Alliance For Change Leader (AFC) Raphael Trotman has confirmed that he has been selected by the opposition parties as the consensus candidate for the post of Speaker of the National Assembly following the withdrawal of previous AFC nominee Moses Nagamootoo.
“We have a meeting with A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) later today (yesterday) to agree and ratify issues pertaining to the Speaker, the Deputy Speaker and other matters pertinent to the first sitting of the Assembly, the swearing in of members, even the accommodation and the seating arrangement and so forth,” he said.
“At this point in time we intend to present to the Guyanese public a face that says that the Opposition parties can display maturity and magnanimity and the requisite levels of patriotism and national interest that we can put aside partisanship to give to the people of Guyana what they expect of us,” he said.
“We would expect that we will have a good working relationship with the governing party as well because they do have their own legislative agenda and so the whole thrust of the Tenth Parliament has to be one of a working together. It’s really a triumvirate at work, of three parties finding common ground to work,” he said.
“So we are excited about the prospects of working. We would like to hear the President address the nation as is the custom. I have always asked and have always pleaded for us to have annual addresses by the President – a State of the Nation address,” he said.
Clerk of the National Assembly Sherlock Isaacs disclosed yesterday that the ceremonial opening of Parliament where the President addresses the nation will not take place today but at a date to be announced. Today’s sitting is expected to address the election of a Speaker of the National Assembly and the swearing in of Members of Parliament. Under the APNU/AFC deal, sources say that Deborah Backer will be the Deputy Speaker.
Trotman said that there was still a possibility of the Opposition parties meeting with the Government to discuss a number of issues related to the business of the Parliament. “That is advisable and we will ask for such a meeting before tomorrow’s sitting,” he said.
He said that there was no meeting on Monday night but there was however communication between the two opposition parties after which the decision to have Trotman as the candidate for the Opposition was decided upon.
Trotman said the Government by calling Parliament for today did the Opposition parties a favour and forced them to decide upon a consensus candidate. “In our mind we were working with closer to the end of the month and I believe that we allowed ourselves to go into a false sense of security, that we had some time to play with. by introducing this abridged time, just 48 hours, I think it forced us to face the reality quite squarely, and the main one is what the people who voted for us – and even those who did not – expect of us, and we would put aside this public spat and find consensus,” he said.
He said that the during the weeks that the two parties were at work to select a Speaker, “four good names were vilified publicly – Deborah Backer, Moses Nagamootoo, Cammie Ramsaroop and Ralph Ramkarran.” He said that they received attention because of the missteps made and it caused the parties to look for a consensus candidate. “People had become so polarized with regard to their individual candidates, that what you had was a zero-sum, ‘winner take all’ attitude erupting, instead of a win-win,” he said. “This is where a consensus candidate like myself would come through, because we polarized around our candidates and did them a disservice. A lot of blame has been thrown but I think that we owe the candidates an apology that we put them through these rigours. I have no doubt that my name will come under severe attack as well,” he said.
“Consensus, putting the people first, and win-win are what drove the decision to put my name back into [the fray], because it was there originally and I withdrew it to [give] 100 percent commitment to Moses and support for him. But when it came down to the crunch we realized this would cause us to lose further face in the sight of the people,” he said.
“We were to meet [on Monday]. The APNU indicated to us that they were no longer interested in the meeting and said that they would support a consensus candidate and suggested my name, knowing that it had been in play before,” said Trotman.
“We communicated by phone with them yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon, and the next thing I heard is that they had accepted it,” Trotman said. “I should say as well that [on Tuesday] the AFC presented its list of candidates to GECOM, [and it had Moses Nagamootoo’s name on it], which in a sense foretold the fact that he was being gracefully withdrawn as a candidate,” Trotman said.
Priorities
Trotman said that among the priorities for the new Parliament would be to raise the status of the institution so that it indeed becomes an independent arm of the State and not function as a branch of the Executive.
“For too long we have existed under the notion that the Parliament is an extension of the Office of the President, a rubber stamp. Those were the words of Sir Michael Davies himself when he did a report for the Commonwealth Secretariat,” Trotman said. “We now have to crawl back from that and carve out again and restore the Assembly to its proper orbit, its proper place as an independent arm of the State, not running amok but working in tandem with the Executive and the Judiciary. That involves building capacity for the Parliament Office, training, and the capacities of Members of Parliament themselves,” Trotman said.
He said too that the new Parliament would be looking at the implementation of the Procurement Commission staffed by the right people and he called this a major concern.
“Obviously we want to look at bread and butter issues, providing a better deal for the citizens,” he said, noting that Government is expected to bring its budget in a matter of weeks. “We want to make sure that that budget caters for the people. So we are looking at increasing public service wages, looking at what happens with the Lotto funds, money from the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), with the gold prices high, how is that money being spent, cutting out leakages, waste and corruption to ensure that more is available for education, health, roads etc,” Trotman said.
“We are looking at the vexed issue of the President’s pension package. On the one hand [we must ensure] that our former Presidents are not dishonoured but at the same time the impression is not given that we are encouraging this lavishness which we cannot afford,” he said.
He noted that all of the manifestos of the parties promised to look at the issue of tax reform. “What would be the ideal situation is bringing the three manifestos together – the PPP/C’s, the APNU’s and the AFC’s – to see commonality in terms of manifesto promises and then [to look at] individual matters that each party has,” he said. Trotman said that the there is a desire to have a look at the Access to Information and Broadcast legislation that had been passed in the National Assembly during the last Parliament, the opening up of the airwaves in a responsible manner and the reform of the Guyana Elections Commission,” he said.
Proclamation
Stabroek News asked Isaacs to walk the newspaper through the process for today’s first sitting of the Tenth Parliament.
“At 14:00 hours the sitting will commence. I will read the Proclamation by the President summoning the Tenth Parliament. I will then have a roll call, meaning I will call the names of the persons who have been declared to be Members of Parliament. Then I will open the floor for nominations for the position of Speaker. If there is more than one nominee I will have a division. The person with the highest number of votes would then be declared the Speaker. The Speaker at that stage would take over the proceedings,” he said.
He said that there will be a ceremonial opening at a date to be fixed and at this opening the President is expected to address the House.
When the Stabroek News visited Parliament Buildings yesterday, workmen were putting the finishing touches on some parts of the Chamber in preparation for today. Officials from Parliament said that the announcement caught them off guard, with regard to the rehabilitation of the inside of the Chamber and other parts of the building.
“When [the Ninth] Parliament dissolved three months ago we started preparing for the Tenth Parliament. All the staff are prepared and ready, fully rested. We have some minor work yet to complete,” said Onieka Alphonso-Walton, Parliament Office’s Public Relations Officer. “By 14:00 hours [today] we will be ready,” she said.
