Gaye Davis
THE rumblings began almost as soon as the survey teams hit the=20 cobblestones in the Parliamentary precinct. It was, said Dr Mamphela Ramphele, director of Idasa=D5s Public Information=
Centre (PIC), a historic opportunity for MPs and senators to prove they=20 were really as transparent and accessible to the electorate as they claimed=
to be =D1 but not everyone saw it that way. Teams of students started delivering the PIC=D5s seven-page folio of=20 questions to MPs and senators on Monday, asking each to sign on receipt.=20 The survey will provide the first comprehensive picture of South Africa=D5s=
By Wednesday, National Party chief whip Hennie Smit was reported as=20 saying NP members would not be encouraged to fill it in. It was unclear=20 whether this was because he believed the survey was =D2premature=D3, as=20 Parliament was busy formulating its own rules for disclosure, or because he=
found many of the questions =D2very personal=D3. DP chief whip Douglas=20 Gibson was also reported to be =D2highly critical=D3 of the survey. Its 161 questions move from the easy (personal details, education and=20 political background) through the tricky (a declaration of financial=20 interests, such as details of shares and property owned, and gifts worth=20 more than R200 received) to the sticky (Are you planning to apply for=20 amnesty, and for which act?). =D2A number of the questions will appear intrusive. And, in a sense, they a=
in politics, the only questions worth asking are those that are challenging=
said Richard Calland, manager of the Parliamentary Information and=20 Monitoring Service (PIMS) at Idasa=D5s PIC. =D2We have consulted widely and have thought very carefully about what the=
public is and isn=D5t entitled to know. The information will be safeguarded=
and only used by PIMS.=D3 Information from the surveys =D1 to be collected during the course of next=
week =D1 will be fed into a parliamentary database PIMS is developing,=20 surely destined to become the most desirable hacker=D5s target the country=
has ever known, though much depends on whether MPs and Senators will=20 rise to the challenge to =D2demonstrate that they are really as transparent= and=20 accessible to the electorate as they say they are and ,thereby, win the tru=
of the people who put them into power=D3, as Dr Ramphele put it when=20 launching the survey this week.