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    "id": 715987,
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    "content": "there – namely, at least a university degree – many people have felt that that is an adequate requirement. This Bill proposes to provide similar qualifications for the position of MP for the two Houses of Parliament as well as county assemblies, so that they could also be adequately intellectually prepared to discharge their legislative and oversight functions. It has been argued and I think it is worth considering that, perhaps, the representational role of an MP may not require much academic education. However, the roles of oversight which include scrutinising budgets, holdingState agencies at the two levels of Government accountable for public funds, being able to question Government functionaries and engage them for purposes of oversight as well as the legislative function of Parliament and County Assemblies, requires some academic qualifications. Mr. Speaker, Sir, it is proposed in this Bill, so that you do not disenfranchise a large number of leaders in our country who have done so well, despite the fact that they do not have university degree---. In fact, some of the best debaters and brilliant and productive MPs in the past in our country have been people who did not necessarily have an academic degree. There are good reasons why somebody may not have one. One reason could be that they did not get an opportunity to get an education because of financial or other reasons. In the past, we even had leaders who were thrown out of college simply because of bad politics and could not, therefore, complete their studies. So, there could be reasons why we may have good leaders who do not have the qualifications. Let me be clear on this one and this is my personal belief; what education does is just to improve the leadership in you. Leadership is all the other things that we do other than the things that we know about the science and the other things that we learn in college. Mr. Speaker, Sir, times are changing and so is the dynamics of parliamentary democracy over the world. Therefore, we need to ask ourselves whether this is not the time to start relooking at these things. To provide an opportunity for leaders who may not have the proposed qualifications to adjust and acquire the necessary qualifications, so that they are not locked out of future elections, it is proposed in this Bill to suspend the operations of these requirements to the general election following the elections of 2017. In this case, we are proposing to suspend this requirement to August 2022. Thirdly, there is a small amendment regarding referendum committees in the event of a Referendum. I am happy to note that our country is also entrenching our democratic practices around referenda. This is because the way you listen to citizens is not just through periodic elections, but in between, there could be issues that can wait for a general election or those that you want to isolate. Such issues could be like those of general public or foreign policy and issues of governance which you want people to directly tell you as leaders what they want about them. So, we have a good practice of referenda. We have had several referenda now. However, we do have a referendum law. So, we have bits and pieces mentioned in the Constitution and also like what I am about to say now in this amendment Bill. Therefore, the need for a comprehensive referendum law is something that is urgent so that we can also entrench our democratic practice around referenda. Referenda are a very good way of gauging the public mood and Government The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate"
}