Voting against one’s party is nothing new

Jan 05, 2019 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

No gathering took place and not a drink was taken over the Holidays without the name, Charrandass Persaud being mentioned. And so the debate rages on: traitor or truth-bearer; conspirator or conscience believer?
Whatever conclusions one may arrive at, the salient fact perseveres: The Member of Parliament was disillusioned by the way he was treated as a backbench MP and the method of governance of the APNU/AFC Coalition.
The President and Prime Minister along with the Speaker have both accepted the no-confidence motion, and now the nation is witnessing an amassing of legal intellect seeking to rewrite math formulas by stating that 33 is not the majority of 65 and only 34 votes in Parliament can topple the government.
Just four years ago, the same APNU/AFC group successfully forced the PPP to dissolve Parliament and call elections with the threat of a no-confidence vote based on the composition of a 33:32 vote margin in favour of the coalition. At the time, no one came up with the idea that 34 votes would be required for the motion to pass. Now that the government has been toppled by the same 33-32 vote composition, it is crying wolf.
However, voting against one’s Party in Parliament is nothing new to politics. On 28 March, 1979 a vote of no confidence against the British Labour government of Prime Minister James Callaghan occurred, with many Labour MP’s voting against their own party. The vote was brought by Opposition leader Margaret Thatcher of the Conservative Party. The Labour Government lost by one vote—311 to 310 and Prime Minister Callaghan was forced to call a general election which was won by Thatcher’s conservative party.
Recently, in July 2017, Republicans Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski voted against their Conservative Party to cancel The Affordable Health Care Act, commonly called Obamacare. The vote count was 50:49 for the cancellation. The last person to vote was Arizona Senator John McCain, and in a most legendary vote, he voted no and Obamacare survived 51:49. No one called Senator McCain a traitor, a backstabber, a sellout or a bribe taker. Many believe that these terms emanate mostly from the Third World countries, including Guyana.
The passage of the no-confidence motion on December 21, 2018 could not come at a worse time for the Granger-led administration. The vote not only stunned the nation, but it led to the defeat of the government and the calling for new elections at a time when the government was badly defeated by the PPP in the November 12 local government elections.

Leyland Chitlall Roopnaraine

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