Internet to Unite MPs in Africa

Hopewell Radebe (Business Day)-- An Internet service linking African parliaments will be created to enable MPs around the continent to share oversight experiences and views on matters of governance, says the speaker of the Egyptian parliament, Ahmed Fathi Sorour.

Sorour was attending the first African parliamentary speakers’ conference, organised by the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) in Midrand, Johannesburg, last week. On Friday, he said the service would facilitate synergies of policies between parliaments, which were essential to build confidence among MPs and reinforce the integrity of the legislative structures in the continent. It would also be the cornerstone for a recently established African parliamentary knowledge network structure.

The conference discussed the transformation of the PAP into a legislative body as required by the African Union (AU) protocol, which states that ‘the ultimate aim of the PAP shall be to evolve into an institution with full legislative powers, whose members are elected by universal adult suffrage’.

Sorour also bemoaned the slow pace or lack of investment in the development of indigenous languages to accepted international levels of science and technology by African countries. He pointed to legislatures in the continent, saying there was no enthusiasm to ensure that indigenous languages were elevated, which would help preserve the cultures of African nations. ‘Our countries are being defined according to our colonial past and languages that were forced upon our people ... it has become an accepted norm as if we had no languages and cultures of our own,’ he said.

Sorour is first in line to become president of Egypt if Hosni Mubarak dies or becomes incapacitated –a fact becoming increasingly important as Mubarak ages. Addressing the conference on Friday, PAP President Moussa Idriss Ndele told African parliamentary speakers and ambassadors based in SA that the transformation of the parliament into a legislative body needed to be done with due consideration for political sensitivities and fears raised by some AU member states that the PAP would override their governments.

The conference follows a decision by the AU summit in Sirte, Libya in July, which transformed the African Union Commission into an executive authority, paving the way to transforming the AU into the United States of Africa.

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