Malaysian Minister elected CPA Chairman

Jaishree Balasubramanian

Kuala Lumpur, Aug 9 (PTI) Malaysian Unity and Culture
Minister Mohd Shafie Apdal was today elected Chairman of the
Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) defeating
British Parliamentarian of Indian origin Lord Swraj Paul in a
bitter contest marred by allegations of "deals".
Apdal, strongly backed by the Indian delegation, polled a
total of 152 votes against 102 secured by Paul, a nominee of
Britain and Canada. One vote was declared "spoilt".
Reacting to his election as the new Chairman of the CPA
which has 15,000 members covering 177 branches, Apdal said "it
is an honour."
After the results were announced, Lord Paul went and
hugged the Malaysian Minister.
"It was a good election," said Paul, a Labour member of
the House of Lords. "I pointed out what needs to be done by
this CPA. The UK will support the new Chairman to reach that
aim."
Paul took the defeat in his stride and mentioned that
barring some exceptions, Indian delegates had chosen to vote
for the Malaysian candidate in a "quid pro quo which I
understand had been agreed upon three years ago" at the
previous CPA Chairmanship election in Fiji when india's Hashim
Abdul Halim (speaker of the eastern Indian state West Bengal
legislative assembly) was elected the Chairman.
Ahead of the election, the British delegation had alleged
that India and Malaysia were involved in "shocking deals", a
charge rebutted by Somnath Chatterjee, Speaker of Lok Sabha
(lower house of India's Parliament) and leader of the Indian delegation, who said the British comments were "not in good taste".
"It shows some little agony is felt somewhere,"
Chatterjee had said referring to a statement by Hugh Bayley,
leader of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, that
deals had been struck between the Indians and Malaysians three
years ago.
Earlier in his speech, Apdal said he would emphasise on
building capability for alleviation of poverty and for
economic empowerment among the poor nations "using our
powers of influence to address the cause of international
strife and terrorism and find innovative solutions to current
food, energy, climate change issues."
Pointing out that the UK government sits on the most
powerful and influential world bodies including the UN
Security Council, EU and G-8, he said "I have often wondered
why it is that Britain especially has not made more commercial
use of the traditional Commonwealth relationship."
Paul, in his speech, said if elected as Chairman he would
work to heal the rifts, to regenerate and reinvigorate the CPA
and to be more pro-active in strengthening parliamentary
democracy and capacity building.
"I know from my experience that to be a proper and
successful chairperson will be a full time job and I will
devote all the time needed - it has to be done," he said.
Paul said everyone wants CPA to be a world class
organisation "but we are floundering, still split and
concerning ourselves more with administrative matters than
doing what we stand for".
He raised questions as to whether the CPA was doing
enough to support parties and Parliament in Kenya and why it
has not been in dialogue with those in the newly-elected
Parliament in Zimbabwe. He wanted Commonwealth countries to
retain trade preferences from the EU and the US.