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Topic Discussion I
Politics of Hard Choices
Political Transition and Economic Restructuring
Room 2
(10 of 14 pages)
Now, of course the minority of us who are not in government always suspect those
in power, sometimes often for good reasons, where you don't know whether [inaudible] meeting and what they are
going to do for their government work. Sometimes the lights are so bright that you are left guessing all the time.
Yeah, the funding for political person, Mr. Prime Minister, you have that problem until you get out of office.
The problems of funding, I think we've gone along with the fence on that problem in Namibia. The problem that we
have is that, I think, there is a degree of unfirmness in the distribution or allocation of funds. I actioned in
a committee drafting that particular report for parliament, I said to have equity in the system of distribution,
you must have one portion flat rate for all the political parties, including [inaudible] new emperors into a system
what would come in for the first time. And then you have another portion proportionately distributed in terms of
the votes of the last election. But if everything is proportional, there's an element of inequity in the system,
so I don't know what will happen outside.
Regionalism is the problem. In the [inaudible] of the distribution of development aids and also in the allocation
of funds and [inaudible] and things like that. Director of Elections is out of his office, don't have a problem,
the problem of women I don't know. We're the ones who say why am I 50/50, what if they are 51 percent of the population,
why not 51 percent on the list if one coded system. Many women insist in something, but I don't know.
Larry Diamond: There's a woman waiting to speak next.
Moses Katjhuongua: Criticism by society, people hiding behind the puppet or not, it's a difficult question.
Thank you very much.
Larry Diamond: Okay, thank you. Ms. Ghimire, you speak from a perspective of civil society, so maybe you
can ---
Durga Ghimire: Yeah, actually listening to various similar things discussed by our distinguished speaker,
I [inaudible] what I have to say. But I think my intervention will be completely different than the other speakers.
Mainly I want to say about the economic right of the woman, what we have observed. In many developing countries,
those who have adopted democracy, though they have provided constitutional rights, economic and political right
to the woman, but there are many [inaudible] to women. I would cite the example of my own country. We have restoration
of democracy in 1989, it's solid in nine years, but women have no economic rights, they have no inheritance property
right, they have no right in their husband's property, they are only entitled to get sale of their husband's property
if there were married for 15 years and they exceed the age of 35. And women have no [inaudible] right, so these
are the few examples, so what I want to say that listen until there are -- we all [inaudible] [inaudible] to women
should be changed, there will be no stability of democracy in the country.
And second in part, I am from the civil society of [inaudible] and want to say that the role of civil society is
very important in the emerging democracies, but what we have observed why [inaudible] for more than 25 years that
government has not realized the importance of civil society, [inaudible]. In my country, after the restoration
of democracy, there were [inaudible] before the restoration of democracy, but within nine years we have more than
22,000 Yedu (ph) and they are not working as they worked on women's right and the right on various issues related
to women and until then, but they had been also [inaudible] government to change the policy, but sometime in the
[inaudible] between government and the NGO is not very cordial. They have great faith with the NGO's, so do as
[inaudible] democracy, I think the role of the NGO and the government must be more cordial. So that's two points
I wanted to intervene in this. Thank you.
Larry Diamond: If I can just offer two points and then Mr. Niang you're next. But just let me say about
what you have just said that many scholars who've studied this problem of how to get economic reform through democracy
suggest that if you can give some benefits to people, they may be of a non-material nature or not directly related
to cutting back the state or privatizing industry. It may be kind of a bargain that leads people to go along with
the broader policy cores and one of the interesting things about what you have suggested is that there's no necessary
contradiction between removing discriminatory laws against women and moving ahead with privatization and that may
be one way to create a kind of broader reform coalition, it's just a thought. Mr. Niang?
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