|
|||||||
|
|||||||
|
Not In My Name |
Open Letter To Palestinian Public Opinion What We Want From The Elected President 26/12/2004 Palestinian Peace Coalition
This statement is reposted from The Palestine Media Center
The Palestinian Peace Coalition took the initiative last week to collect signatures of various Palestinian national and political figures and representatives of civil society groups on a statement that outlines the demands of the Palestinian public at large from the new Palestinian president who will be elected on 9 Janaury, 2005. By Saturday evening, the number of the signatories reached came up to 600 and the process of collecting further signatures will continue to ensure that the largest sectors of the Palestinian society are involved in designing their future by means of outlining their demands for the new Palestinian president. The initiative to collect the signatures stemmed from the need to engage the maximum number of Palestinians in the current political debate ahead of the presidential elections in order to make sure that the public knows how important its contribution on the Election Day is in designing the future of the Palestinian people for years to come. Among the signatories are incumbent and former ministers in the Palestinian National Authority, members of various PLO institutions such as the Palestinian National, Council, the Palestinian Central Council and the Palestinian Legislative Council, in addition to leaders and prominent members of various political parties, university presidents and lecturers, journalists, writers, artists, businessmen and financiers. Among others, the signatories include Yasser Abed Rabbo (member of the PLO Executive Committee and head of the PPC/ GI), Dr. Hanan Ashrawi (PLC member), Mahmoud Darwish (a prominent Palestinian poet), Dr. Nabil Kassis (President of Birzeit University), Qaddoura Fares (PNA State Minister), Dr. Iyad Sarraj (human rights activist), and leading Palestinian businessmen and financiers such as Zahi Khoury, Munib Al Masri and Hasib Sabbagh. Follows is the full text of the Letter: Open Letter To Palestinian Public Opinion What We Want From The Elected President Upon announcing the presidential elections for the Palestinian National Authority and the Legislative Council, the Palestinian political regime enters a new era that is based on solidifying the electoral legitimacy and the people's will to choose their representatives and their political leadership. This democratic change necessitates the largest scale participation of people in the elections in order to emphasize the political viability of our people and their firm commitment to democracy ideals while insisting, in the meantime, on building a modern and advanced state right after the Israeli occupation of our land is brought to an end. We, a gathering of political, economic, social and cultural groups, and figures among the Palestinian people would like to stress our great comfort at the sense of responsible patriotism and commitment to the rule of law with which the national political institutions shouldered their duties following the death of our eternal leaders, the late President Yasser Arafat. In part of our resolute stand to solidify our national project and protect it from threats of liquidation; and of our persistence to build our own pluralistic democratic system that sets the foundations of a modern democratic political regime capable of utilizing the powers of our people and society to shoulder all their national duties, we, the undersigned, would like to stress the following demands from our elected president: ONE: To protect the Palestinian political program that was ratified by the PLO and by each and every other Palestinian legitimate institution. This program is based on international legitimacy, foremost of which UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, the creation of the independent Palestinian state within the borders of 4th June 1967 with East Jerusalem its capital alongside the state of Israel and to reach an agreed upon and a just settlement for the question of refugees in line with UN Resolution 194 and the Arab Summit Resolutions of Beirut 2002. We demand a firm rejection of the so-called interim state solution or any other interim solutions that are aimed at slamming the door in the face of a comprehensive peace settlement. We would also stress on the need to reject all illegal and internationally-condemned changes on the ground that the Israeli occupation has accumulated in the occupied Palestinian territories, including Jewish settlements and the Segregation Wall. Those changes aim to suppress the national aspirations of our people to a fully sovereign state. TWO: To respect the role of the PLO, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, as the supreme term of political reference, and to achieve full complementary harmony between the institutions of the PNA and those of the PLO in a way that activates and reforms the PLO institutions on democratic grounds that would enable the PLO to activate its full political performance in the service of our people in exile. THREE: To safeguard the status of Jerusalem and its spiritual, political, economic, and cultural importance as the capital of the future State of Palestine, to provide all forms of support to the national institutions in the city and to reopen those that had been closed by the Israeli authorities, mainly the Orient House and the Union of Palestinian Chambers of Commerce. Besides, we demand that a special care be given to the holy shrines in the city and elsewhere in the Palestinian homeland and to maintain the fraternal Islamic-Christian ties among the Palestinian people. FOUR: To provide special attention to the question of all Palestinian prisoners incarcerated in prisons of the Israeli occupation and to place their cause among the top issues on the agenda of any future negotiations with Israel. We also demand the exertion of all forms of pressure to achieve the release of all prisoners regardless of their political affiliations