Cope notes that following the Cabinet meeting held on 18 February, a statement including the following comment was issued:
Cabinet condemns the unruly and unparliamentary conduct of some Members of Parliament during the opening of Parliament.
It is disappointing that these elected public representatives chose to dishonour the sacrifices and struggle made to realise our hard-earned democracy.
This statement is worrying and it points to a blurring of the lines between Parliament and the executive. It points to a serious deficit in the doctrine of separation of powers. Parliament elects the President who in turn appoints his executive.
It is Parliament which scrutinises and oversees the executive, not the executive which scrutinises and oversees Parliament. John Locke warned us when he noted, and I quote:
It may be too great a temptation to human frailty, apt to grasp at power, for the same persons, who have the power of making laws, to have also in their hands the power to execute them, whereby they may exempt themselves from obedience to the laws they make, and suit the law, both in its making, and execution, to their own private advantage ...
Thank you.
