The Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry (CoI) report was tabled in the National Assembly on Thursday and Speaker Dr. Barton Scotland rejected appeals from the opposition PPP/C for the report to be sent to a parliamentary select committee for scrutiny.
The report was handed over on Wednesday, one day before a motion on the delay in the report being presented to the National Assembly was to be debated. The handing over the report was seen as a move by the government to obviate a vote in the House, which could have seen a division among the two partners, APNU and the AFC.
Opposition Chief Whip Gail Teixeira had filed the motion, which would have sparked the debate. Following government’s impromptu handover of the document, Teixeira on Thursday sought to make an amendment to the motion in her name for the report to be sent to a Parliamentary Special Select Committee.
She made an emotional plea for her amendment to be taken into consideration but in the end acknowledged that she knew that the amendment could only be brought to the House in the form of a fresh motion.
Shortly after the report was tabled in the National Assembly on Thursday, the Speaker said that the Teixeira motion could no longer be discussed.
“That report having been now laid before the Assembly, the motion standing in the name of Miss Gail Teixeira in relation to this very matter appeared to be no longer appropriate for discussion here given that what the motion requires is that the report be made available to the Assembly within two weeks of the date of which it would have been approved”, he said.
As he was speaking, Teixeira attempted to interject but the Speaker indicated that she should allow him to finish making his statement. Dr. Scotland said that in the circumstances, the motion, as it stands, “would no longer be dealt with here.”
Teixeira, when permitted to speak, told the National Assembly that she tabled a motion because the government was the one to table the report not the opposition. She said that having tabled the report, she was proposing an amendment asking for the matter to be sent to a Parliamentary Special Select Committee for further examination of the report. She said that her amendment was submitted to the Parliament around 2 or 3 pm on Wednesday and had since been circulated in the National Assembly.
“It is quiet appropriate, according to the Standing Orders, that the motion can be brought by a member… to do such a matter with the report, a petition, a bill or a motion. So, sir, I am appealing to you, my amendment is in order and I am asking that my motion with the amendment be allowed and to be debated,” she said to the clapping of hands and banging of tables from the opposition side of the House.
The Speaker, while thanking Teixeira for her statement, said she would know that in relation to amendments of motions, they “are usually provided by members from the floor after the question is put. My reading and understanding of Standing Order 37, paragraph 4, makes that clear, so I am bound to say to you that the amendment of which you speak is an amendment which you can properly present to this House, assuming that there was a motion you can properly present to this House after the question is put. No question is going to be put, given the statement I have just read.” While he was still speaking, Teixeira rose from her seat and said that she wished no disrespect but added that “it is possible that at any time when a matter is before this House an amendment can be put verbally on the floor. I have submitted an amendment hours before, yesterday to allow for a simple amendment.” She stressed that under ‘Exemption from notice,’ she could present the amendment. “I am appealing to you that this is in order and that (just) bringing the report …to this House does not give it the opportunity for examination by this House,” she said.
Volumes
She pointed out too that the front of the report is marked “Volume 1.”
“Where are the other volumes of this report?”, she asked as the government MPs erupted into laugher and she later asked for the protection of the Speaker as comments continued to be hurled at her, mainly by the government front benchers.
The Speaker then interjected, saying that Teixeira should be allowed to speak.
Teixeira said that based on what is printed on the cover of the report, she has no idea how many other volumes there are. “All I am saying is that you said that the report is being tabled. I see Volume 1 of the report has been tabled and, therefore, in my view there must be other volumes and, therefore, it is not the entire report,” she said, while adding that Rodney’s death was a “very emotional thing for me.”
She said that her entire youth in this country was “fought and spent in that period where Walter Rodney and other comrades died for democracy in this country…after 36 years we now have a report and it is going to be shelved?”
She again appealed for the matter to be sent to a special select committee. “There is no harm done for this to go to a parliamentary select committee and [for] we, as the MPs of this House, particularly these young MPs who did not grow up in that period, [to] be able to look at it,” she said. She added that she was begging for the referral because “we must never let this happen again…and we can only do that by looking at it and examining it.” She said that the CoI has made recommendations and questioned why the House cannot pay attention to them.
“For the better of our country, the better of the police force, the better of the GDF, the better investigation of crime. Doesn’t the honourable member want that from Public Security?” she questioned.
“Sir, I cannot comprehend why you would do that,” she said, her voice beginning to crack. She said that it is “unacceptable. I am begging you to see the reason that this going to a parliamentary select committee will do no harm but only for the betterment of this country.”
Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo then pointed out that the Speaker had made a ruling with regards to the motion. “This House is governed by rules and a member seeking to be protected under the rules cannot abuse the said rules of the House,” he said, while adding that “the member is seeking through the back door to introduce an emotive contribution by way of a debate of a motion.”
He stressed that the intention of the motion has been satisfied and it is clear that the motion related to only one definite matter—that the report be submitted within two weeks.
Nagamootoo said that Teixeira is not the only one who has lived through the period she had earlier referred to. He began to make reference about when he was on the other side but was promptly interrupted by the Speaker, who said that he is “going beyond the narrow confines of the discussion.” He told Nagamootoo to confine his arguments to the issue at hand and nothing more.
The Speaker noted that the option of bringing the amendment as a fresh motion is available.
Teixeira said that based on the advice of the Speaker, “I would be coming back very soon in the very near future as advised.” The Speaker then expressed surprise that she would indicate that she did not know of this option. Teixeira could be heard saying, “I knew.”
In an invited comment shortly after the report was handed over to the Speaker by Williams on Wednesday, Teixeira had told Stabroek News that she is not “totally surprised.” She said that she suspected that the government might have tried to hand over the report ahead of the motion being heard.
Teixeira said that while she finds the handing over “highly coincidental,” it meant that the opposition has succeeded.
The presentation of the report on Wednesday forestalled a potentially embarrassing vote in Parliament where the 12 AFC members would have had to decide on the opposition motion. The AFC had called for the report to be released whereas its coalition partner APNU has condemned the report and its findings. If the vote was taken, the AFC members would have been expected to vote in favour of the opposition motion or abstain, dealing an embarrassing blow to the government. The presence of AFC leader Khemraj Ramjattan at the handing over on Wednesday was, therefore, seen as significant.
The CoI had been set up in 2014 by then President Donald Ramotar to determine as far as possible who or what was responsible for the explosion that killed Rodney on June 13, 1980.
Government was furnished with the final report in February.
