Is Kadaga opening a can of oil worms?

Transparency. Corrupt regimes are awarding oil licences to companies whose substantive owners remain undisclosed. In certain cases, there are grounds for suspicion that some of the companies may be owned or controlled by government officials or their private-sector proxies.

When you sit in the House of Commons — the mother of parliamentary democracy, one thing catches your eye: The patriotism from both sides of the House. Even when there is a disagreement, a political fight is a little more than a mildly-worded argument - but in China, it’s always more akin to a brawling contest.

In the Upper House of the Indian Parliament, this kind of misbehaviour is not peculiar.

In September, members ripped microphones and almost punched their speaker after the government attempted to push through a contentious Bill that seeks to reserve 33 per cent of legislative seats for women.

Animated scenes swamped the house as members opposing the Bill tore up the document and hurled the shreds at the Speaker in full view of the nation.

In Taiwan, a politician tried to eat the draft of new law to stop a vote on it, while in June 2007, the leader of the ruling party was slapped in the face by an opposition party member who took exception to her address.

These are some of the sad tales from confused parliaments. Unfortunately, our Parliament, on Tuesday, nearly booked a place among such nonsensical institutions.

While the naughtiness of our legislators has not yet deteriorated to the level of the madness in India and Taiwan, the image of our Parliament took another beating when legislators from both sides nearly exchanged punches over Clause 9 of The Petroleum (Exploration, Development and Production) Bill, 2012.

Under this clause, the minister wants unlimited powers to grant and revoke licences, negotiate and endorse petroleum agreements. This is what is provided for in the 1985 Petroleum Act of Milton Obote.

But for fear that by giving such powers to the minister, the country would be risking too much, both sides of the House agreed that such powers be clipped in public interest.

This angered the President, who controls the majority in the House and he thus asked his “troops” to go back to Parliament and summersault on what had already been decided.

In the process of pushing through “the government interests” and protecting the integrity of the House, Speaker Rebecca Kadaga found herself trapped between a rock and hard place. The upshot is the crisis we had seen.
It was not by accident that the members behaved in a rogue manner. We have seen the writing on the wall and the assumption was that a terrible misfortune was about to happen in the House.

But this jungle behaviour of our members should be clearly understood from the governance angle.

What we saw in Parliament on Tuesday was a remonstration against “presidentialism”, a creeping disease that is eating into the fabric that once held our institutions intact. This is why things in Parliament are falling apart. Our Parliament is no longer independent and the “impartiality” of the Speaker is under attack.

In an attempt to distinguish between government and opposition members in making decisions, people have lit fires they cannot extinguish.

This is very dangerous.
While Ms Kadaga’s hands were politically tied, she failed to grasp the politics in the government motion that sought to tinker with what members had decided in presence of the official opposition in the House.