Jagdeo's day-a-month offer for opposition sparks indignation
Stabroek News
May 16, 2002
The parliamentary opposition has reacted with indignation to the offer by President Bharrat Jagdeo to set aside one day a month for opposition motions and questions.
President Jagdeo made the offer in an interview with Guyana Press Association President and Prime News Editor, Adam Harris, aired on the state-owned GTV Channel 11.
In the interview, the President explained that he was unwilling to set aside more than a day each month for opposition bills.
But Leader of the Opposition and PNC/R leader, Desmond Hoyte SC, told Stabroek News that it was not the President's job to arrange the business of parliament, as that was a function of the proposed Parliamentary Management Committee (PMC).
Hoyte said that the President was not giving the opposition anything, as they were demanding that the PMC be put in place. Government and the opposition have deadlocked over the composition of the PMC. The governing party, the PPP/Civic, is claiming that the major opposition party, the PNC/R, wants to dominate the ten-member committee. Of the ten members, it is proposed that the PPP/C would have five members, the PNC/R three members and the smaller opposition parties, GAP/WPA and ROAR, one each.
The PMC is one of five committees about whose constitution the government and opposition are unable to reach agreement and one of the reasons why the PNC/R has suspended the dialogue process in which Hoyte was involved with President Jagdeo.
ROAR's leader and its sole parliamentarian Ravi Dev also scoffed at the suggestion by President Jagdeo, telling Stabroek News that his party felt that at a minimum, every Wednesday should be devoted to opposition business.
He, like Hoyte, stressed that the time allocated for opposition business was not a gift from the President as it was provided for in the Standing Orders.
Standing Order 20(2) states: "Subject to the provision of these Standing Orders, Government Business shall have precedence on every day except on Wednesdays when Private Members' Business shall have precedence."
Dev pointed out that there was a lot of legislation that should be brought to the public's attention, citing as an example, the need to define terrorism and agreement on what had to be done to address it.
He stressed, too, that Parliament should be meeting more often than it currently does.
For the year Parliament has not met more than 12 times and not more than 24 times since it was convened following the March 19, 2001 elections.
GAP/WPA parliamentarian, Sheila Holder said that President Jagdeo's offer was a violation of Standing Order 20.
Meanwhile the parliamentary opposition also expressed concern about the Parliament Office's ability to support the work of the various committees created by the recent amendments to the Constitution.
Before he demitted office, former clerk of the National Assembly, Frank Narain, had pointed to the need for upgrading the Parliament Office to meet the demands that would be placed on it.
With the passage of the 2002 budget, PNC/R Chief Whip, Lance Carberry, protested the absence of an increase in the allocation for the Parliament Office that would allow it to service the parliamentary committees effectively.