(Trinidad Express) Today the House of Representatives begins debate on a motion of no confidence which, once passed, will lead to the suspension of Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley “from the services of the Parliament”.
If this is done, it would be the first time in the history of this country that a member of Parliament would be suspended based on a motion moved specifically for that purpose.
A suspension is the highest level of sanction that the House can impose.
In the past, a few members (including Basdeo Panday, Keith Rowley, the late Kenneth Valley and Subhas Panday) have been suspended for “flagrant disobedience to the Chair, ie, Speaker; and in those cases the members were “named”, which is the final and ultimate step the House Speaker uses in order to restore order to the House.
In such cases, the member would have been warned repeatedly to desist from a particular conduct.
Chandresh Sharma and Patrick Manning are two exceptions. Their suspensions follow investigations by the Committee of Privileges of the House. In Sharma’s case, it came after the Report of the Privileges Committee on the “teacup brawl”; and in the case of Manning, he refused to cooperate with the Committee of Privileges, having been referred to the committee for making allegations about the means by which the Prime Minister was able to construct her private residence during a debate in 2010.
Today’s motion alleges the Opposition Leader produced false information to the House and that he must be censured and suspended.
With the Government’s comfortable majority, the motion is certain to be approved and the Leader of the Opposition will be required to leave the service of the House.
It means the Opposition Leader would be prohibited from attending and participating in sittings, and also the constituents of Diego Martin West will no longer have a representatives and therefore a voice in the Parliament.
This is until the Parliament dissolves. The Parliament must be dissolved before June 17 or else it is automatically dissolved on that date.
The motion
The no-confidence motion contends that Rowley on May 20, 2013, read into the records of Parliament documents purporting to be e-mails he had received from an unidentified source and which are untrue. The motion notes the alleged e-mails contained a series of serious unsubstantiated allegations of criminal misconduct in public office on the part of the Prime Minister and several Cabinet ministers.
Noting these allegations were widely reported in the local and international press, “thereby causing irreparable damage to the reputation of those identified”, the motion said “several leading authorities have submitted reports which confirm that the e-mails and their contents were false”.
The motion states: “Whereas it is settled practice that any member who reads into the records of Parliament any correspondence, must take responsibility for and ownership of their contents;
“And whereas the Leader of the Opposition has steadfastly refused to apologise to the House for his patently misleading and scandalous statements:
“Be it resolved that this House censure the Member for Diego Martin West and Leader of the Opposition for his reckless, unsubstantiated and scandalous allegations;
“And be it further resolved that Dr Keith Rowley, Member for Diego Martin West and Leader of the Opposition, be suspended from the service of the House for the remainder of the session.”
Double strike
There may be another strike against Rowley today. House Speaker Wade Mark is also expected to rule on a Motion of Privilege brought by the Prime Minister against Rowley for his reference to a document which he purported to be a legal opinion, authored by Sir Henry Forde, Barbadian QC, which the Prime Minister said was deemed to be a fraudulent document.
Today is also Prime Minister’s question time in the House of Representatives. It may therefore be the last time the Prime Minister will be questioned on her stewardship in the House by the Leader of the Opposition.
