Debating skills in parliament, or at a provincial legislature, or at municipal chambers, are a
requirement that should not be taken for granted, for constitutional democracy, in part, hinges and thrives on forceful debaters with honed intellectual capacities as participants.
An absence of such skills, in large measure, detracts from a healthy and productive and engaging political discussions.
When these attributes are lacking, members of such institutions tend to make unnecessary and endless points of order – a method used deliberately by unthoughtful members whose intention is to stifle progress for political ends.
Important to note is that unprepared and uninformed members of parliament take delight in stalling time, and creating confusion and chaos. They take delight to unnecessarily fuelling political heat with the objective of bedevilling relations and causing disharmony and animosity.
Political parties send representatives to all tiers of government out of necessity to serve the best interests of society – to ensure that service delivery takes place in their localities. Towards this end, party political representatives require debating skills that are above average.
If this is to hold true, political parties are duty-bound to send deserving and well trained public representatives with requisite skills to represent their constituencies well.
It is incumbent on a political party, almost as an imperative, to recognise the need to send to parliament or to legislatures or to council, skilful representatives with adequate debating skills.
Not to do so would not only be detrimental to political parties, but would be an act of grave injustice whose effect would deny communities an effective voice to articulate their concerns and the ever pressing everyday needs, ranging from socioeconomic deficiencies to poor service delivery, among others.
But why does governance require efficient public representatives?
While we do not need philosophers to represent the populace, it should be undeniable to suggest we do need astute political practitioners who are adept at thinking logically and constructively if they are to serve their constituencies with great efficiency.
To think logically in parliamentary meetings means that a party representative must spend their afternoons and evenings working on their presentations or papers diligently.
They must try hard to crystallise their thoughts, and read more on the subject scheduled to be tackled in parliament, legislatures, and municipal chambers.
Long, and winding political and rumbling speeches are not good enough to contribute to the well-being of society, as is the use of inflammatory language when addressing societal difficulties. Respectful conversation is preferred, accepting that in a democracy all have a view to share, if only it contributes to finding a solution.
It needs to be remembered the focus should not only be on chastising the
governing party, important as this might be, but more to developing solution-oriented positions.
The function of a true people’s representative is to be able to scan the political environment, to be familiar with challenges facing society in their constituencies, and reading widely enough to diagnose a problem, and to offer a solution.
An efficient people’s representative must have a well thought through thesis, arguing for the eradication of suffering and poverty in their society, refraining from having a long dissertation about Karl Marx, or any political theorist irrelevant to the needs of the people, but to be more focused on what is to be done to deal with socioeconomic difficulties in communities.
More importantly, the country requires public representatives who are versed with argumentative tools, such as being able to explain what the problem is through the method of exposition of the problem, so that colleagues in parliament or legislature or in chambers, are able to understand issues to be tackled.
To deal with a problem is to be able to know it, and so elaborate on it as part of understanding it, drawing from other available sources such as journals, newspapers, television, radio, and any other dependable media, including talking to local communities.
True democracy demands independent thoughts devoid of parroting the
master’s voice.
All members of parliament, and of legislatures and of municipalities, have a right to raise their voices to articulate what they feel, and need no permission from their political principalities to speak their mind and articulate their thoughts with clarity without looking over their shoulders.
• Mdhlela is a freelance journalist, an Anglican priest, an ex-trade unionist, and former editor of the South African Human Rights Commission journals
