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“Rohee is the fly in the PPP’s soup” – AFC
– Parliament being made impotent by ignoring real issue
AFC leader Khemraj Ramjattan
“Rohee is the fly in the PPP’s soup, and the PPP must understand that the soup it wants to share with the opposition includes flies! We are not going to eat that soup.
When you are giving Rohee stewardship of the security sector and he is not performing and atrocities are occurring under his stewardship, what normal democratic Prime Ministers would do is to recall the Minister.
“Is he so all powerful and all commandeering behaving like a true lame duck that the President can’t remove him?”
These sentiments were expressed by Alliance For Change (AFC) leader Khemraj Ramjattan at the party’s press conference, yesterday, at Side Walk Café, Middle Street..
This was in response to questions pertaining to the final ruling from Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman to halt the impasse which the earlier “gag-Rohee” ruling had created in the National Assembly and in the High Court.
Ramjattan said the decision is being taken collectively by the majority of the parliament that there is no confidence in Rohee. Therefore, ignoring the majority decision makes parliament impotent.
Responding to questions that a statement issued recently that the leadership of the party respects the final ruling from Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman, Ramjattan said that it was issued by the party grudgingly.
“We will respect the ruling and move on.”
“In accordance with the constitutional convention of individual Ministerial responsibility, which never died when we were accorded a written constitutional status, it was imperative that Minister Rohee voluntarily resign, or either be dismissed or re-assigned by the President.
This did not happen. And, as has turned out to be so controversial and divisive, the House then proceeded to gag the Minister in his capacity as a Minister. It was not as if the AFC did not know it was venturing into new frontiers. But it will do so again in its quest to ensure accountable government and good governance.”
Ramjattan further reasoned that the PPP Government resisted the application of sound constitutional doctrine, and the constitutional conventions are binding on political actors because there can be sanctions following their violations, sanctions which have a political liability even if bereft of any legal liability. Such conventions are important because they provide a moral framework within which the Executive and individual Ministers should exercise non-justifiable legal powers.
“It is like the West Indies Cricketers put forward a batsman that made duck, one, duck and duck again and you still playing him and putting him to bat and open. This is Rohee situation, which is illogical,” Ramjattan asserted.
Member of Parliament for the Alliance For Change (AFC) Catherine Hughes, explained that the issue is not about the gagging but about the way he has handled the most important sector of society.
Reading off many damning headlines from the local newspapers, Ms. Hughes said Rohee continues to head a sector that has failed to protect society without administering requisite changes in order to protect members of society.
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