Consent of the people needed if reform to succeed

The advocates of political reform appear to be saying that changes will just be a matter of having a two thirds majority in the House of Parliament.
The Economic Development Taskforce reformists have urged people to support reform and make their views known to their individual Member of Parliament who will then supposedly vote for reform in the House. Their lead has been followed by Mou Piri which was formed to promote the reform proposals devised by the Economic Development Taskforce.
The Prime Minister and Cabinet are in favour of putting the question of political reform to the voters. There is such a raft of proposals, the public have not been informed as to whether we are expected to adopt all proposed changes or just some. However, the proposals for reform go much further than that and if adopted would create a completely new two tier system whereby the constituent MPs would rank below national MPs.
For instance, the reformists want to eliminate the 24 MP system which is enshrined in the Cook Islands Constitution and in its place, they propose having 19 MPs consisting of 9 constituency MPs plus 10 national MPs chosen from a ‘list’ of candidates. The list candidates will be drawn from any electorate as long as they are on the electoral roll as a registered elector and the candidate who wins the most votes will be the PM. If the top candidate fails to win 51% of the national vote, there will be a runoff for the top 2 list candidates.
The two tier system is that the constituency MPs will be relegated to purely with local issues similar to the position of a Mayor and will not be eligible for the position of Prime Minister. Whether they are eligible to become Cabinet Ministers, has not been explained but on first sight, the constituent MPs will rank below the national MPs.
The public have an open mind about political reform with some being enthusiastic supporters, others have no idea and yet others are taking a more cautious view because the reforms, if adopted in their entirety, would change our system to something that is unlike any other system in the world. More precisely, the reforms appear to be a hotchpotch of many different systems put together in a jigsaw which does not quite fit together.
There are distinct elements of the American Presidential style in electing the PM and judging from some of the comments made at a public meeting held at Club Raro in 2009, during a presentation by the Economic Development Taskforce, may even include having top political posts in Cabinet available to unelected persons.
If so, then this is the direct opposite of the Westminster system whereby only elected members can represent their constituents in Parliament and in Cabinet. Under the current system, if an elected politician oversteps the mark (eg Toagate/Sunday flights/neglect of the outer islands), they can be removed and be replaced by others who are more in touch with public opinion.
Potential problems could arise where it is entirely possible for a party to win the majority of seats and be entitled to be government, but to be ruled by a Prime Minister who is from a different party entirely. Under the Westminster system, the PM is supposed to be the leader of the Party that can command the confidence of the majority of the House.
Everyone recognizes that our political system needs some sort of reform but precisely what those changes should be need to be taken to the people by the old fashioned method of public meetings and explaining what is proposed.
The proposals should also be presented in a ‘shopping list’ in a referendum so the public can tick which reforms they want and cross out the reforms they do not support. Without public support, the reforms will not succeed in the House because it is highly unlikely that any of the current outer islands MPs would sign their own death warrants by supporting the abolition of their own seats in exchange for an uncertain future.

Herald Issue 463 10 June
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