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Budget 2016 debate…Opposition refuses to hear anything after Jagdeo’s budget debate
By Kiana Wilburg
Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo, had hoped that this time around during the budget debates, he
Prime Minister,
Moses Nagamootoo
would have been able to extend an olive branch to the political opposition to work in the interest of national unity. He was disappointed.
Yesterday, Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, led another walkout after he had made his presentation during the budget 2016 debates.
Jagdeo, who spoke ahead of Nagamootoo, said that he and his members would not stick around to hear the end of the debate as long as the Prime Minister was the penultimate speaker.
House Speaker, Dr. Barton Scotland attempted to ask the members to reconsider their decision. He even asked the Opposition Leader to explain to the nation why he would want to make such a decision. The Opposition said that the reason was already given and still insisted on walking out.
Before rebutting the arguments made by various members of the opposition during the last five days of debate, Nagamootoo noted that Jagdeo’s actions show total disregard for House Speaker, Dr. Barton Scotland and for the National Assembly by extension.
He earned a resounding applause by his colleagues who were in agreement with the statement made.
The First Vice President said, “I did not expect that this House would have been treated with such disrespect from a recalcitrant Opposition. I cannot believe that the Opposition believes that it can show disregard for the chair presiding over a democratic Assembly in which there are certain procedures.”
The Prime Minister said that Jagdeo’s behaviour is nothing but cowardice and that it will not be tolerated.
The matter of the penultimate speaker was one that dates back to the first budget debate of the Eleventh Parliament.
As was traditionally done in the National Assembly, the Finance Minister was the last speaker with the Opposition Leader being the penultimate presenter. Preceding him would be the Prime Minister. But the Government apparently did not agree with this and sought for the first time last year to have Nagamootoo be the penultimate speaker.
Opposition seats were empty after Jagdeo’s presentation.
The change angered the political opposition and caused the Opposition’s Chief Whip, Gail Teixeira, to approach House Speaker, Dr. Barton Scotland to rectify the matter. But this was to no avail.
It has forced members of the Opposition to deduce that the government simply has an “Anti-Jagdeo” agenda which it has “brought to the honourable House.”
Opposition Chief Whip, Gail Teixeira, had said that even though discussions were held on this matter, the parliamentary convention was still flouted.
She emphasized that since 1992, the PPP has never shown disrespect to those who served as opposition leaders, whether it was the late former President Desmond Hoyte, Robert Corbin or current President David Granger. She said, too, that there were instances when Hoyte and Corbin spoke for two hours and Granger spoke for 45 minutes.
Teixeira said that those persons were never constrained by a time limit. “This is a slap in the face and an attempt to muzzle the opposition and show disrespect to Jagdeo.”
Former Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, said that the matter represents the rapid dismantling of laws and traditions.
PPP General Secretary, Clement Rohee also added his voice to the issue stating that it is clear that an “anti-Jagdeo agenda has been taken to Parliament.”
He added, “There is certainly an anti-Jagdeo agenda that is playing out in Parliament. I don’t think we are strangers to this agenda, and it is rather unfortunate that it is taken to a place like the Parliament …This anti-Jagdeo agenda is playing out in the court, in the Parliament, the public domain and even in the media. When will this end?”
Rohee said that he hopes that the Transparency Institute Guyana Inc. is paying attention to this matter.
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