As a result of the infamous `dildo’ statement made by Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Nigel Dharamlall during the sitting of the National Assembly two weeks ago, a motion has been submitted by opposition parliamentarians Catherine Hughes and Nima Flue-Bess to Parliament to refer the minister to the Committee of Privileges and have him expelled from the House.
According to the motion, copy of which was seen by Stabroek News, Dharamlall in response to questions posed by various Members of Parliament, “hurled abusive language to his parliamentary colleagues.” It stated further, that “while being questioned by female Members of Parliament on the opposition side, and during his exchanges while being on the floor of this honourable he blurted out the words ‘you got to get a dildo, that’s what’s you looking for.” The motion also stated the existence of evidence of the minister’s outburst as a review of the closed-circuit video of the proceedings confirmed the utterance of the “offensive” words.
The motion took pains to point out that Standing Order 41 (6) “expressly prohibits ‘offensive and insulting language about Members of the Assembly’” while reminding that it has been the custom, practice and convention the House “from time immemorial” to uphold the sanctity of Standing Order 41 (6). It emphasised that the words spoken by Dharamlall, a member of the12th Parliament of Guyana, were “vulgar, lewd, distasteful, misogynistic, and unprecedented in the august chamber of the National Assembly.” And further, those words as well as the action of the minister have caused “great humiliation and embarrassment to the Honourable Members” and to every current and past female member of this National Assembly while having brought the Assembly “into disrepute, mockery and ridicule.”
As such, the motion requested that the House stand in solidarity with all other female members of Parliament and condemn in the “harshest and strongest terms possible the dishonourable behaviour and language of the Hon. Dharamlall.”
In light of the accusations against Dharamlall, it was resolved in the motion that 1) he be referred to the Committee of Privileges for its consideration of sanctions for his behaviour unbecoming of a member of the National Assembly, and 2) the said Committee recommend to the House, punishment fitting and commensurate with the transgression committed on Wednesday, February 9, 2022, and 3) the 12th Parliament censures the Hon. Nigel Dharamlall and initiate the necessary steps for his immediate expulsion from the National Assembly.
