Chairperson Of Commission Research Articles

Voting Preferences at Getasan Sub-District in Semarang Regency Head Election

The regional head election in Semarang Regency was followed by two candidate pairs namely Mundjirin-Ngesti Nugraha and Nur Jatmiko - Mas' Ridudwan. One of the candidates is an incumbent from the previous regent, Mundjirin. This research tries to analyze related to voter preferences in Semarang Regency Regent election. Data collection methods used were interviews, observation and literature study. From the results of the study, researchers found two factors that had a significant influence in influencing the preferences of the Getasan sub-district community voters in the Semarang Regent election, namely the popularity and success team of the candidate pair. The habit of blusukan to the community while serving as regent previously made the popularity of Mundjirin known by the community. This has become a big capital in influencing people's preference to choose because the community's trust in their leaders has been built. On the other hand, Mundjirin is paired with Ngesti where Ngesti is a native / native son of Getasan sub-district, making Getasan to contribute greatly in giving victory to this couple. In addition, Ngesti was also the chairperson of Commission C of the Semarang Regency DPRD with the vote of 14,728 as the only candidate to reach the BPP and have a good role in the Semarang community. The factor of the campaign team and volunteers also has a big contribution because the success team becomes a form of socialization that is more easily understood by the community and even the successful team moves up to the RT level, besides of course inviting family and colleagues who have the right to vote.

Knowledge production on conflict early warning at the African Union

ABSTRACTHow does the African Union (AU) generate knowledge about on-going violent conflict as well as post-conflict situations? This article offers an analysis of the multiple sites and sources in the construction of conflict-related knowledge. It also reflects on the various institutional ways this knowledge is filtered into the activities of a wide range of AU actors, starting with the AU Commission, the AU Commission Chairperson and the Peace and Security Council. Emphasis is on the development of the Continental Early Warning System and some of its limitations, the latter partly related to the specific organisational culture of the African Union.

Hilferdingʼs Economic Policy and the 1927 Agrarian Program

Abstract: In the late 1920s, R. Hilferding （1877―1941）, an intellectual leader of the German Social Democratic Party and prominent exponent of organised capitalism, played an important role in economic policy, especially for agrarian problems. However, his activities have not been completely explored from a historical point of view. In several international conferences in 1926, he argued against aggressive protectionism in favour of mutually beneficial trade agreements and economic regulation under the League of Nations. Then, during parliamenta-ry discussions, he opposed the general rise of agrarian customs, and insisted on promoting high-grade, intensified production by means of differentiated tariffs and financial aids. As for international cartels, he led the 1927 inter-parliamentary commercial conference to accepting his anti-monopolistic resolution. Within the party, Hilferding, as commission chairperson, drafted an agrarian program based on his own earlier ideas as well as on the Austrian program, and successfully persuad-ed the party congress to adopt it in 1927. This program included measures for land reform, productivity improvement, and social policy, among others, intending to cooperate with the rural working populace anew. As the financial situation worsened late in 1927 and the year after, he urged the tempo-rary introduction of foreign credits in order to maintain business prosperity. He criticised the budget for mass taxation and military expenditure, highlighting the structural defects of the fiscal transfer system, and tried to restore the balance through administrative reorganisation. Nonetheless, he supported the emergency assistance project for agriculture, and demanded individually granted loans as well as the control of commerce and even of production for sta-bilisation. Overall, his economic policy aimed to make progresses in international cooperative relationships, avoiding block economy, and cope with agrarian and financial difficulties through productivity measures, basically grounded on his peculiar view of organised econo-my. JEL classification numbers: B 24, B 31, P 16.

THE BROKEN LEGS OF THE AFRICAN UNION COMMISSION CHAIR: A CRITIQUE OF THE PRESENT AND PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE

Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma successfully lobbied for and secured the prime seat as the new AU Commission Chairperson. This paper argues that the office of the Chairperson of the AU Commission does not have the legal and political power to spearhead the proper functions of the Commission Secretariat, hence the ‘broken legs’ in the title. The new Chairperson is going into an organisation which is intergovernmental in nature, with the critical decision-making power still in the hands of individual member states. The question being asked in this paper is how the Chairperson can exercise her mandate under the current setup. There is a need to look critically at the AU’s culture and how it functions, and at its grand political dreams that in most cases have not come true. The paper concludes by advocating major institutional reforms so that the office of the AU Commission Chairperson becomes credible and legitimate to empower her to sit down and work.

The (Ir)relevance of the Office of the Chair of the African Union Commission: Analysing the Prospects for Change

AbstractWithin the context of the current debate on the institutional transformation of the African Union (AU), this article examines the position of the chairperson of the AU Commission (Commission). The importance of the Commission chairperson cannot be over-emphasized. As the head of the “engine room” of the AU, it is pertinent that s/he is given the requisite powers to oversee the proper functioning of the secretariat, which would in turn propel the progressive development of African integration. This article argues that the current intergovernmental nature of the AU, where real decision making powers are held by member states, curtails the Commission chairperson from playing a meaningful role in the integration process. It highlights certain fundamental factors for ensuring the relevance of the chairperson. These include the institutional transformation of the AU, a review of the eligibility requirements for the Commission chairperson, a broad-based election process and hybridized functions.

