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Waning presidency paralyses potent parliament

Mar 01, 2015 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

President Donald Ramotar and the People’s Progressive Party paralysed and destroyed the Guyana’s promising, potent 10th Parliament.
Parliament was brought into being by the democratically expressed will of the majority of the people and was meant to pass laws and implement budgetary and other measures in accord with their will. Ramotar, after three years of subverting parliamentary democracy, prorogued parliament on 10th November 2014 and announced his intention to dissolve parliament on 28th February 2015.
Ramotar, since the inauguration of the 10th Parliament in January 2012, has been resisting the will of the majority by trying to diminish the autonomy and authority of the National Assembly. He withheld assent to bills and declined to implement resolutions; brought motions in the High Court against the Speaker and Opposition Leader and launched a fierce media campaign against members of the National Assembly.
Ramotar’s abuses and assaults on parliamentary democracy have already become notorious in Guyana’s parliamentary history. He brazenly announced, publicly, on 13th June 2012, that he had no intention of supporting any bill piloted by the Opposition. He said, “…I am making it very clear that I will not assent to any bill that they carry unless it is with the full agreement of the executive and the full involvement of the executive.” As a result, assent to several bills, including three local government bills – the Local Government Commission Bill, the Municipal and District Councils (Amendment) Bill and the Fiscal Transfers Bill – was delayed for three months and others, including the Local Government (Amendment) Bill, still had not been assented to when he ordered the notorious prorogation last December.
Ramotar’s second tactic has been to resort to the High Court. Attorney General Anil Nandlall filed the first Constitutional Motion in March 2012 in the High Court seeking to overturn a parliamentary vote on the composition of the Committee of Selection. He then decided to move to the courts to have the 2012 National Budget cuts reviewed and reversed.
Ramotar’s third tactic was to try to shield his ministers from parliamentary scrutiny and sanction. The ‘Anilgate’ scandal involving vulgar and scurrilous statements made by the Minister of Legal Affairs during a telephone conversation in October 2014; the ‘Priyagate’ jeering of the Minister of Education after her vulgar ‘feral blast’ in July 2014 and the ‘Ashnigate’ vehicle accident scandal in February 2014 and referral of the Minister of Finance to the Committee of Privileges, indicate how little confidence the public has in PPPC ministers.
Ramotar’s fourth tactic was the ‘lie direct.’ He solemnly announced his “intention to hold Local Government Elections in the Second Quarter of next year, 2015” knowing that he had no intention of doing so. It is now evident that his real intention was to have general and regional elections.
Local government elections, like general and regional elections, are a constitutional entitlement, not a benefaction of the government. The announcement was designed to mislead the nation and make a mockery of the Constitution. It was a denial of democracy.
Ramotar’s last resort was the prorogation of parliament on 10th November 2014. This desperate move was an attempt to avoid the debate on the performance of his cabinet and his presidency. Prorogation was intended to paralyse the parliamentary process.
The PPPC administration obstructed the reconvening of parliament for one month from 10th October to 10th November then promulgated the prorogation order.
Donald Ramotar’s dreadful broadcast to the nation on 24th February that the 10th Parliament would be dissolved on 28th February, was the nadir of his troubled three-year tenure of office, and was a final insult to the people of Guyana.
Donald Ramotar has destroyed one of the most important parliaments in Guyana’s history. He has smothered the voices of the people’s legitimate representatives in the National Assembly.
He has misled the nation and drained whatever confidence the public might have had in the People’s Progressive Party Civic’s commitment to parliamentary democracy.

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