In my brief remarks, I want to speak with you about two greatly misunderstood, misused, and abused Concepts, that is; Control and Power.
I want us to very quickly look at these two concepts as it relates to the work we do in Parliament and Government.
I would assume that you are all either elected or appointed as Speaker of Parliament by the Political Party forming the Government.
And so you do have political allegiances, and in most cases, you are, or were “what we call a General in that Party”, or a very high ranking member, or very influential member.
So, with this affiliation, how do you exercise the power that has been invested in you, over both the Government and the Opposition?
After all, in the legislative arm of government, you are the one who exercises control and power over the Members of Parliament who in turn exercise control and power over our countries.
Additionally, I want you to consider how you exercise power over your emotions in the execution of your duties.
For example; How do you control your emotions when the Opposition Members are beating down on your Political Party and its members in a House debate?
I mean really giving it to them, casting your party in a bad light?
Do you as Speaker remain impartial, and only ensure that nothing being said is against the Standing orders of the House?
Or do you jump in and try to disrupt the member or try to become a part of the debate, exercising your power in a way that is solely beneficial to your Party and its members in Parliament?
Also, how do you control your excitement when members of your party are stating their accomplishments in a very exciting manner?
You don’t have to answer now, just think about it.
Let's quickly Identify the etymology of” Control and Power” so that we can identify how are they being used or misused.
The word Control originally has nothing to do with manipulating someone, even though it has come down to our times with that connotation.
Control, arises from the Latin "contra-rotulus"; The word "against" comes from two things that oppose or differentiate each other ("con-"= unit, and "-tra-"= between; in English "against").
While "rotulus" means "device that rotates or that which rotates”.
This refers to an official communication system since Roman times which spread throughout Europe, and from there to the world in medieval and colonial times, where royal or imperial communications were made on rolls of paper, with a certified duplicate. Those official rolls were called "rotulus" and the duplicates were called "contra". Thus, we get the Contra-Rotulus or Contre-Role (in French). It was a duplicate certificate that validated what was ordered by the ruler so that documents would not be falsified.
This is called "Contre-role mechanism", a term that when pronounced in French passed to other Romance languages as "Control".
In other words, the control mechanism is not to impose itself on others, but to make sure that something is as it has been said, and proven.
Therefore, Control is a necessary mechanism for the security of what is said or ordered, and it is a way of validating that what is said is true before the law, and thus there can be no deception.
But this same control system is the one that is distorted when the real conflict enters.
Today, just as "control" took on a negative connotation, "power" is often a word with a positive connotation, since both in the social, cultural, and spiritual world, people often speak of "inner power" or "power of the town".
We, ourselves, use the word empowerment to recognize the internal mandate of our own life. However, it awakens uncertainties, such as the fight "against power", or the power of those who have more, the power of the government, or the power of the rich.
The idea of power has governed humanity for millennia, and everything has its logic.
Power is therefore said to be the domain that one has over things, and; Inner power refers to having full control of one's thoughts, emotions, and actions; Cultural power is the power to dominate freedom of expression; The power of a government is the grace granted to regulate the individuals that make up a nation.
What is the Power that is Granted to Speakers of Parliament?
Hon. Speakers, we have heard many times that “Unity is strength”, and it is the strength that gives rise to Power.
Are you as a group of Speakers United, how do you communicate with each other, is there togetherness?
Know that those who join together exert different forces and with different inertia. A single mass cannot exert any force, since it would have no opposition or polarity that would move it to exert its force and demonstrate its power. The Unit does not arise from the conformation of a single being but from the agglomeration of many of them, unique and unrepeatable.
Hon. Speakers, be United and exercise your control and power in your jurisdictions correctly. It is not to lose yourself notwithstanding your emotions, conflict, Ideas, and political affiliations.
Do remember, that the wind can bend you like hurtful words, but you will only overcome them by becoming flexible. The rigidity of the ground will prevent you from expanding, like the structures that design the systems in your countries, but with patience, you will always find the cracks through which to extend your being. The sun sometimes burns, as do the expectations that have been placed upon us. However, like its rays, they become the fuel for your expansion.
Sometimes you will face storms, and some lightning will fall very close to you. I tell you to ride out that storm. I have lived it, and I have been in those storms, but I can tell you that in each storm there is a new hope. With Persistence, self-confidence, flexibility, and recognizing that what the world gives you, is what awakens the strength in you to face the world”.
Be strong, Hon. Speakers, as strength is something that is built with inner integrity, and with the ability to control oneself against the forces of the world. Integrity Fortitude grants power not to control what surrounds you, but to awaken the power over yourself, and to control what is in you.
Additionally, Hon. Speakers, be cognizant that all power generated by the accumulation of resources is nothing more than the mask of a forthcoming decline. But all power built inside is the one that lasts through time and space.
Therefore, today, I want us all to remember this:
Everything that is created, is destroyed. Everything that lives, dies. Everything that goes up, must come down. After every day, comes its night. Every journey reaches a destination. Every inspiration dies on the exhalation. And every beginning comes to an end.
My honorable friends, not recognizing the cycles that constitute the constant, and clinging to the notion that things will never change, will only lead to trauma and suffering at the moment of the unavoidable collapse.
Hence, it is essential to move- move forward, and recognize that power is the product of potential, and it only arises from the energy that lies within you, not from the things you get from outside.
Hon Speakers, Parliamentarians, Government Officials, and distinguished guests, I want to encourage all of you to build your inner power from the strength of your integrity, which will, in turn, allow for the generation of a movement of conscious beings that can transform reality. Become the mountain, become the unstoppable force, become the immovable object, and assert yourself in who you are.
I end with one of my favorite Poems “Happy the Man” by John Dryden:
Happy the man, and happy he alone,
He who can call today his own:
He who, secure within, can say,
Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.
Be fair or foul or rain or shine
The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine.
Not Heaven itself upon the past has power,
But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.
Thank You.
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