Silly semantics

Apr 30, 2019 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The government’s excuse that there is in place a time-honoured convention which allows the National Assembly to recognize the services of members of Parliament is woeful. A person convicted of a serious criminal offence and a person who is expelled from the National Assembly forfeits his or her right to be honoured.
Time-honoured conventions paying tribute to convicts and persons expelled do not exist. If you are required to vacate your seat in the National Assembly once you are convicted, why should you be honoured by the said National Assembly?
It is true that there is a time-honoured convention to pay tribute to persons from both sides of the House who have served in the National Assembly. But there has never before existed a case in which a member of parliament was charged or convicted for engaging in terrorism. Kadir was the first.
Abdul Kadir, by his conviction, forfeited any right to be honoured by the National Assembly. Ishak Basir, the PPP Member of Parliament who was expelled from the National Assembly, has also forfeited his right to be hailed for his contributions as a parliamentarian.
There was no need for a motion paying tribute to Kadir and asking for the Assembly to convey expressions of sympathy to his family. On January 4 2019, the National Assembly had observed one minute of silence for three parliamentarians – Ronald Gajraj, Heeralal Mohan and Abdul Kadir. This was recognition enough.
Why the government would wish to have tabled and passed this particular motion is beyond comprehension. The only logical explanation is that it is so obsessed with outflanking the PPPC, that everything the PPPC does the government feels an obligation to respond to.
The PPPC did not attend that sitting, but had it done so, it had proposed to introduce a private motion paying tribute to its former member of parliament Heeralal Mohan and asking for the National Assembly to convey sympathies to his family.
In other words, the PPPC, had it attended the sitting, was going to pay tribute to Mohan. Therefore, the government felt that it should pay tribute to one of its own, Kadir.
But Mohan is not Kadir. He was not a convicted and disgraced member of parliament.
The government made a big mistake. It should have admitted to the mistake and apologized not just to the Americans, but also for the shame which this motion has brought to the nation.
The government also ought to have known that there were international implications when it decided to move this ill-advised motion. The government should have been aware that the motion would have aroused the consternation of the United States government and brought the government into disrepute with the United States. There is no way that such a motion would have gone unnoticed by the United States.
The United States Embassy in Guyana was swift in condemning the motion. The Embassy said that it was insensitive and counterproductive towards security cooperation between the US and Guyana.
In a feeble attempt at damage control, the government has issued a statement expressing regret that the motion was misinterpreted. It took the opportunity to reiterate its disapproval of terrorism.
The government has not even had the decency to admit that the motion was ill-advised and inappropriate. It has excused itself by pointing to a convention, which has no application when it comes to persons convicted of certain offences.
The government in its statement in response to the US’s condemnation said that it had no intention of conveying the impression that the motion was designed to honour a former MP convicted of terrorism in another jurisdiction, but merely recognises the member’s service as a parliamentarian.
The government wants us to believe that Kadir had two distinct lives – one as a parliamentarian and the other as a terrorist and spy for Iran. It would have been much better if the government had avoided embarrassing itself by employing such silly semantics.

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Silly semantics

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