The conduct of some members of the National Assembly was on Wednesday called into question by Speaker Barton Scotland even as opposition MP Juan Edghill was sent to the Privileges Committee for a statement he made last year and Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman and Opposition Chief Whip Gail Teixeira called for each other to be sent to the said committee.
It was a testy atmosphere when the 11th Parliament met after an eight-week break and the first order of the day was the Speaker declaring that a number of complaints were made to him in writing as it relates to breaches of privilege.
He said that the office of the Speaker of the National Assembly should be held in high regard by all members at all times.
“The dignity and respect of the office must be upheld at all times by all Honourable Members even when the Speaker rules in a manner different from the expectation of Honourable Member,” the Speaker said, while adding that there are Standing Orders that support this position.
He lamented that when senior sitting members of the House make public reference to the office of the Speaker at political events it gives cause for great concern.
“It must demonstrate their disregard to their obligations to this House and signal disrespect of their sworn duties towards this Honourable House,” the Speaker said without name the offending parliamentarians.
He also made reference to a junior member of the House using electronic media in an attempt to lampoon certain members of the House and to make comments about the Speaker and the holder of that office.
“It must be that that Honourable Member is either unware of his duties and obligation towards this House or that Honourable Member acted with reckless … disregard of those transgression,” the Speaker said much to the mirth of some members of the opposition.
The speaker said he has been advised that the social media posts have since been removed and while he has determined that all the conduct he referred to constituted breaches of privilege, he has also determined that no further actions would be taken and the matters were closed.
The Speaker also called into question the attendance of members on the various committees at Parliament since the meetings or the work of the said committees have not met his expectations. Further, the Speaker said he is unable to provide information on the work programme of the various committees to the House even as he hopes that members would see their contribution to the work of the committees as being obligatory.
Motion
The first motion to be brought before the House on Wednesday was moved by APNU+AFC MP Charrandas Persaud and supported by his colleague Jermaine Figueira. It referred to a statement PPP/C MP Edghill made during a speech in December last year relating to the salary increases of government ministers. He had said they amounted to the ministers receiving over $200M annually. Edghill was asked to withdraw the statement and apologise but he failed to so and Persaud said the matter should be taken to the Privileges Committee since the statement and his later refusal to apologise or withdraw the said statement violated the privileges of the National Assembly and “brought the entire National Assembly into disrepute.”
The back bencher was relentlessly heckled by members of the opposition, some of whom questioned whether the motion was urgent. The urgency issue came into play after the Speaker did not allow Edghilll to ask 11 questions of Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson relating to the D’Urban Park project as he believed that the questions should be put in writing. Edghill refused this option as he argued that the questions were properly placed before the House and he believed that they were urgent enough to be asked and answered during the sitting.
Following the reading of the motion, Speaker Scotland ruled that the matter would be referred to the Committee on Privileges and Edghill was not given an opportunity to respond to the motion even though he did attempt to do so on a point of clarification to a statement later made by Minister Trotman when he responded to a letter by Teixeira read out by the Speaker.
Forestry
Teixeira had written to the Speaker requesting that Trotman be sent to the Committee on Privileges for a statement he made on forestry during the 2016 budget presentation.
The statement she referred to was the Minister stating that the present administration met an “alarming situation” in that 100% of the country’s productive forest was allocated by the past PPP/C government. The statement was repeated by Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo and the opposition chief whip said he should sent to the Committee on Privileges. According to Teixeira, there is information available publicly that would demonstrate that the statement was untrue and has caused embarrassment to the country and the Guyana-Norway forest partnership.
Trotman, in response, said that his statement was a result of a document provided by the Guyana Forestry Commission, which showed the “Total Production Area Allocated by GFC” to be 7,027, 840 hectares, which is 56% of the total state forest, but “represents 100% of lands identified for production.”
“Undoubtedly, there are other lands available, but these other lands are held in reserve. My statement was therefore exclusively focused on productive forest being allocated,” the Minister said, adding that he was amenable to sharing the document again with members of the opposition.
He also rejected Teixeira’s assertion that his statement interfered with the Guyana-Norway partnership, while revealing that a letter was written to him by the Minister of Climate and Environment of Norway in which he congratulated him for making the transparent and public statement.
The Minister said he was willing to make the documents available and the Speaker questioned whether Teixeira “would hold her hand” until after she would have perused the documentation but she said the Minister continues to mislead the House while adding that the Guyana Forestry Commission’s website has data that “totally contradicts him.” “We have to go with what is a public document on a public website and the Honourable member has tried to fudge these issues… and I want to strongly recommend…that the Minister should go to the privileges committee,” she said.
Trotman, for his part, asked that the opposition Chief Whip be “sanctioned for abusing the process…by bringing this obvious spurious and vexatious allegation before you, Sir.”
Soon after Trotman made his statement and before being invited to speak Teixeira rose and stated, “Yes sir, I mean if you have opened the door, then let’s open the door,” as she attempted to respond before adding, “I am not being rude Sir…,” after a member on the government side declared that she was being rude. Asked to take her sit by the Speaker, Teixeira said, “Okay, that’s fine, Sir. Freedom of speech, thank you,” even as the Speaker said that if she wanted to speak she should rise in the appropriate fashion and make the request.