Differing interpretations of reconciliation in South Africa: a discussion of the home for all campaign

The theme of reconciliation remains an important one in South African politics. The issue of reconciliation was recently highlighted by South African Human Rights Commission chairperson, Jody Kollapen. According to Kollapen, in South Africa we have a problematic narrow interpretation of reconciliation, one that presents reconciliation and transformation as being in opposition to one another. This paper explores some of the debates about reconciliation as a process and then relates these to the Home for All Campaign. This Campaign was aimed at encouraging white South Africans to acknowledge the injustices of the past and to commit themselves to healing divisions and reducing inequalities in contemporary South Africa. It conceived of reconciliation as a process in which the onus is on white South Africans to take the initiative in reconciling with black South Africans. The Campaign received much publicity and provoked debate but never managed to gain the support of a significant number of white South Africans. In this paper, I explore the reasons for the Campaign's failure to meet all of its objectives, relating this to contemporary South African discourse on reconciliation. I argue that the Campaign's interpretation of reconciliation was valuable and necessary and that it remains imperative in South Africa that white South Africans critically reflect upon past and present privileges and take the initiative in processes of inter-racial reconciliation.

Gender and Change in Hong Kong: Globalization, Postcolonialism, and Chinese Patriarchy (review)

Reviewed by: Gender and Change in Hong Kong: Globalization, Postcolonialism, and Chinese Patriarchy Hans Yeung (bio) Eliza Wing-Yee Lee, editor. Gender and Change in Hong Kong: Globalization, Postcolonialism, and Chinese Patriarchy. Toronto: UBC Press, 2003. xii, 224 pp. Hardcover $85.00, ISBN 0-7748-0994-9. In 2003, soon after this book came out, a scandal rocked Hong Kong's Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), set up in 1996 with a mission to eliminate discrimination on the grounds of sex, marital status, pregnancy, disability, and family status. Anna Wu, a former legislator who had served as the Commission's chairperson since 1999 and at times challenged the Hong Kong Government over some sexually biased laws, was rejected for another contract renewal. Michael Wong, the retired judge who succeeded the chairpersonship, decided to reduce the Commission to the status of another government lapdog, first by sacking the incoming director of operations, Patrick Yu, whose appointment had been confirmed by Anna Wu prior to her departure. To this personnel change the local mass media reacted with indignation and distrust. They perceived it as government plot to revamp the EOC along a more conservative line. Although the crisis was resolved by Wong's resignation under mass pressure, it exemplifies editor [End Page 418] Eliza Lee's prophecy about the postcolonial political order in Hong Kong, which, in her own words, "is characterized by an increase in political authoritarianism that constricts the space for women's popular participation" (p. 201). Lee's compilation is not just concerned with the prospects for gender issues in Hong Kong. A collection of extended versions of papers presented in a conference titled "Gender and Development in Asia," held at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in November 1997, this book critically reviews the important social, political, and economic transformations pertaining to gender in Hong Kong, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s when this former British colony was then proactively preparing for its reunification with China in 1997. The book starts with Lee's very useful introduction, offering a theoretical framework that contextualizes Hong Kong's gender issues by depicting the complex interaction of three important forces in operation, namely globalization, postcolonialism, and Chinese patriarchy. The framework is then elaborated and substantiated in seven case studies, each in one chapter with a sharp focus. They include legal changes (Carole J. Petersen), political participation (Lisa Fischler), professional women (Eliza W. Y. Lee), working-class women (Stephen Wing-Kai Chiu and Ching-Kwan Lee), keeping concubines (Ka-King Wu), Christianity (Wai-Ching Wong), and international migration (Siumi Maria Tam). This broad spectrum of studies illustrates how the three forces interacted in the last decades of the twentieth century. The book concludes with Lee's analysis of the prospects for the development of a critical feminist discourse in the context of post-handover Hong Kong. The sophisticated theoretical supposition, ample case studies, and the attempt to predict the future of gender discourse in Hong Kong combine to form the unique features of this book and make it stand out among other publications related to gender in Hong Kong, which are primarily empirical and historical. The book demonstrates the dilemma of Hong Kong in the ascendancy of a critical feminist discourse. While globalization and postcolonialism combined to provide opportunities for women's activism and oppositional discourses, the post-handover situations were characterized by developments unfavorable to the feminist pursuit for a fairer society. Such developments included an increase in political authoritarianism and ongoing economic depression that have continued to this day and contributed to a class polarization between local Chinese women. Educational opportunities have on the whole expanded in the last few decades, but the economic restructuring, particularly in the past decade, eroded the commonly accepted "success ethics" miracle that was perceived to have come about as a result of the "work harder, earn more" principle, which had worked satisfactorily in the bygone labor-intensive manufacturing era. Massive relocations to mainland China resulted in a tightening job market in manufacturing, which in turn sent many middle-aged, middle- and lower-class women back to domesticity and made them dependent (again) on their husbands as their means of support. [End Page 419] A similar...