It’s time to take another look at CMAG
Posted by AlexT - 05/08/09 at 10:08 am
These days we are plagued by acronyms. The Commonwealth is no exception. High in its vocabulary is CMAG the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group. To be CMAGGED is a form of disgrace member countries do not like.
Fiji is currently getting that treatment because it has abrogated its constitution, entrenched authoritarian rule under military ruler Commodore Bainimarama, violated human rights, freedom of speech and assembly, detained opponents, and undermined the judiciary.
The Commonwealth was the first international organisation to create such machinery of self-discipline. Heads of government produced it at their Auckland summit in 1995. A main aim was to prevent power being seized from legally elected governments.
Over the years – right from the time General Ayub Khan took over Pakistan in 1958 – a small number of Commonwealth countries have suffered coups. Sometimes as many as three or four military rulers sat at Commonwealth meetings.
At Auckland this was stopped. Under what is called the Millbrook Action Programme no military ruler has since taken part in Commonwealth summits.
Soon after Don McKinnon became secretary-general in 2000 he told the UN Assembly it should take a lead from the Commonwealth and copy it.
Since then one or two military takeovers have happened. General Pervez Musharaff took over Pakistan in 1999 and Fiji again fell under military rule.
CMAG demanded Musharraf remove his uniform or stop being head of state. He did not and Pakistan was twice suspended from the Commonwealth.
Nigeria, when it was under the brutal of General Sani Abacha, was suspended on the introduction of Millbrook. Fiji has been suspended since 2006.
CMAG consists of nine foreign ministers who serve two-year terms on a rotating basis. They meet at least twice a year.
Millbrook lays down that steps have to be taken against a country in the event of an unconstitutional overthrow of a democratically elected government?. If democracy is not restored after two years the country is barred from Heads of Government meetings and ministerial meetings termed the ‘councils of the Commonwealth.’
If no progress is made it faces trade restrictions and all official and civil society contacts are cut off. This is called full suspension.
At the 31 July meeting in London Fiji was ordered to implement its promised dialogue on a return to democratic rule and hold elections by October 2010 or be fully suspended.
The question now facing the Commonwealth is whether after 15 years experience the CMAG machinery needs to be reviewed and toughened up a bit. There are loose ends.
A number of member countries are not measuring up to the Commonwealth principles. The regime in The Gambia, for instance, is extremely harsh with little attention paid to human rights and no freedom of expression.
It will not be easy to tighten up the CMAG rules and there is no sign that most Commonwealth countries have an appetite for it. The process involves a degree of intervention in members’ internal affairs.
Countries are naturally nervous of loss of sovereignty, yet the reality is that in this age of globalisation sovereignty has already been eroded almost everywhere in order to tackle massive problems such as are now being created by climate change.
Membership of regional associations already involves a certain amount of loss of sovereignty. Britain’s membership of the European Union is just one example.
This article was written for the RCS by veteran Commonwealth journalist Derek Ingram.
Category : Democracy & Good Governance, Human Rights, The Official Commonwealth
Tags: CMAG, gambia, Human Rights
Stay Updated : 
RSS 2.0 feed.
August 11th, 2009 at 11:31 am
What does ”democracy” mean? We need to know its indicators.
Sri Lanka: Unlock the camps, Amnesty International, 10 August 2009:
”We call for the immediate release of 285,000 innocent Tamil civilians – including an estimated 50,000 children – being held in cramped and squalid camps. The largest camp – Menik Farm – is horrendous. It holds about 160,000 people in an area smaller than one square kilometre. Aid workers in the camps are not even allowed to talk to the residents of the camp.
We called on the United Nations, Sri Lanka?s donors and other members of the international community to call for an immediate end to restrictions on freedom of movement that prevent displaced persons from leaving the confines of the camps and ensure that assistance they provide to maintain the IDP camps is not used in a way which violates human rights by continuing the practice of arbitrary detention of displaced persons?
August 11th, 2009 at 11:53 am
Sri Lanka – we’ve just had elections in two districts with media banned from the regions.
But then those districts are part of the Northeast to which free access to journalists have been denied for the last three years.
Democracy Sri Lankan Style.
August 11th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
We need to have indicators for ”democracy”. Periodic elections don’t mean democracy. You need to have free press and independent judiciary and other government institutions serving justice to all citizens irrespective of ethnicity. Sri Lanka has been a ”democracy” by periodic elections but oppressing the Tamils in all possible ways for six decades.
Democracy Sri Lankan Style.
August 11th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
According to a report(January 2006)the Mumbai-based Strategic Foresight Group (SFG), Sri Lanka was the most militarised among the South Asian countries with 8,000 military personnel per one million population.
The figures for other South Asian countries were: Pakistan, 4,000; Nepal 2,700; India, 1,300; and Bangladesh 1,000.
