Parliament and Opposition Leader – closing chapter

Feb 01, 2026 Editorial, News

(Kaieteur News) – Living the ideals of democracy has turned out to be a case of chronic backpain for the PPPC Government. Presenting the best face on parliamentary democracy nothing but a crippling migraine for the government and the Chief Steward of the National Assembly, Speaker Manzoor Nadir. The controversies and delays on beginning the process for the election of the Leader of the Opposition has left parliament in a bad light, brought it to its knees. If this is democracy on the move, then we do not want to know what dictatorship looks like.

Speaker Nadir has been caught in the middle of storms of his own making. First, he was silent, then he was absent, and last sought refuge in lashing out at the diplomatic community, only to expose himself to more self-inflicted ridicule. Speaker Nadir may not be made of the sternest stuff, but cannot (no one can) be this poor of insight, this devoid of self-respect. There is the Constitution, and there is a process, and upon both he turned his back, and brought parliament to low repute.

The Speaker and his team of intellectual authors in the government may comfort themselves with the belief that they have poked a finger in Azruddin Mohamed’s eye, and hung him out to dry. It is more than the We Invest In Nationhood (WIN) leader, and all about Guyana and how it sinks further in the eyes of the world. All the help from the international community to get Guyana on its feet, to get it going on the road to democracy, only for these outrageous and backward steps to become the norm, with the nation’s parliament now a study in political manipulation, and all manner of crass defenses offered to justify the unacceptable.

Guyana is either a democracy, or it is merely a lair where the blatantly odious deeds of twisted men take precedence, reign supreme. Parliament is an expression of the will of the people, and the Speaker is the pilot that shepherds on the way forward. In theory, at least, that is the expectation. In practice, both presences, the House and the Speaker, have diminished to what insults the intelligence and commonsense of all citizens. When the Speaker in a fit of pretended rage took aim at the sections of the diplomatic community, when they spoke out and said this is not the way on the election of the Opposition Leader, and let it be over, he added more insults and more injuries. The same ABC&E cohort has been among the most visible, the most potent, and the most steadfast friend to Guyana when electoral storm clouds gathered thickly and dangerously. Yet, when it brings the same frankness to the Opposition Leader fiasco, it is pilloried by none other than the Speaker of the House, with his finger pointed accusingly at what has gone on in their countries.

Sometimes what is held as the best defense is what crumbles under a long, severe look. The Speaker has a lot of ground to cover to recover, if ever he succeeds in doing so. A position that requires the appearance of independence and neutrality now suffers from what resembles the rankest of partisanship, and the continuing of parliament’s long slide into decay. Having sacrificed the standing of his high office, Speaker Nadir will have difficulty picking up the pieces and facing his fellows in the lawmaking body of Guyana. The respect that he should command, what should be his automatically, had dissipated before, only to collapse in further disarray on how he presided over the Opposition Leader matter.

The hard choices, the draining sacrifices, that the Speaker had to make, so that parliament can rise to be a respected body, he retreated from, wanted no part of. The present is already giving a hard verdict on where parliament is, and how the Speaker managed himself when the election of the Opposition Leader process had to be started by him. When the history of Guyana’s parliament and its rollcall of Speakers are written, there will be a still harsher judgment. We believe that Speaker Nadir allowed himself to become a prisoner of circumstances, and, once trapped there, came to like his condition.

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Editorial, Manzoor Nadir, Opposition Leader, Parliament, PPPC Government

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Parliament and Opposition Leader – closing chapter

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