Opposition political parties yesterday again accused the government of turning Parliament into a rubber stamp and the main PNC/R accentuated its disaffection by walking out of the assembly on the day the all-important debate on the 2002 budget began.

The People's National Congress REFORM (PNC/R) was joined in its snubbing of the budget debate by Guyana Action Party/Working People's Alliance (GAP/WPA) MP Sheila Holder. However, the second GAP/WPA MP Shirley Melville stayed for the debate giving rise to speculation that there was a difference of opinion within the alliance. Rise, Organise and Rebuild Guyana Movement (ROAR) MP Ravi Dev stayed for the debate.

Despite disparate action, all three parties were at one on their perception of how Parliament was being run and circulated statements to this effect.

Noting that it had earlier withdrawn from the March 15 presentation of the budget, the PNC/R parliamentary group in its statement said that it had hoped that the ruling PPP/Civic would have taken steps to improve the functioning of Parliament but that this had not happened. The PNC/R noted that its March 15 action was premised on the PPP/C's failure "to honour its responsibility for good governance, their refusal to implement agreed constitutional change, their refusal to implement many decisions made during the process of dialogue and the clear intention of the government to subvert the functioning of the Parliament".

Charging that no effort has been made by the government to settle the crucial question of the functioning of Parliament, the PNC/R declared that to participate in the business of the National Assembly in these circumstances would be to "lend legitimacy to the PPP/C's contempt". One of the key outstanding issues is the chairing and composition of the parliamentary management committee and a host of parliamentary sectoral committees.

The main opposition party said it was going to find other outlets for its MPs to dissect the 2002 budget which it described as a "catastrophe". It intends to convene a town meeting tomorrow at 5 pm at City Hall. At that meeting PNC/R leader Desmond Hoyte will make the feature presentation followed by other parliamentarians. Besides this, MPs Winston Murray and Deryck Bernard have made contributions on NBTV Channel 9 and the media will be provided with pre-recorded video tapes of the contributions of PNC/R MPs. Other contributions will be made via the letters columns in newspapers.

Fending off the charges of a rubber stamp Parliament, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Reepu Daman Persaud had issued a statement on March 21 in response to a PNC/R press conference of that date. In the statement, Persaud had said that the government and his ministry have been in regular and intensive discussions with the PNC/R on parliamentary matters and had been successful in reaching agreements in a number of areas. Persaud noted that since the life of the 8th Parliament began in May 2001, there had been 20 sittings. Observers had argued that this was a low number considering the amount of work before Parliament and some of the sessions were very brief. Persaud also argued that there was an understanding with PNC MP Lance Carberry that Parliament would not be convened until the dispute over the parliamentary sectoral committees had been settled. He noted that Parliament was not convened prior to the March 15 budget presentation precisely because of this agreement.

"The people of Guyana can testify to the substantial improvement of the way and manner in which Parliament now functions. In fact Guyana's stands equal to any in the Caribbean. Indeed our consultation process in the functions of Parliament has introduced a new parliamentary culture which hitherto 1992 did not exist", Persaud added.

The other two opposition parties clearly differed with Persaud's analysis.

GAP/WPA MP Holder said it was with deep regret that the alliance had concluded that participating in the 2002 budget debate would be an exercise in futility. "Nothing we say or do, no matter how cogent the arguments, will be adopted for the benefit of the people of Guyana. We struggled to come to grips with the reality that from the government's track record, words of good intentions expressed in the Budget speech are little more than platitudes being uttered once again to hoodwink the people and their parliamentary representatives", the alliance said.

For these reasons, it said that walking out of Parliament was a viable option in attempting to transmit frustrations and difficulties experienced in functioning as MPs in the 8th Parliament.

Holder argued that dozens of GAP-WPA questions tendered to ministers several months ago are yet to make it onto the notice paper. She said three motions moved by her had been ignored even though Persaud had given the assurance that once there were opposition questions and motions, Members' Days would be convened. Noting that the Validation of the Seventh Parliament Act is still to be approved by the National Assembly, Holder said the government was taking this important constitutional requirement in its stride. She charged that the government has chosen to exercise its power by summoning Parliament only by compulsion as in the case of the budget. (Persaud has said this is by agreement with the PNC/R's Carberry.) Holder added that the delay in the concretising of the constitutional reform measures recommended by a wide cross-section of the populace "is making serious inroads into the government's oft-claimed contribution to parliamentary democracy in the country."

ROAR's statement was just as critical of the state of Parliament and had the additional message to both the PPP/C and the PNC/R that they should be grappling with the issue of power sharing.

ROAR expressed its "extreme disappointment at the (PPP/C) refusal to implement measures towards the creation of a more inclusive parliamentary system. As presently functioning, Parliament is merely a rubber stamp for the PPP's dictates since the opposition is denied any meaningful role into the decision making process". The statement added that during the last budget debate the ROAR MP Ravi Dev watched with consternation as opposition questions and suggestions were "cynically rebuffed: not a single comma of the budget was altered after the debate". ROAR said what was most troubling was that several of the measures to involve the opposition had been agreed to by the ruling party, some of them after bloody confrontations on the streets of Guyana. It cited two of these as the parliamentary management committee and the four sectoral committees to scrutinise the functioning of the government.

ROAR, declaring that the denial of real opposition participation in Parliament has to be put into perspective, said that all serious analysts have verified that voting in Guyana is along ethnic lines. It noted that GAP's first foray into politics saw it picking up a significant bloc of Amerindian votes. "Exclusion of the opposition, by the PPP, from the decision-making process therefore inevitably leads to accusations of exclusion of Amerindians and Africans and to further claims of discrimination and victimisation", ROAR contended.

It was also ROAR's contention that though neither the PPP/C nor the PNC/R acknowledge it, the unimplemented measures are only the beginning of a process which must see power sharing among the various ethnic groups deepened and constitutionally formalised. "We therefore call upon both the PPP and the PNC to speak frankly about the real issues undergirding the present impasse and to agree at least on the principle of power sharing", the ROAR statement said, adding that no matter which of the two major parties won the election, one substantial segment of the population will feel excluded.

Apart from its legal responsibility, ROAR said the PPP/C has a moral one to ensure that Parliament becomes more exclusive.

One other party entered the eighth Parliament as an opposition group. The United Force is no longer sitting on those benches as its MP, Manzoor Nadir, occupies a ministerial position in the government and sits with its MPs.

When asked why she did not join her colleague and the PNC/R in the walkout, Melville told reporters that she respected Holder's view but they still remained "individuals". She said that she also had a duty to her constituency which voted her into office to represent their interests.

Though she had walked out of parliament prior to the start of budget presentation on March 15, Melville said that she opted to remain in Parliament as part of the learning process. Asked whether the remarks made by Leader of the House and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Persaud influenced her decision, she demurred, only saying that she was glad that Persaud noted her presence.

Asked whether the difference in her stance and Holder's was an indication of problems emerging in the GAP and WPA alliance, Melville dismissed any such indication as rumours.

And in her opening remarks in the debate, Minister within the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security Bibi Shadick expressed disappointment that a little over 40% of the people who voted for representation in the National Assembly were without a voice as their elected representatives had opted not to take part in the debate.

She said she wondered if the honourable opposition felt that because they were on the opposing benches "that opposition meant having to oppose everything" the government proposed.