National Assembly Speaker Francis MacGregor has hailed parliaments worldwide that are true vehicles for social change and are bringing meaningful progress, prosperity and harmony for their societies.

He made the praise while addressing the Indian Parliament in New Delhi on Friday January 24, , the final day of a three-day (January 22-24) International Parliamentary Conference to mark the Golden Jubilee of the Parliament of India.

Seychelles was among 77 countries, including host India, taking part in the conference. Also representing Seychelles at the conference was Anse Boileau MNA Andre Pool, who also addressed the conference on Thursday Janaury 23.

Speaking during the session entitled "Parliament as a vehicle for social change", Speaker MacGregor said from the time the first parliament in the history of man was created, that was an evolution of society.

From then on, he said, that "creation or creature" (parliament) became the vehicle of change, the reflection of change and the representative of social change.

Parliament, he continued, was to become the platform through which the people, through their representatives, could express their aspirations, which he described as "freedom, democracy, the struggle against poverty, land reforms, food for the hungry, shelter for the homeless, equality for the discriminated, health for the sick, protection for the weak", to name but some.

He said that throughout the history of Parliament, some countries had to evolve from a one-party to a multi-party state, others from military to civilian, racial to non-racial, totalitarian to pluralism.

"Power did not give us everything," he said."We had to go further to concretise ourselves, our peoples, even our leaders and our followers for a better and positive social change in body and soul. We had to become less abstract, less dogmatic and more pragmatic so that in the Parliament to come, it would be for the betterment of our people, be it in the laws, in the motions, in the questions or the dialogue."

As for MNA Pool, he spoke during the session entitled "Parliamentary Practices and Procedures: Need for reforms to secure greater executive accountability."

He gave a short account of the history and proceedings in the Seychelles Parliament since the re-introduction of multi-party democracy in 1992.

He said that as most Seychellois Parliamentarians were young as was the country's democracy, it was a challenge to ensure that "we follow practices and procedures that are acceptable to our political groupings in parliament, and at the same time fulfilling the desires of the electorate who show keen interest on issues being discussed and the degree to which we make the executive accountable."

He said he believed in the Seychelles Parliament where MNAs were always striving to ensure that the people, through their elected representatives, had the opportunity to keep the Executive in check.

He added that there was however a need to continue looking for ways and means to improve so as to always ensure greater executive accountability, and that this reform should be a continuous process.

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