CRUDE AND OBNOXIOUS BEHAVIOUR

Dec 14, 2017 Editorial, Features / Columnists

It was crude. It was ugly. It was obnoxious, dreadful and disruptive. It occurred at the formal opening of the 71st session of Parliament on Thursday November 2 as President David Granger addressed Parliament. Reading from a prepared speech which at times was drowned out by the raucous heckling by the opposition inside Parliament, President Granger appeared unfazed throughout the ordeal.
The protest was sparked by the unilateral appointment of 84-year old retired Justice James Patterson as the Chairman of GECOM. This was criticised by a number of organisations including the Guyana Bar Association, the Private Sector Commission, the Guyana Human Rights Association and members of the Diaspora.
The behaviour in Parliament was a vulgar display by opposition MPs. The protest, according to experts, violated the Standing Orders of Parliament. It was a gross disrespect for a sitting President addressing Parliament.
Thursday, November 2, 2017 will be remembered as a day of infamy in the annals of the parliamentary record of Guyana and will go down as one of the most ghastly and appalling episodes of parliamentary misconduct in Guyana and in the Caribbean.
Every concerned Guyanese, irrespective of race or political affiliation who have the nation’s interests at heart should be disgusted with such infantile behaviour by the opposition.
Of concern also was the disrespect shown to the members of the Diplomatic Corps, representatives of regional and international organisations, members of the judiciary and other invited guests. It was an ignominious image that was portrayed to the world.
But that was not the end of disgraceful behaviour in the Parliament. One month later, the Opposition once more grabbed the headlines for all the wrong reasons. This time one of their own launched into a tirade against the Speaker of the House. He was not the first member of his party to attack the Speaker of the House. Nearly thirty years earlier, the founder of the party, Dr. Cheddi Jagan, in a fit of fury, hurled the Speaker’s mace from its dais, after he was asked to leave the chambers. He had earlier tossed law books to the floor.
This time the member refused to take his seat on the order of the Speaker, bragged that he intended to be out of order and when asked to leave, bluntly refused. Again his party was at its disruptive best. Its members refused to allow their colleague to leave the House, assaulted the ranks who tried to evict the errant member, and in the end halted any further sitting.
It must be clear to all Guyanese at home and in the diaspora that such uncultured and uncouth behaviour by the opposition should not be tolerated.
Parliament is the primary law-making institution in the country and should be respected by all. By shamelessly ripping to shreds every protocol and parliamentary decorum shows the disdain for democracy and contempt for the people and Parliament.
On November 2, the opposition leader brought the House to a new low. He became the first to hold a placard in the National Assembly albeit the placard contained mis-spelt words. It was beyond gutter politics; it was trench-bottom politics so far as parliamentary conduct is concerned.
While the members of the opposition have the right to free speech and to protest, their shouting in Parliament cannot be qualified as free speech because it impeded the right of the President to speak and be heard.
The world is now wondering at the next episode of disgraceful behaviour by the political opposition.

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