Making our National Assembly more effective

Yet another workshop where there will be a lot of polite blathering and where yet another well-intended foreigner will tell us the time from the watches on our wrists!

Once the talking will be over, the trainers gone and their mission reports duly filed, we will revert to the same old Assembly we have known since 1993. The one where the members, in particular from the ruling party, will continue to be rendered honourable by the sole requirement of their constitutional office. The one where there is no honour to be derived from bothering to stand up and speak out in the interest of the constituency. (The demise of Anse Aux Pins MPA Michel over abortion laws is likely still to be one that none will want to threaten their cosy tenures.) The one where the interest of the constituency is equated, sine qua non, to those of the ruling party!
Toeing the party line is, undeniably, not something unique to our National Assembly. What is unique to ours seems to be the quaint habit, transferred or acquired from other arms of government, of making the right noises when there is somebody around to listen and too willing to take our empty words seriously!

Our National Assembly takes itself seriously! As it should! Far from me to say the contrary! However, it can never hope to be effective in anything other than a rubber stamp for the Executive, unless it rids itself of the mind-set that the members represent their party first and foremost above the better interest of their constituencies. In a land where the interests of the constituencies can be easily swayed or bought around election time, there is little hope of the Seychelles National Assembly ever “living up to its constitutional responsibility of assuring more responsive and accountable governance”