Although AFC leader Raphael Trotman was yesterday elected Speaker of the National Assembly with full support from the opposition benches, APNU leader David Granger says that no final decision has been made on whether the post will be rotated between the two opposition parties.
However, from all indications it seems unlikely that the AFC will agree to rotate the speakership, which means that Trotman is likely to serve continually in the 10th Parliament as Speaker. APNU member Deborah Backer was yesterday elected as Deputy Speaker of the House.
Following yesterday’s sitting Backer said that she was not disappointed at her non-election as Speaker. “I think it is a good start and we are prepared to work,” she said. “APNU has to be given credit for having the majority of the (opposition) seats and still being willing, in the interest of moving the country forward, to give space to other people. And we hope other parties will follow our lead,” she added.
Meanwhile, the AFC’s original nominee for Speaker Moses Nagamootoo said that he was happy that the AFC won the speakership. “The issue is the principle and not the personality. The principle has won out,” he said. Nagamootoo, in a recent interview with Stabroek News, had said that the Speakership of the House ought to go to the AFC. While plugging his own candidacy at the time, Nagamootoo had said that if APNU would not support the AFC getting the post support should be sought from the PPP/C. Nagamootoo, however, subsequently agreed to step aside and allow Trotman to be the Speaker, after APNU indicated that it found the latter to be a more consensual candidate.
“It’s really and truly one national team here. And I hope that sitting in the majority benches will now give us an opportunity to do advocacy on behalf the people; real representation for the people,” Nagamootoo said, when asked about the way forward as a member of the parliamentary opposition. “I believe we have a tremendous responsibility now to move the national agenda forward and to bring people’s issues more on the front burner than to just use them as appendages for gifts and handouts. So it is a tremendous feeling that I have, a sense of history, we have now arrived at a position for the first time in our history, where there is a majority on the so-called opposition benches and I think now we have achieved in Guyana the sovereignty of the people,” he said.
After weeks of talks between APNU and AFC failed to produce a consensus candidate, it was APNU, last week which floated the proposal that the two parties rotate the position of Speaker. Subsequently, AFC chairman Khemraj Ramjattan endorsed the rotation principle and said it was an endorsement of Nagamootoo. The PPP/C, however, insisted that the rotation principle was unrealistic.
Granger yesterday said that the issue was still among several outstanding ones that had to be addressed by the leadership of both the APNU and AFC. “APNU is discussing a formal agreement with the AFC and it has got to go the National Executive Council (NEC) of the AFC and the Executive Council of the APNU,” he said. “So our discussions over the last five weeks will lead towards the conclusion of a formal agreement on how we go about business over the next five years,” Granger added. “We will continue working on that agreement and we will introduce the measures that we have contemplated in our agenda: constitutional reform, improving financial management, improving governance, building trust, Granger said. He said too that the APNU is looking to restart the talks with the government. These talks, Granger indicated, have not resumed as yet for the year.
Yesterday, Ramjattan said that he was unaware that the rotation principle was still being considered but said that if the issue was still on the table, the AFC’s National Executive Council would have to examine the matter. “If there is going to be rotation that has to be taken to our NEC,” he said. He said that the NEC had previously held out that Trotman gets its full term. Under a rotation system, the AFC’s candidate was Nagamootoo, Ramjattan indicated.
Asked whether there was a conflict with Trotman being both Leader of the AFC and the Speaker of the House, Ramjattan said: “I don’t know of any right now”. However, according to Ramjattan, this issue could be looked at by the party’s NEC since Trotman has already served for two terms as leader and has said he does not want to be involved in any adversarial role. The AFC’s NEC is slated to meet later this year.
Regarding the working relationship between the three parties, Ramjattan said that the trust between the AFC and APNU is going to be greater and that his party is looking forward to working with the PPP/C. “The trust is going to be far greater because they stood by their agreements under the negotiations that the Alliance For Change (AFC) would get the speakership,” Ramjattan said. He noted too that the AFC had compromised by withdrawing Nagamootoo’s nomination.
“We did indicate to Mr. [Donald] Ramotar that we are going to work. Not withstanding that we have the speakership, we are going to work in a spirit and a climate of consensualism,” Ramjattan said. “We want consensus. There will be disagreements but we won’t just become uncompromising and I believe with that kind of spirit and climate we have a far way to carry this country,” he added.
Meanwhile, Presidential advisor on Governance Gail Teixeira stated the government’s displeasure that APNU and AFC had teamed up to secure both the Speaker and Deputy Speaker. “The fact that the APNU and AFC decided that they did not have to deal with the duly and democratically elected government but they could divvy up the shares among themselves is a result of what has happened and a result of which we see today in Parliament,” she said.
The decision by the two parties, she said, flies in the face of everything that has happened since the election. According to her, President Ramotar had publicly stated his desire to see consensus among the parties before the convening of this parliament. This, she said, was reflected in the meetings held with APNU and AFC shortly after Ramotar assumed office.
Teixeira, who is the PPP/C’s Chief Whip, said that while some opposition parties may speak about a new dispensation, the new dispensation implemented by the two Opposition parties “counters and undermines the parliamentary democratic principles that are practised all over the world in Commonwealth Parliaments and that certainly, this is not a new beginning for the 10th parliament.” The PPP/C had wanted Ralph Ramkarran to be Speaker of the House.
“We have been duly elected by the people of this country and therefore we will continue to do our work to bring political and economic and social stability. We will continue to execute the programmes on behalf of our people and all the people of Guyana regardless of ethnicity, religious or political
affiliation and so today is the beginning of a new parliament and regrettably the beginning of the APNU, AFC version of what they call a partnership, which is a charade,” Teixeira said.
Meanwhile, PPP stalwart Indra Chandarpal told Stabroek News that while the path forward may be a challenge it could open up new areas of collaboration, co-operation and compromise among all parties. “It will test our maturity as Guyanese parliamentarians so I’m looking forward to seeing what will eventually bow out of this new dispensation,” Chandarpal said.
Chandarpal, who was the PPP/C’s Whip in the Ninth Parliament, indicated that previously the parliamentarians from all parties had worked well in the various parliamentary committees and said that she expected this to continue. She noted that the Chairmanship of the four sectoral committees in the House rotates between government and opposition.