To the outside world Pakistan has been under much military rule and Sri lanka has been a ”democracy”. The Tamils have been oppressed by an occupation army for four decades. It doesn’t look it’s going to end in the near future:
Even after the war was over the Army announced that it would increase its number from 200,000 to 300,000 and started to recruit.
Democracy Sri lankan Style
August 12th, 2009 at 5:41 am
World leaders,
The world is afflicted with intractable intrastate conflicts. You can make sense by looking at research – systematic analysis. Otherwise UDHR and the system of International Laws cannot penetrate the wall of oppressors to reach the oppressed.
Hubble telescope helps us see parts of universe light years away but cannot we help the oppressed millions around the world?
Paradise Poisoned: Learning about Conflict, Terrorism and Development from Sri Lanka ‘s Civil Wars(2005):
”Sri Lanka provides a lens for viewing many challenges with which development practitioners and leaders of developing nations have grappled in the post-World war II era”
August 12th, 2009 at 6:00 am
Elections are no guarantee of true democracy which should mean JUSTICE FOR ALL.
Paradise Poisoned(2005) by Prof John Ricjhardson: ”Processes of democratic political campaigning and elections pose nearly irresistible temptations to practice politics without principle. S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike’s term marked the beginning of a ‘poisonous’ cycle in Sri Lankan politics that has worked to polarise society along communal lines. ”
Bandaranaike was ”democratically elected”.
August 12th, 2009 at 9:59 am
”Democratically elected” President Jayawardene forced all his party parliamentarians to write a letter of resignation which he used to make them say ‘yes’ to anything he said and did. He extended his term of office not by elections but by a referendum(1983).
Democracy Sri Lankan Style
August 12th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
”A number of member countries are not measuring up to the Commonwealth principles. The regime in The Gambia, for instance, is extremely harsh with little attention paid to human rights and no freedom of expression.”
Journalists, lawyers, human rights activists and parliamentarians have been attacked, arrested and murdered over decades simply because they criticise the government on the unjust way they treat the Tamils.
Gamibia may have no freedom of expression but there is no freedom of movement in Sri Lanka:
in the last three years there has been severely restricted movement i in and out of the heavily militarised Northeast Sri Lanka and ii. within villages and districts in the Northeast. Furthermore nearly 300,000 Tamils are behind barbed wire and heavily guarded by the Army:
a.Unlock the camps in Sri Lanka, Amnesty International, 7 August 2009
b.Sri Lanka: Free Civilians From Detention Camps, Human Rights Watch, 28 July 2009
August 12th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
In ”democratic” Sri Lanka it’s against the Constitution(Sixth Amendment) for any person to espouse separation from the ”sovereign” state.
August 12th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Sri Lanka – camps, media?genocide? Opendemocracy, Martin Shaw(Professor of Political Science, Sussex University), 30 June 2009:
”The interned Tamils don’t have the mobile-phone access that (in the early post-election stages at least) so embarrassed the Iranian regime.”
What is a democracy?
Will someone give a good definition here please?
August 12th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
http://www.groundviews.org/2009/03/08/its-not-cricket/#more-1131
??One seasoned photojournalist noted at the Galle Literary Festival in January 2009, this was the most hermetically sealed conflict he had ever encountered. Make no mistake, though remarkably well hidden from the public gaze, this is our Gaza and Darfur combined.??
August 12th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
CMAG, please do something:
How could the Tamils be in the current position 25 yrs after:
Democracy in Peril: Sri Lanka a Country in Crisis, Report to Law Asia Human Rights Standing Committee, 7 June 1985:
?There was a general consensus that within Sri Lanka today the Tamils do not have the protection of the rule of law, that the Sri Lankan government presents itself as a democracy under crisis, and that neither the government, nor its friends abroad, appreciate the serious inroads on democracy which have been made by the legislative, administrative and military measures which are being taken.
Sri Lanka is a challenge not only for UNHRC but also for CMAG and the rest of the international community.
August 12th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
CMAG, please don’t give up on Sri Lankan Tamils 28 years after:
Ethnic Conflict and Violence in Sri Lanka – Report of International Commission of Jurists 1981: ”The fate of the Tamils in Sri Lanka remains a matter of international concern”.
August 13th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
On July 2009 a Bill, ?Parliamentary Elections (Amendment) was gazetted: section 6 (6) of the Bill, states that a political party shall not be entitled to be treated as a recognized political party if, in the opinion of the Elections Commissioner, its name signifies any religion or community.
But it a a Republis that gives ‘foremost’ place to Buddhism in its constitution.
Democracy Sri Lankan Style.
August 13th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
So what can we actually do then? If CMAG is only as good as the sum of its parts how can we make it relevant and address the problems within the Commonwealth membership?
Sri Lanka will never be hauled in front of the comittee with Malaysia or India or Pakistan on the panel.
