By Johann Earle and Oluatoyin Alleyne
The opposition this morning used its majority to adopt a motion expressing no-confidence in and calling for the removal of Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee, rejecting a slew of amendments aimed at reducing its impact.
About 20 speakers on both sides of the House debated the motion in a marathon session that went into the wee hours.
“A no-confidence motion cannot and will not arrive at the truth of the circumstances surrounding the deaths,” Rohee, said, speaking ineffectually close to the end of the session. “To place blame at the feet of the staff of the Ministry of Home Affairs,” he said, “flies in the face of the presumption of innocence,” he said.
“I await the commission of inquiry and I do so with a clear conscience.”
APNU Leader David Granger said this is not the place or the occasion for filibustering or making fun of the lives of those who died.
“We must not only put faith in commissions of inquiry, but we must also put faith in the ability of the House to act. This motion is preemptive, not immature,” he said. “We are going to ensure there is justice tonight,” he said. “There is no other institution in this country to ensure this does not happen again. Only this House could do it. We will not wait another night,” he said. “We reject the amendments offered by the government side and call on the House to support the motion,” he said.
The amendments, presented by Prime Minister Sam Hinds, sought to have the resolution of the opposition‘s motion which called for Rohee’s removal, taken out. It also sought to have three clauses changed.
Prime Minister Sam Hinds said that government had been meeting the Region Ten RDC chairman and other stakeholders and “we believe that progress is being made. We believe that we must have progress and come back from the precipice.” He said Lindeners are fed a diet of negative news about the government’s relationship with Linden. “Following the meetings with the RDC chairman, we sent drafts of tariff increases and economic [activities] for the [revival] of Linden,” he said.
Hinds pointed out that unemployment, though higher than other regions, is nowhere close to 70 per cent. He said government has put the increases in tariffs on hold and will embark on technical and financial reviews of the proposed increases.
Hinds accused the opposition of lighting the fuse of the Linden shootings and not assisting to extinguish it.
Loud chants then erupted from the opposition benches: “It’s murder. It’s murder. It’s cold blooded murder!” And the MPs banged on the tables.
James Bond of the APNU said the motion is about the will of the people.
“We are sending a message. We have to do the will of the people. The people are saying that Rohee must go,” he said.
“It is pride that is keeping Rohee, but pride comes before something…not a promotion, but a fall,” he said. “Clement James Rohee should do the honourable thing…resign, resign, resign,” he said. “We must show that we are a House that respects the sanctity of life in this country,” he said.
AFC’s Khemraj Ramjattan said that what happened on that unfortunate day was appalling and “something we must condemn.” He gave the precedent of former minister of home affairs Ronald Gajraj who stepped aside for an investigation. He gave the case of former finance minister Asgar Ali who left to facilitate an investigation.
“We are not saying that the minister is criminally liable but that he is … accountable,” he said.
Speaking on the motion, government adviser Gail Teixeira said that the Parliament does not have the competence to address evidence. “The House has no competence to be judge jury and executioner,” Teixeira said.
But she said if in the inquiry, “… we find that the minister gave a direct order his head will go,” she said.
Urging that the proposed amendments to the motion upheld the main points of the motion, Teixeira urged the opposition to accept the amendments.
Carl Greenidge of the APNU said the parliamentary proceedings are not a court matter but a policy matter.
He said too that if the government wants to solve the problem it must acknowledge that dialogue must take place. He pointed out that the arguments made for the electricity hikes in Linden do not hold water since one cannot compare what other persons pay for electricity without considering the circumstances on the ground in Linden.
He called the “atrocities in Linden”, crimes against humanity.
Basil Williams of the APNU said on the grounds of the shooting the minister has to go. “The minister must be responsible. The buck stops with the minister,” Williams said. “Once the National Assembly finds by majority that it has no confidence in that minister, the President who appointed that minister is enjoined to act,” he said.
“Talk about the hookups now,“ said a heckler from the government benches.
“I prefer to hook up to any Commissioner of Police than to Roger Khan,” Williams rejoined.
