The Guyana Parliament (or National Assembly) is the legislative branch of government in Guyana, separate but complementary to the other two branches of government, namely, the executive and the judiciary.
Generally speaking, the term ‘government’ is used almost exclusively to reference the executive branch alone, and rarely, if ever, does John Public define the government in its fullness as a cohesive singular entity consisting of three major branches, each operating with a degree of autonomy to lend the right amount of checks and balances, and to make for an effective management system for the country as a whole.
Perhaps even less acknowledged is the fact that the Parliament consists of the president and the legislators forming the National Assembly. And while the president is not a legislator, he does have the power to address the Assembly at any time, and it is his assent to the bills passed by the Assembly that makes them law.
The designation of ‘legislator’ is not one that should be taken lightly by those on whom this great honour and obligation has been conferred, and indeed it must be the expectation of ordinary citizens that the deliberations in the National Assembly would be done with a sense of the importance of the matters that come up for attention, and the lasting impact that the decisions, or lack thereof, will have on the lives of the people and posterity.
We are currently in the life of the Eleventh Parliament – after the Tenth Parliament had its existence truncated by about two years through its prorogation by then President Donald Ramotar. He was trying to derail an impending no confidence motion by the legislators from the APNU and AFC political parties.
When he accepted the chair of Speaker of the House of Assembly for this Eleventh Parliament, Dr Barton Scotland reminded legislators that it was the public who had sent them there to do the nation’s business, and as such he expected them to serve faithfully. The role of Speaker of the House in the Parliament of Guyana is no minor one, as he is the Presiding Officer in the House and is expected to direct proceedings in a manner that ensures the effective participation of all members of parliament within the context of the established rules of procedure.
Since the commencement of the Eleventh Parliament, and in spite of the well intentioned articulations of the Speaker, the National Assembly has continued to be plagued with contentious wrangling and dramatic walkouts by legislators on the opposite side of the House.
It is way past time that the entire nation and the legislators themselves, recognise the level of importance of the duties and responsibilities they have accepted. The conduct of our various parliamentarians, in and even out of the House over many years, has not always been in keeping with the designation ‘legislator.’
There are certainly important matters on the legislative agenda today, yet our Parliament remains largely two contentious blocks of persons indulging in party based groupthink, apparently determined by the party apparatchiks prior to the sitting of the Assembly. This practice of disallowing individual thought and action in preference to bloc voting along party lines has been cemented by the Constitutional Amendment Act of 2007, known as the recall legislation which, not surprisingly, was passed by a majority of the legislators with a singular show of bi-partisanship eschewed in other, more important matters.
Without delving too far into our catalogue of fragmented parliamentary politics, a review of the Donald Ramotar years would reveal that the PPP/C, though only with a parliamentary minority, failed to secure the cooperation of the opposition for many the bills on its agenda. Of course it can be similarly argued that the APNU and AFC legislators filibustered and opposed the executive’s legislative agenda, leading to the threat of a no confidence vote against the President who sought to thwart same by the now historic prorogation.
Indeed so bad was the relationship among the legislators and the level of dissonance in the National Assembly, that the then President was moved to declare his refusal to assent to any bills passed by the majority ‘opposition’ legislators unless these were passed with the “full agreement of the executive.” The behaviour of the APNU and AFC legislators was considered “unpatriotic” by the Ramotar administration.
With the shoe firmly on the other foot, and with the Jagdeo led PPP/C legislators pursuing a clear agenda of non-cooperation with the executive, the zero sum political manoeuvrings continue unabated. There seems to be no moral high ground available to either side as each tries to gain, re-gain, maintain, or consolidate their political foothold with an eye on the next general election, constitutionally due in 2020.
Bi-partisanship should not be difficult to achieve on matters of urgent public importance, such as support for measures to help in the reduction of violent crime, or for meaningful poverty alleviation interventions along with other long-term national goals whose implementation should survive and not be obstructed by changes in the political arena.
Brinkmanship by any of the major political players is not in the national interest nor can it serve the sensible purpose of any party in the long or short term. Stable, well thought-out and presented deliberations should inform the modus operandi of our legislators in the National Assembly. Respect for the President and his role in the Parliament should be unwavering on all sides of the House. Negative precedents are being set on a daily basis, constantly outdoing other negative precedents that have been set in our troubled past.
They say a fish rots from the head and Guyanese legislators in the National Assembly have a duty to arrest the pervasive decay destroying the fabric of the country.
Let us get on with the nation’s business and cease the gamesmanship and trumping of each other. All Guyanese must hold their legislators in Parliament to a higher standard than currently obtains, and the President must lead from the front.
There is simply too much at stake here.