It’s as bad as the UN with countries like Zimbabwe or Sudan sitting on the human rights panel.
My suggestion will be for the Secretary General to take a more active role. Rather than being passive in the face of CMAG members, he should lead the agenda and have the authority to kick people out.
He is elected by the respective countries after all.
August 14th, 2009 at 8:12 am
I also agree that CMAG should be more active. but I doubt about the practical enforcement of the power of CMAG and Secretary General in a country like Srilanka where the govt. seems not to be respectful or reluctant to comply with the values and principles of the Cth. What I would suggest is all the member countries need to be respectful to the Cth principles and must be held accountable if they fail or unwilling to comply with. therefore, there should be strong commitment on the government part of each member states to adhere to the Cth values and CMAG and Secretary General should assist the govt. in question (such as Srilanka)to improve the living conditions of Tamil minority and to build the relationship between Sinhalese and Tamils based on mutual respect, trust and understanding. I won’t suggest Cth to take hard action as this policy seemed to be ineffective in most of the cases in the past. the motto ‘peace and cooperation’ might be the appropriate way for the Cth to apply in Srilanka at this moment.
August 20th, 2009 at 7:32 am
We all know that the last CMAG was held at the Commonwealth Secretariat, Marlborough House, London. When I wrote to the Commonwealth Secretariat asking for the address of the next meeting to be held in New York, they replied saying it cannot be disclosed!!
Commonwealth contradicts itself!!!!
August 29th, 2009 at 7:24 am
How does one define Freedom in Fiji anymore where the military have agged every aspect of it in Fiji be it the Freedom of speech or freedom of press/media & freedom to have public gathering?
How long is a piece of string? The point we are trying to make is – when will the Commonwealth really take a hardline on Fiji? It seems this is one of the biggest hope for Fiji citizens & those doing business there. Why is’nt the Commonwealth demanding as to why the United Nation is still engaging Fiji soldiers in the peace keeping force?
We hope that at the Heads of Commonwealth meeting scheduled in November 2009, the Commonwealth can at the very least make a definite decision as to their part in this military turmoil that has plagued Fiji. The military dictator in Fiji needs to get strong signals that what he is doing is not good for Fiji’s future as well as its people.
May God Bless Fiji.
– ————————————-
Read more;
Freedom in the World 2009 – Fiji
Capital: Suva
Population: 900,000
Political Rights Score: 6
Civil Liberties Score: 4
Status: Partly Free
Trend Arrow ?
Fiji received a downward trend arrow due to the government’s harassment of the media through intimidation tactics, including the deportation of two senior staff members at major newspapers.
Overview
After repeated pledges to hold new elections in March 2009, Fiji’s interim government in 2008 imposed new preconditions for elections and would not commit to a new election date. Also during the year, the interim government displayed greater intolerance of media criticism, such as forcibly deporting the publishers of two major newspapers, and suing the editor and publisher of a newspaper for publishing comments critical of the government.
——————————————————————————–
Fiji, colonized by Britain in 1874, became an independent member of the Commonwealth in 1970. Intense ethnic rivalry between indigenous Fijians and Indo-Fijians is the main source of political and social tension. Indians were first brought to Fiji in the 19th century to work on sugar plantations, and Indo-Fijians currently make up a majority of the population and control a large share of the economy. Armed coups by indigenous factions in 1987 and 2000 overthrew governments led by Indo-Fijian parties.
In the aftermath of the 2000 coup, the military installed Laisenia Qarase, a banker and indigenous Fijian from the United Fiji Party (UFP), to lead an interim government. Qarase was elected prime minister in the 2001 elections, and won a second term in 2006. Although tensions between the UFP and the largely Indo-Fijian Labour Party never eased, the more destabilizing rift was that between Qarase and military chief Commodore Frank Bainimarama over the fate of the 2000 coup participants. Bainimarama wanted suspects prosecuted and jailed, but the government repeatedly reduced their sentences, paid salaries to convicted officials, and granted political appointments to other convicts. Bainimarama publicly demanded that Qarase resign after he proposed granting an amnesty that would clear the criminal records of those convicted and provide immunity to those not yet charged. Qarase refused to step down, and Bainimarama ousted him in a bloodless coup in December 2006, with a promise to clean up rampant government corruption.
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,,,FJI,45b632e02,4a6452b923,0.html
September 27th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
this is another thing i hadnt heard of until i came on this site
September 27th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
People criticise the Un for having a country like Zimbabwe or the Sudan sitting on a human rights committee.. but them allowing the Gambia or Sri Lanka to judge a case like Fiji seems just as bad.
September 27th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
counldnt agree more simon
September 30th, 2009 at 11:38 am
CMAG reform needs to be high on the agenda.
If the commonwealth is a family it should respect disipline from its head. cmag should be both feared and respected.
fiji was not scared of it.
good examples of how effective CMAG has been please!