The Speaker’s undeclared war on parliamentary democracy

Feb 05, 2026 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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(Kaieteur News) – From all indications, Speaker Nadir is waging a relentless undeclared war against democracy in Guyana.  Undeclared, but still unnerving, undermining of wat’s held sacred.  Parliamentary democracy.  Democracy’s ideals.  Democracy’s routines.  The selection of the Opposition Leader ended up being a Navy Seal obstacle test.  Jump through hoops.

Walk through a ring of fire.  Stay underwater at subfreezing temps.  Scale a barb-wired fence.  Last run a mini marathon.  Delay.  Dodge. Duck n’ drake.  The Speaker would make a good bungee jumper, or skydiver.  He has a thick skin to absorb all those countless arrows.  Now he will need a helmet to secure his head, given his latest parliamentary escapade.

Media restricted from accessing parliament to cover the budget debate.  One thing I will say about Speaker Nadir, when he picks a battle to fight, he knows how to pick them.  Ones that he cannot win (no pun).  How long was he going to trot around the globe and hold the WIN people at bay?  He had to come down to earth, and come back to Guyana, and deal with the selection matter that was neither going away nor growing lesser by the day.  In fact, that issue was going the other way, with the tide squarely in the face of the embattled Speaker leaving him looking horseless, swordless, and friendless.  The Speaker may have been emboldened by getting away with locking out the press from the process of selection of the Opposition Leader.  So, having crossed one Rubicon, he probably thought to himself -what the hell, why not cross another one?  The PPP Govt. has his back, so why not?  Who could have a problem with limiting the number of media personnel observing the budget debate live and closeup, and reporting the details to Guyanese?  Plenty of people, it seems.

The Guyana Press Association is one set of upset media practitioners.  Civil society onlookers and commentators are another.  The diplomatic corps must be at the end of its tether.  Not again!  Are some Guyanese so hardheaded that they must be taught everything about democracy, with their hands held?  C’mon, some things are such no brainers that they are beneath the diplomatic corps dignity.  Plus, they interfere with other priorities, throw various schedules into disarray.  These excesses, or misadventures, cannot continue.  Freedom of the press to move and report in an unfettered way is one of democracy’s purer ideals.  It is so taken for granted in a genuine democracy that the thought never surfaces to limit press people to a literal handful for an occasion as momentous as covering the national budget.  I don’t think that the media houses combined were seeking clearance for 50 accredited journalists.  There were 17 approved at one time by the Speaker, so what’s all the anxiety about now?

Security concerns about what, and as represented by which press presence?  That has icing of a six-for-a-nine, a rank exaggeration.  Then, the Speaker advanced the position that finding enough room for the press hordes (sorry that’s the best I can do today) was a challenge.  Say that again, sir.  If the Arthur Chung Convention Center doesn’t have enough sitting/standing room, then nowhere else in Guyana does, not even the National Park.  No one has in mind a banquet and dance.  It’s access into parliament to cover the national budget about which Guyanese want to know.  They don’t want to hear from the Department of Public Info.  Too much baggage that smells suspiciously, as though there is some serious disease in one of the compartments that oozes.  For a Guyanese as bright and as fast on his feet as National Assembly Speaker Nadir to lapse into the bumbling stumbling of a simpleton is not only beyond belief, but highly offensive.  Surely, the Speaker can do better in the charade and costume departments.  Appalling, I say.  He must be giving his godfathers a series of fits, with his antics that bite deeply into democracy’s routines, and leave those mortally wounded.

What is Speaker Nadir going to concoct next?  Members of Parliament are limited in their time allotted to address the honorable house.  The press is limited in the numbers that can enter.  Also, the number of those who have to keep their distance outside the fence, as though they are restless cattle.  What next, limit the words that they can record and write?  Limit how often they can be lurking outside parliament?  Ah democracy!  Oh, democracy, what pains thy caused, what tears that drip, drip, drip.

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

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• Democracy, GHK Lall, Nadir, Parliament, Speaker

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