The Opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic says it is finding it difficult to accept that Speaker of the National Assembly Barton Scotland doesn’t grasp the importance of their objection to the use of green and yellow; the APNU+AFC coalition colours, on state property.
This is according to PPP/C Chief Whip Gail Teixeira, who at a press conference held at Public Buildings on Tuesday evening shared her party’s concerns about Scotland’s “continuous descent into the arena during the business of the National Assembly.”
According to Teixeira the latest intrusion came during the presentation by Allister Charlie, the PPP/C Member of Parliament for Region Number 9.
In his presentation, Charlie asked that monies for capital projects not be used to paint national buildings and public places in green and yellow, which he feels is synonymous with APNU+AFC as the colours are representative of that party.
“We have green and yellow painted everywhere even on government buildings, school buildings and even the school buses and I can go on and on…I won’t be surprised if even the Umana Yana is painted in yellow and green,” he said.
Speaker of the House Scotland then warned that green and yellow were colours on Guyana’s Flag and “cannot be an object for lampooning”.
The speaker’s interjection did not go down well with Teixeira who rose on a point of order challenging him.
“The colours of our flag are many colours. The issue being raised here by the honourable member is that we cannot only select some colours of our flag sir. Therefore, the member is speaking about government buildings. Our party’s colours are on the flag too sir but we didn’t paint them on government buildings when we were in office and sir you cannot be unfair because the member is talking about party colours on government property. I’m sorry sir but it cannot be right,” Teixeira said to the thunderous agreement of her party’s members.
However, in the middle of her delivery, the Speaker had her microphone shut off to silence her, though with loud bellows she continued until she had completed her argument.
The Speaker, then without acknowledgement or mention of Teixeira, instructed Charlie to continue.
At the press conference later, Teixiera shared that though she has asked the speaker to cite the Standing Order on which he acted she has received no response.
She stressed that Members of Parliament speak on behalf of the people of Guyana who are themselves not in Parliament.
These people of Guyana, she said have expressed “their concern about what appears to be creeping party paramountcy. Their suspicions may well lie in the ugly history of our country, and they may be attempting to prevent a return to [a time when] the party (the PNC) became inseparably identified with the Government, over which it exercised control and direction of its every institution as recorded in Father Morrison’s: Justice: The Struggle for Democracy in Guyana 1952-1992.”
Despite publicly voicing complaints against the conduct of the speaker Teixiera would not state whether she will be officially registering these complaints with the speaker or the Parliamentary Management Committee.
Her response when asked if she intended to do so was “I’ll think about it.”
