Heated Power Struggles PDF Print E-mail
By Editor   
Thursday, 28 April 2005
An existential debate about past and future performances of the students' political bodies on Wednesday night divided IUB's student representatives. Reform ideas coming from several Government members proposed radical changes, which faced strong opposition during a two-and-a-half hour meeting session. The suggested concept suggested tried to give more power to sub-organs, proposing a system of several Vice-Presidents, responsible for different subjects of concern. The concept, proposed by Adina Luncan, Arvidas Bloze, Dimitar Velev, Petar Dimitrov, Rytis Vitkauskas, and Tadas Jucikas, has been debated within the Government over the past three weeks. However, no decision was made during the legislative meeting last night.

In brief the concept embodied a shift in power from the parliament and committees to a cabinet, consisting of four Vice Presidents and the Student Government President. This Cabinet would oversee the four domains 'Student Affairs,' 'Financial Affairs,' 'PR,' and 'Campus Life.' The Parliament's main task would thus be downgraded to 'confirming important policy decisions,' leaving the day-to-day business entirely to the Cabinet. Furthermore, it was suggested to provide incentives to the Cabinet members, either financially or through academic credits.

Think Tank representative Matthias Bröcheler harshly criticized the ideas in a 30-minute evaluation of the 'Structural Reform Proposal.' Professor Matthijs Bogaards, who was invited by PM Henrik Maedler, shared many of Matthias' concerns.

Both stated that there would be a dangerous over-concentration of power. Bogaards reminded the government members that 'the Parliament should be the heart of everything." On the idea of financial compensation, the professor simply said it was 'a silly idea, so let's not talk about it."



Instead of calling for another referendum, 'we should rather improve the current structure," Matthias said. Prof. Bogaards agreed and quipped that the structural reform would be 'a recipe for disaster."

As three of the initiators of this proposal were absent during the meeting, Vice President Tadas was reluctant to put it to an immediate vote. He rather wanted to ask the parliamentarians to vote via email. Chief Justice Ana Calcatin, however, said this would violate the Government's constitution. The vote was thus postponed to the meeting on next Wednesday.

Apart from this heated debate, the Parliament also decided funding the 0-815 Awards with 290 Euro, most of which is designated for printing t-shirts.

Sebastian Hirsch, Tino Kreutzer
 
< Prev   Next >
[ Back ]