National Assembly: Consensus reached but tainted by female MPs' near insurgency

Cool heads finally prevailed in the National Assembly.





A consensus between the opposition and the majority MPs on the issue

of the 2 supercommittes (PAJ and ECOFIN) was finally reached shortly

before the opening of the plenary session of Monday, May 21.





The vote on the contentious issue, with the opposition threatening to

withdraw its participating from the parliamentary committees at the

plenary session of Saturday, was averted at the last minute.





The formula worked out between the leaders of parliamentary caucuses

was the following: while pro-Kabila MPs will chair those 2

supercommittees, the opposition MPs will be embedded in them as their

ranking members in two key positions: 1) First Vice-president; and 2)

Rapporteur.





A vote was then called to fill the 35 posititons of the 7

committees--with a few other positions left vacant; and subcommittees

still to be set up.





Thus opposition firebrand, MP Christian Badibangi, was elected 1st VP

president of the Political, Administrative and Judiciary Committe

(PAJ). The Sociocultural Committee chairmanship went to opposition

female MP Bazaiba (MLC).





There are two committees chaired by the opposition: the Sociocultural

Committee chaired by MP Bazaiba, and National Planning and

Infrastructures Committee.





The plenary session of the afternoon of Tuesday, May 22, opened with

female MPs sitting in the front rows of the hemicycle in Congress Hall

of the Palais du Peuple.





That chivalry extended by Speaker Aubin Minaku did nothing to diffuse

the wrath of female MPs, who felt cheated by the power grab of their

male counterparts.





No sooner had Speaker Minaku gavelled in the plenary session than MP

Adèle Kayinga of the Presidential Majority launched a scathing attack

against the male-dominated National Assembly with her incidental

motion.





"Is it normal," MP Kayinga seethingly asked, "to have only one woman

in all those commissions?"





"It's not normal!" MP kayinga answered her own rhetorical question.





She went on to "denounce" on record the lack of "female

representation" in those committees.





Another female MP said the composition of committees evinced the fact

that "gender discrimination rules in our country."





MLC MP Germain Kambinga, while sympathizing with the plight of

"charming" female MPs of the Presidential Majority, urged them to

henceforth stop accepting being used as "human shields" whenever the

majority finds it expedient to further its political designs in

Parliament.