PNCR Column…PPPC’s year of bickering boisterously

Dec 30, 2012 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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The People’s Progressive Party Civic seems to have failed to learn the lesson of democracy which emerged from the November 2011 General and Regional elections. It came face-to-face with a majority in the National Assembly at the dawn of the New Year – 2012.
That Party, instead of pursuing a path of consultation and cooperation, resorted to its familiar, but futile, tactics of confrontation. The PPPC’s bickering about its parliamentary minority status started in January and became more irritable and boisterous as December approached.
Presidential Adviser on Governance, Gail Teixeira, in January, expressed the strange view that the former Speaker, Ralph Ramkarran, was the person best suited to preside over the 10thParliament.  “Whoever is the Speaker is expected to be fair and impartial and not be an impediment to Government business… they are expected to fulfill that mandate with an even-hand and Ramkarran has demonstrated this…” she said.
President Donald Ramotar waited ten weeks after his inauguration in December 2011 to formally address the ceremonial opening and First Session of the Tenth Parliament of Guyana on Friday 10th February, 2012.The President’s nearly 4,000 word address, however, managed to ignore the major matters – corruption, criminal violence, poverty, unemployment –affecting people’s lives today.
President Donald Ramotar, four months after the November 2011 General and Regional elections, categorically stated in March that the PPPC did win “a decisive victory of more than 50 per cent of the votes” at the November 2011 elections. The PPPC filed a legal motion in the High Court and introduced a motion in the National Assembly in a futile attempt to prevent the majority APNU and AFC from enjoying a majority on parliamentary committees.
Staff members of the National Communications Network, the Government Information Agency and other departments which come under the Office of the President staged a public street protest in April against the decisions by the parliamentary opposition to cut their budgetary allocations for 2012.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, complained in May about the Chief Justice’s ruling against the PPPC administration in its constitutional motion on alleged disproportionality in the composition of parliamentary committees. The administration then decided to move to the courts to have the 2012 National Budget cuts reviewed and reversed.
President Donald Ramotar, stated categorically in June, “I am making it very clear that I will not assent to any Bill that they [the Opposition] carry unless it is with the full agreement of the Executive and the full involvement of the Executive.”
The National Assembly, after about 10 hours of debate, passed a motion of ‘no-confidence’ in Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee in July.  Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall argued that the Opposition’s no-confidence motion in Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee was “precipitous and unconstitutional.”
The Opposition, during the final sitting before the first recess of the 10th Parliament in August, refused to approve financial papers 1 and 2 of 2012 submitted by Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh. The two financial papers aimed at restoring the funds that were cut from the 2012 national estimates – with respect to agencies under the Office of the President such as the GINA and the NCN, both of which were allocated a mere dollar from the 2012 budget.
Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall issued another high court challenge in September, this time to the ‘no-confidence motion that was moved by APNU Leader Brigadier David Granger and passed in the National Assembly.
The constitutional notice of the motion sought to have the Opposition’s motion declared as, “unlawful, a violation of the doctrine of separation of powers, unconstitutional, null, void and without any binding force or effect in so far as it purports to censure and express no-confidence in the Home Affairs Minister.”
Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, lamented in October that “legislative practices are being subjected to arbitrary revision; existing legislation has been targeted for reforms and PPPC MPs and Cabinet Ministers have and are being singled out and assaulted unjustly in the media.”
President Donald Ramotar in November complained about the actions of APNU and AFC in the National Assembly and gave an assurance that his administration would take steps in defence of Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee against whom the Opposition passed a motion of ‘no-confidence.’
Anil Nandlall once again moved to the High Court seeking to set aside the order of the Speaker of the National Assembly, Raphael Trotman, prohibiting Clement Rohee from speaking in the Parliament and referring him to the Committee of Privileges.
The PPPC administration in December released a document titled, “The Government of Guyana’s briefing to international and regional bodies on the post-November 28, 2011 general elections”, warning the Organisation of American States Permanent Council, international and regional organisations that the developments in the National Assembly and the wider society in Guyana were subverting parliamentary democracy and posing a serious and real threat to political stability.
The People’s National Congress Reform is convinced that it was only the solidarity of the opposition in the National Assembly that forced the PPPC Administration to behave in a more accountable and more responsible manner towards the National Assembly, the courts, the media and the general public, for the delivery of good governance during the year 2012.
The PNCR, despite the PPPC’s monotonous, continuous and boisterous bickering, will continue to work within APNU to safeguard the authority and sovereignty of the National Assembly in 2013.

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