{UAH} WHAT WAS THE 64TH COMMONWEALTH PARLIAMENTARIANS CONFERENCE ALL ABOUT? ANYONE?

Picture (attached): Screenshot from video of Commonwealth Parliamentarians dancing til dawn during the recently concluded Commonwealth Parliamentarians Conference in Kampala, Uganda.

As delegates flew in to Uganda for the much publicized week-long summit from 22nd to 29th September, what unfolded was like watching some adult education students from around the world enjoying a fully paid holiday in Uganda at their taxpayers expense.

But what was their actual work here? Nobody seems to know and the organizers struggled to tell us what it was all about.

One would have expected that the invited members would engage in public policy concerns and productive legislative matters which would positively impact the lives of the Commonwealth peoples around the world, some of whom are the poorest on the planet, and who pay these parliamentarians to at least network on policy legislation and economic development matters on their behalf.

Nothing!

This seems to have been a missed multi-million dollar opportunity to do something worthwhile for their respective populations. There was not even any robust policy statement at the conclusion of the conference.

One wonders where everyone's grey matter had gone?

Even our usual sharp talking political pundits in the media became happy cheer leaders of the snobbish fiesta and forgot to question what the political product of the event was, and what was the actual benefit of the summit to all the people of the Commonwealth.

To this day nobody, including the ordinary Ugandan, knows what the summit had come to address.

But it seems our intellectual and political class are not concerned about this.

Clearly we are dealing with a Commonwealth institution whose priorities are elsewhere, an oeganization that doesn't answer to anyone, not even the Commonwealth people's.

All we heard from the organizers was talk about the commercial benefits to the local economy from organizing the summit. Local businessmen were urged to "tap into the opportunities presented by hosting the summit". It therefore directly benefitted only the handful of service providers who could get a contract from the organizing committee.

As for the rest of the population, the biggest benefit that they are told is the injection of the delegates pocket money "into the local economy". But what about the entire Commonwealth people's whose delegates were here to work for them? What value was this summit to them, and what are they getting politically and economically even if they are not hosts of the prestigious event?

The 64th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference was an event hosting people's representatives whose pockets contained their taxpayers money (travel allowances) to spend. Was that it?

Empty. Devoid of any substantive political, economic, or social agenda. Neither did it produce any substantive, concerted, legislative policy roadmap whether on gender equality, education, infrastructure, economic integration, technological innovation, industrialization, peace & security, justice, child mortality, artificial intelligence policy considerations, democracy or even the looming negative environmental impact of climate change in Commonwealth countries.

If anything, the recent prorogation of the British Parliament was a timely concern for this specific conference. An issue they could not have ignored since it directly involved a Commonwealth member parliament being shut down illegally amidst political upheavals and public protests by the British people in the country that heads the Commonwealth itself. Breaking news yesterday announced a second prorogation attempt by the British Prime minister for political reasons. What does the Commonwealth Parliamentary fraternity have to say now?

They seemingly all just dance themselves lame without even one simple protest statement on this extremely pertinent issue. Everyone was behaving as if enjoyment, drinking, touring and eating to their fill was more important work.

A clear reflexion of the outright idelogical bankruptcy of the Commonwealth system and I political class. Not even one of them stood up in support of their recently prorogated British comrades. Or more importantly, in defence of parliamentary democracy, at least for their Commonwealth brothers and sisters, the British people.

For this level of expensive, unproductive, elitism to take place is a total disgrace to the core values behind the respected dedication to serve the public.

Especially at a time when the people have a myriad of problems that need to be addressed by their leaders.

Therefore wasn't the conference an insult to those wallowing in biting poverty and waiting for their elected representatives to return with urgent concerted solutions to their pressing problems?

The Ascot goat race would have had better political productivity than this summit.

Clearly this kind of colonial opulence must not be allowed to continue in this 21st century of good governance, pro-people policies, and accountable leadership.

Written by Hussein Lumumba Amin

Thursday October 3rd, 2019

Kampala, Uganda.

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