other fora.”
‘Time to End Timidity’
“TOO DECENT, too tame, too timid”
that is civil society in the Commonwealth, according to Dr.
Mo Arigbede of the Coalition for Popular Development Initiatives
in Nigeria (COPODIN).
Speaking during the first day of the Commonwealth
Civil Society meeting on Development and Democracy, Arigbede
said all the country reports presented on ‘maximizing
civil society’s contribution to democracy and development’
had dwelt on a series of crises of self-definition, and identity.
This caused them to be lukewarm in their reaction to government
excesses and abrogation’s of rights and freedoms.
“When world leaders are waging relentless
wars in the name of anti terrorism, while others deny their
citizens basic rights civil society has remained stoic.”
Arigbede said trade unions were being ‘slaughtered’,
people did not have a hand in the way they were being governed
and yet there were no civil society groups protesting on the
streets. “We are afraid to take a position that would
make us an enemy of government and yet we do not exist to
be the friends of government. Civil society is too tame, timid,
too decent.”
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