IN THE END, the two largest parties, AKEL and DISY, yesterday joined forces in order to prevent public discussion of the book that contained excerpts of the e-mail communications of Alexander Downer and his team. Initially, deputies from the other parties had wanted the House Institutions Committee to discuss the views allegedly expressed by Downer in the e-mails, as they constituted interference in domestic affairs and showed a lack of objectivity by the Australian special envoy.
But yesterday the theme of the discussion was changed by the votes of the deputies of the two big parties. Now, the discussion that will be held behind closed doors in two meetings, will centre on the damage done to the institutions of the Republic by the leaking of what have come to be known as the ‘Downer documents’.
DISY parliamentary spokesman Christos Pourgourides had argued that discussion of the documents at the legislature would have been in violation of the Cyprus Constitution as well as the European Convention of Human Rights, which protected the privacy of communications. And as these documents had been obtained illegally, by discussing them, the House Committee would be rewarding illegality.
The majority decision was grudgingly accepted by the deputies of DIKO, EDEK and EVROKO, who wanted to set up a mock public tribunal that would have given them the opportunity to launch a concerted attack on the much-detested Downer. DIKO’s parliamentary spokesman Andreas Angelides said that the development was an “unprecedented defeat for the freedom to exercise parliamentary control,” while the chairman of the Institutions Committee said the legislature had “suffered a blow” from the two big parties.
There will be plenty more exchanges in the next few days, with Downer’s detractors accusing the two parties of showing servility, lack of patriotism etc. Of course they would not say what they had hoped to achieve by setting up a Downer-bashing session in the legislature. Would they say anything more than what they have been saying for months in public? And the idea that they would be exercising “parliamentary control” over the UN Secretary-General’s envoy is just plainly silly.
His detractors have already called for Downer’s immediate replacement and have been completely ignored by Ban Ki-moon who not only extended his contract, but also fully endorsed his evaluation of the talks and his observations about the negative role played by the politicians and media, in the recent UN report. Apart from his vote of confidence in Downer, in his report, Ban also noted that “efforts by opponents of a solution to undermine the UN’s credibility, directly undermines the process itself.”
The Institutions Committee should have been left to discuss the ‘Downer documents’ as it could not cause any more damage. All the damage has already been done and recorded in Ban’s report.
