Mr Speaker and hon members, the big question of the day is: Will the revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa eventually translate into peace, security and democracy for the people of this region?
Maximilien Robespierre said the following about the revolution, "A revolution is just a crime destroying another crime." Bear that in mind.
The manner in which events in Libya eventually turned out should have taught South Africa and the African Union that Africa tried in vain to play in the rough league, where might is right and national interests are paramount, eternal and perpetual - just to paraphrase British foreign secretary, Lord Palmerston.
In particular, where the powerful nations of the world sense that they will be adversely affected, the option of the African Union, AU, calling for an inter-Libyan political dialogue became a lost cause the minute the United States, US, France and Britain called for regime change in Libya.
Effective representative democracy and strong co-operation among parliaments and parliamentarians of the world cannot happen freely in the atmosphere of regional and international conflicts.
The causation of the international conflicts is invariably connected with the national and regional geopolitical dynamics where parliamentarians operate and where most of the world conflicts have their roots and are anchored.
The Inter-Parliamentary Union, IPU, must therefore encourage regional and national parliaments to forsake the umbrage of innocence and change the paradigm that holds the view that conflict resolution is the monopoly of the head of the state and the executive, with the exclusion of the role parliament and parliamentarians must play.
In the end, it is the constituencies of the parliamentarians that are turned into theatres of conflict where men, women and children die and many more are displaced.
Parliament is where good governance, a true multiparty system, democratic elections, lasting peace and sustainable social and economic justice must be promoted.
It is therefore rational within the context of the IPU mandate to call upon the Pan-African Parliament to establish a standing parliamentary peace organ to engage the parliament of Israel, the Palestinian Legislative Council, the parliament of Zimbabwe, and the parliament of Swaziland, among other parliaments on the African continent where conflict and political instability have become the order of the day, to assist in bringing about peace, security, political stability, democracy and development. I thank you. [Applause.]