Litany of failures
Winston Felix of the APNU said Rohee should not wait to be fired but rather be “moved by his moral conscience” and resign as there was a “litany of failures” that occurred under his watch, including the Lindo Creek, Lusignan and Bartica massacres.
Members on the government side asked if he was not the commissioner at the time, to which he kept saying “no.” Later, on a point of order, Felix noted that he retired before the elections in 2006, after which Rohee was appointed minister.
Referring to Rohee as “dead weight,” Felix identified former holders of the Home Affairs portfolio for the PPP/C, Feroze Mohammed and Gail Teixeira as good ministers, going as far as to call the latter a “great person.” He, however, said that under Gajraj there were “dead bodies all over”.
Felix, later noted that although the police force is trained to deal with crowd control, based on what he saw on the television, they were not properly prepared for the situation in Linden, as they should have had adequate tear smoke, respirators and shields. He said the police went beyond what they were expected to do to disperse the crowd.
“I did not see any shields,” Felix said.
“When you demitted office you left shields?” questioned Speaker of the National Assembly Rafael Trotman, much to the amusement of many.
“I left shields there… as a matter of fact, in my term, we bought modern shields and we had rehearsal on the East Bank of those shields,” Felix responded.
He also lamented the police force’s “infamous” water cannon. “I don’t know what to call it. It is not a water cannon as I know it. It is water can at best,” Felix said, drawing laughter.
He said as funny as the statement might sound, it was true. He pointed out that the cannon had to be taken to Linden on a low-bed truck, since it could not make the highway on its own. When attempts were made to put it into operation, he added, “it was spilling water anywhere other than the crowd.” He suggested that money was wasted purchasing the cannon, saying it could have been used instead to buy a good 4×4. “If that cost $20 million, that had to be resurrected from some rubbish heap in China, polished up and brought here,” he said.
Felix also criticized Rohee for the handling of the recent Guyana Police Force boat scam, in which senior officers were allowed to repay ill-gotten gains but had not been punished. Further, he also accused Rohee of interference in the work of the force and revealed that only yesterday he received mail containing two letters signed by Rohee.
After some objections from Teixeira and clarification by the Speaker, he read one of the letters, which was written to acting Commissioner Leroy Brummell advising him to favourably consider a gun licence application made by an un-named individual.
It was later pointed out by Attorney General Anil Nandlall that the new Firearm Regulations gives the minister a role to play in the issuing of licence. “Rule seven says the Minister on the receipt of the recommendations from the Firearm Licensing Approval Board shall consider the recommendation made and shall accordingly advise the Commissioner,” Nandlall noted.
PPP/C MP Joe Hamilton was heckled mercilessly by former colleagues from the PNCR, but he nevertheless persevered in his presentation. He said while he had relatives in Linden who were protesting the proposed electricity hike, he was not in support of Rohee being removed over the shooting of the protestors.
This prompted APNU’s Christopher Jones to remind him that he had called for then minister, Gajraj, to be removed over the 2003 police killing of teenager Yohance Douglas, who was his “God son.”
“You all worry with that boy Joe,” quipped the fiery APNU MP Deborah Backer, after Hamilton was corrected by Linden’s Vanessa Kissoon, when he stated that Lindeners only started protesting after Hinds’ statement announcing the hike. Kissoon noted that protest had started shortly after Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh had tabled the budget.
The opposition speakers, however, were not without their own faults. APNU’s Africo Selman made a huge blunder, accusing Hamilton of having no “moral authority” to speak, since as a PNCR MP he had voted with the PPP/C against his own party’s position and facilitated the government’s sale of the electricity generation facility at Linden to a private company.
Hamilton quickly rose on a point of order and admonished Selman that she should be careful about who she takes her notes from as he was not the person. It was Phillip Bynoe who had made that move, he said.
A sheepish Selman retracted her statement on the grounds of it being incorrect and revealed that she was actually quoting from the Kaieteur News and had misquoted the newspaper. The report in that newspaper was based on the speech by outgoing PNCR leader Robert Corbin last Friday at the party’s recently-concluded congress.
The House will meet again on Thursday.
