Despite the main opposition’s appeal to Speaker Manzoor Nadir for a reconsideration, the suspension of APNU+AFC Member of Parliament (MP) Sherod Duncan was on Thursday formalized by the National Assembly.
A motion to have the MP suspended was passed on Thursday after it was brought to Nadir’s attention that similar proceedings against Duncan during Wednesday’s meeting of the Committee of Supply saw the misapplication of the Standing Orders.
Nadir on Wednesday called for a motion to have Duncan suspended for four sittings due to his continued outbursts during the consideration of the estimates for budget 2022 on Wednesday by the Committee of Supply.
While Local Government Minister Nigel Dharamlall was going over the current expenditures for Region Five, he stated audibly to an opposition MP: “You got to get a dildo, that’s what you looking for.” Duncan a short while later shouted at the Minister: “You are a nasty fella! He is a nasty fella…” He further accused the minister of being disrespectful to the House and charged that the Speaker was condoning his behaviour. Nadir then called on Duncan to withdraw himself following several warnings. But the MP refused and the Speaker requested that Governance Minister Gail Teixeira move a motion for his suspension.
The APNU+AFC, in a subsequent statement, had said that its MPs walked out of Parliament after a day filled with continuous derogatory remarks directed at APNU+AFC female MPs by Dharamlall. It cited the dildo remark by Dharamlall and said that the Speaker made no attempt to correct or reprimand the minister. It also called Duncan’s suspension unfair and charged that the Speaker had consistently failed to rein in abuse of APNU+AFC female MPs.
Following Wednesday’s proceedings, the Opposition’s Chief Whip, Christopher Jones, wrote to the Speaker pointing out the misapplication of the Standing Orders, since the National Assembly was still in the Committee of Supply at the time.
Because Wednesday’s proceedings occurred in the Committee of Supply, for the motion to be moved the Speaker had to have suspended the proceedings of the Committee and as soon as the National Assembly resumed, report the circumstance before the motion against Duncan could have been advanced. As a result, Duncan was not suspended on Wednesday because the motion was not properly put and the procedures were not properly followed.
In his letter to Nadir, Jones said it was the main opposition’s hope that he would review his position on Duncan as well as consider sanctioning Dharamlall, “who is on public record uttering while on the floor one of the vilest comments that could be directed to any female member of Parliament anywhere in the world. This we find totally unacceptable and expect that the same level of censorship will be applied to the offending Minister.”
Jones acknowledged that Nadir may have had difficulty managing the situation at the time and may not have been in possession of all the facts. “The dispensation and perception of Fairness in the discussions of this Honourable House must be upheld at all times for the people of Guyana to see,” he added.
However, the motion for Duncan’s suspension was tabled again at the conclusion of the consideration of the Budget Estimates on Thursday when the house was back in Assembly. The Speaker announced that the Alliance For Change leader Khemraj Ramjattan brought it to his attention that the procedures were not followed previously and then he invited Teixeira to propose the motion. A majority vote was followed with the Opposition leaving the conference room at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, where the deliberations were being held.
In seeking to justify his statement, Dharamlall has claimed that on many occasions Duncan as well as other MPs from the opposition have ridiculed the MPs from the government. He said that bodies, spouses, children, sexuality and even deceased relatives have been an object of ridicule. “Today, my heckle regarding a dildo was aimed at verbal excesses of MP Sherod Duncan. In hindsight, I should not have responded to the continued insults on me, my family and deceased sister, (yes they insulted my sister who died 11 years ago) by members of the APNUAFC. To those offended by my comment I am truly sorry. That is the truth,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
