The Alliance For Change (AFC) today said it will respect a ruling by Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman that Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee will be accorded full participation in parliamentary life.
The AFC statement came a day after the main opposition grouping APNU criticized the Speaker’s ruling.
“The AFC’s leadership finds the recent final ruling of Mr. Raphael Trotman, the Speaker of the National Assembly, well intentioned with the undoubted purpose to halt the impasse which the earlier “gag-Rohee” ruling had created in the National Assembly and in the High Court. The AFC will respect this final ruling on this issue.
“But it is a good moment to reflect on what got us to this point. It was nothing more than the utterly disrespectful manner this PPP Government treats the Constitution, the majority view of the National Assembly, and constitutional conventions. This manner of governance is entirely with the purpose to make impotent the majority view of the National Assembly”, the AFC said.
Reviewing the events that led up to the bid to have Rohee resign or be removed by the President, the AFC said that under the constitution, ministers are accountable to the National Assembly and by virtue of the no-confidence motion Rohee should have quit or be dismissed.
The AFC said that it was aware that it was venturing into new territory with the no-confidence motion but that it would do so again to ensure accountable government and governance.
It said that the Rohee impasse is but one of a host of excesses being committed by the PPP government which could “lead to a very serious constitutional crisis”. The party also said that a major thrust for constitutional reform is necessary.
The AFC release follows:
AFC will respect the ruling of the Speaker of the National Assembly
The AFC’s leadership finds the recent final ruling of Mr. Raphael Trotman, the Speaker of the National Assembly, well intentioned with the undoubted purpose to halt the impasse which the earlier “gag-Rohee” ruling had created in the National Assembly and in the High Court. The AFC will respect this final ruling on this issue.
But it is a good moment to reflect on what got us to this point. It was nothing more than the utterly disrespectful manner this PPP Government treats the Constitution, the majority view of the National Assembly, and constitutional conventions. This manner of governance is entirely with the purpose to make impotent the majority view of the National Assembly.
The instance which occasioned the entire episode was when the House passed a no-confidence motion against the inept Minister of Home Affairs for his incompetence and outright mal-administering of the affairs of the security sector.All the more, in the context where under his stewardship innocent lives were lost in Linden when citizens were merely exercising their constitutional right to protest harsh economic conditions.
Under the Constitution, Ministers are accountable to the National Assembly and a no-confidence motion can be brought against any such culpable Minister. This is a central aspect of democratic government and a significant aspect of the doctrine of separation of powers.
In accordance with the constitutional convention of individual Ministerial responsibility, which never died when we were accorded a written constitutional status, it was imperative that Minister Rohee voluntarily resign, or either be dismissed or re-assigned by the President. This did not happen. And, as has turned out to be so controversial and divisive, the House then proceeded to gag the Minister in his capacity as a Minister. It was not as if the AFC did not know it was venturing into new frontiers. But it will do so again in its quest to ensure accountable government and good governance.
The support of application of sanction to Minister Rohee, who did not have the confidence of the National Assembly, was because the AFC wanted to protect the integrity, the efficacy, and the internal organization of the House. The AFC’s purpose was to assure all Guyanese that it will not sit idly by and see that the National Assembly’s commands are just meaningless and will not be adhered to. Such would have a disastrous effect on the premiere institution of the land; it would mean that it is impotent.
The AFC is therefore proud to have supported such a censure motion, historic and unprecedented as it was, to reign in an unruly Minister. This “Rohee debacle” is but only one item in a whole host of excesses being committed by the PPP Government, which excesses cumulatively can lead to a very serious constitutional crisis.
This PPP Government resisted the application of sound constitutional doctrine. Rather, it hardened its defiance against a majority command of our august National Assembly so as to ensure that the new dispensation matters not one iota, and should be spat upon.
We believe constitutional conventions are binding on political actors because there can be sanctions following their violations, sanctions which have a political liability even if bereft of any legal liability. Such conventions are important because they provide a moral framework within which the Executive and individual Ministers should exercise non-justiciable legal powers.
We in the AFC will be that Party which will ensure the re-emergence of a strict commitment to and compliance with constitutional and conventional principles, provisions, and proprieties which will establish us as a democratic nation. There has been a massive backsliding by this Government recently away from a democratic order. This is dangerous, very dangerous.
We wish to warn that it will turn out to be a hoax on the public and the nation that their problems can be solved by deliberation in the National Assembly when their duly elected representatives, unanimously or by majority, cannot hold accountable and responsible the excesses of the Executive and its Ministers.
So now as we go into our National Assembly and will hear Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee, the AFC members of the National Assembly will reserve the right to co-operate, or not to, with this Minister. With him at the helm of our security, we fear that Guyanese will have to cower behind their grilled homes as a consequence; and, may even have to pay with their lives as so many Guyanese have already.
The AFC still believes that a major thrust for constitutional reform is necessary at this juncture of our political history and it will start the discussion and consultation with the public and stakeholders as early as possible.
February 26, 2013