or beliefs. FIVE: To continue the process of reviving the legitimacy of the Palestinian political regime by means of setting fixed date for the Palestinian Legislative Council elections along with developing the elections law and amend it in a way that promotes a mixed electoral program (majority and proportional representation) that would enhance social and political pluralism. We urge all institutions and parties to hold internal elections in order to augment the ideals of democracy as a rule of public life in Palestine. SIX: To continue the national dialogue against the backdrop of the PNA being the sole term of reference and of political pluralism while sustaining the principle of peaceful transfer of power as set in the Basic Law. We also demand the cessation of all forms of chaos, security anarchy and of the existence of a cluster of authorities and terms of power that rule by themselves. We demand a law to be introduced to regulate the performance and activities of the various security apparatuses and to design their responsibilities, authorities and superior source of power. While we stress on our legitimate right to confront the occupation, we call for the restoration of the popular and public components of the Palestinian uprising and demand the cessation of all actions that would minimize the support and solidarity with our struggle or de-legitimize our national liberation struggle. SEVEN: To accelerate and complete comprehensive reforms as a road to build the institutions of a future Palestinian state based on the Basic Law, to separate between authorities and to activate their role, and to develop the judicial system and maintain its independence away from political intervention. We demand the full implementation of the PLC role in developing all laws and regulations and in monitoring the performance of the executive authority in addition to reforming the administrative and financial system of the PNA. We stress on the need to complete the judicial structure of the PNA and to enforce the foundations of good governance, mainly the rule of law, transparency and accountability and to ensure that corrupted figures be penalized through the introduction of laws and regulations that refer to rules and laws of civil society organizations and of various political, economic, social and trade union segments of the Palestinian society. EIGHT: To separate the PNA and the state institutions from the bodies of the political parties that run them in order to sustain the principle of political pluralism and transfer of powers in a way that would augment the essence of the state's role as a state for all its citizens and governed by modern institutions. We also demand the introduction of a modern law for political parties and their funding procedures in order to activate their role and provide the legal guarantees that safeguard the sovereignty of democracy in those parties and to renovate their internal structure and their chain of command as a prerequisite for genuine political development and peaceful transfer of powers. NINE: To provide financial support and assistance to families and areas wrecked by the crimes of the occupation and to the villages and areas that had been directly affected by the construction of the Separation Wall in order to fortify their steadfastness in the face of all attempts to uproot them or send them into exile. TEN: To empower the role of Palestinian women in public life and to confront all cultures that aim at undermining their role in different aspects of Palestinian life. This can be attained through the introduction of laws that on one hand safeguard equality for women and, on the other hand, reflect the deep democratic ideals of our people and their national movement and the contribution of women in the national and social liberation struggle. ELEVEN: To solidify our national economy by means of developing frameworks as well as organizational and legal laws that support launching an economic and social development, while emphasizing the free market economy both on the regional and international levels within the framework of social security that can urge the private sector to take up its role as the major driving force for development. We demand the creation of competitive investment environment that encourages private investments and attracts foreign investments. We also demand providing foreign investors with incentives to promote their investments in an environment free of blackmail, monopoly, illegal profits or misuse of powers, in addition to supporting the private sector companies and the representative civil society association to allow them to shoulder their responsibility in designing the major economic policies. TWELVE: To develop the curriculums and the education system in all its phases on the basis of modern and enlightened foundations that would provide all the resources necessary to allow the entry into the knowledge economy and to support serious and scientific research in addition to supporting various institutions of culture, youths and children. We also demand steps to improve health services, to fortify the role of local government institutions and to guarantee the completion of their elections process. THIRTEEN: To mobilize all resources possible to confront poverty and unemployment and to protect the interests of the poor by means of introducing an advanced system of social and health care that would reduce the economic and livelihood burdens on the people. All of this should be done in line with the fact that partners in development are also partners in shouldering the responsibilities of such development. The goal of these demands is to fortify the role of the society and of the citizens by means of urging them to participate in designing their future and the future of their coming generations. As a gathering of groups and figures, we will continue to work with all national parties and institutions in order to achieve all the above-mentioned goals.
[December 26, 2004]
|
||||||
|
©2000-2005 Not In My Name |
|
|||||||
back