H@RD TRUTHS BY GHK LALL - Parliament - house of serious business or house of horrors, punks

H@RD TRUTHS BY GHK LALL – Parliament – house of serious business or house of horrors, punks

Jan 30, 2024 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

Kaieteur News – Hear ye, honourable members of the people’s house. That would be parliament. The children are watching and listening. Their parents are hustling to remove them from the scene of the crime. Unbecoming and untoward. Upsetting and undermining. Of standards, and the dignity of the National Assembly. Everyone knows the score, what is expected and must be delivered with respect to acceptable conduct. Since it’s early January could everyone (and I mean everyone) make a New Year’s resolution: better behaved I will be. Come what may, there will be no deviating from sworn commitment.

GHK Lall

To be candid, I am paddling low in the water regarding optimism. There was little to work with in recent times, and in this first month of 2024, the verbal fisticuffs and bodily rowdiness have already been put on exhibition. I read that the opposition had a poor showing during Dr. Ashni Singh’s budget presentation. I read that Guyana’s Dr. Frankenstein of money (that’s allowed, isn’t it?) fell for the baiting, and took time off from his presentation, and the revelry was on. Bacchanal in January, and it was not in the streets, but in the August House of the people. It has been reduced to a bawdy House; and the poor people didn’t matter if one were to give a critical review of Dr. Singh’s budget opera. If that was all, there could have been moving on, but not a full week has passed, and the door of decency caved in, ethical decorum was called for, but doggedly absent.

This time the Honorable Speaker of the House has been called to the carpet for being unbalanced. I think it fits smoothly, given his consistent practice, the long history compiled under the tilt of his gavel. I hope Guyanese would have no difficulty interpreting my choice of ‘tilt’ re his refereeing in the house that now reminds of Madison Square Garden, with a boxing (or hockey) match in full swing. The charge against the Speaker is that he is erratic with time allocated to members on the PPP Government side when such allocations are compared to that of the opposition benches. In the span of less than a week, the first round saw cries to drown out and disrupt have had their day, with the retaliatory coming from brother Ashni. The second session now has this clash and concern over time and fairness, with the Speaker in the center of the spotlight. From my perspective, in the manner of the opposition during the budget reading, the Speaker does not look like the copacetic has visited him in many a long, torrid parliamentary season.

I have more bad news. The atmosphere does not give the impression that things are going to get any better. My impression is that members from both sides are itching to have a go at those across the aisle. What place dignity when derision is beloved for the sting that it delivers? When derogation is more cherished for the upheavals that it provokes. Somebody has to say it, and since there are no volunteers, then it is my heavy duty to announce and pronounce. Why add to the madness of the mob and denounce? Here I go: we have what we in Guyana’s parliament for standards because we have the kind of people who carry on just like that (and worse) in everyday life outside of the vaunted assembly. No training nor grooming. No self-respect that serves as timely restraint, no matter the temptation. No discipline, for the National Assembly is now seen as a free for all, a place to vent and to exact vengeance. Guyanese cannot pretend at ignorance, for they have been privy to many previews over a bunch of Thursdays.

Since I am not on Facebook, or any social media dark alleys, the political powers in parliament, and their dirty tricks people can rave and rant to their heart’s content. My reaction is still the same: what’s the problem, bub? Can’t take the truth? Have to prove self? Be my guest.

Nonetheless, parliament must still strive for the pristine amid the profane, for some degree of brightness to replace the dullness of more than a few dim bulbs. Notwithstanding all the PhDs and JDs and DDs (is there one?), there are some real deluded and unhinged people in parliament. I can deal with that; but it is the dangerousness in some of those stalwarts that causes a pause. Do these good folks, these Guyanese hoping to be spoken of in the same breath as greatness, have what it takes to work tirelessly and unselfishly to restore parliament to the hallowed gathering for the interests of the people that it once was? Though there are considerable doubts, I still urge that the effort is made, the energy expended, if only to set an example for the children, and manifest a modicum of respect for the elderly. Some members must suppress their riotous nature, others must roll with the blows that come. If they do, there will be a parliament which all can be proud of. If not, Guyanese will not have what could rightfully be called a functioning parliament. Only a place that is overpoweringly perverted.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)