VALLETTA (Malta), Nov 27: Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon on Sunday strongly reacted to media reports about his remarks that he viewed democracy as anything other than the cornerstone of the Commonwealth.

Reacting to a report carried by the Sunday Star Times of New Zealand, Mr McKinnon said that “there were no ‘throwaways’ in my prepared text for the opening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. On the contrary, I have always stressed that democracy and development are the two sides of one coin…one cannot eat democracy, but development cannot occur without freedom.”

The Commonwealth secretary general said he had long stated this relationship between democracy and development and had been endorsed by the Commonwealth heads of government.

The Sunday Star Times in its report had quoted from his speech in which he had said: ”Does democracy put food on our tables, clothe our children, put roofs over our heads, or give us a future? There is no single answer, no single roadmap, no single one-size-fits-all.”

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Helen Clark had disagreed with Mr McKinnon’s comments and said the route to prosperity was a package between trade and good governance.