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CPF 2007 marked the tenth year of the People’s Forum, and welcomed the boldness
and vision of the Forum. Noting that the programme addressed issues ranging from
environment, trade, education, health and culture, he said the CPF was ‘painting a large
canvas.’ He underscored the need to celebrate civil society at large and welcomed civil
society as a direct and authentic voice of the people and a vehicle for conveying their most
real, most immediate and most local interests. He said there was a need to celebrate civil
society’s capacity to protest, cajole, criticise and hold accountable, lend support to
government initiatives, and take part in them and to be objective and apolitical. He urged civil
society to find a balance and to be responsible, informed and accountable in doing so.
In closing, Secretary-General McKinnon said that over the past two decades the rise of civil
society as a social and political force in individual countries and transnationally has been a
huge part of the spread of democracy. In fact, he said, civil society has been part of its
inspiration, and that voluntary action by individual citizens is part of democracy in action and
long may it continue. Yours is the loudhailer directed at government, what you say here in
the CPF matters hugely to the outcomes of CHOGM, he said.
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