In the recent issue of the Current Affairs supplement of the Stabroek News there was a review of the parliamentary reforms that have been implemented in an effort to consolidate the independence of the National Assembly to enable it to better monitor the programmes of the government. The Speaker, Ralph Ramkarran S.C., explained that when the Constitution Reform Commission considered this matter it had been guided by the need to update the powers of parliament to scrutinise the executive and that the commissioners had had regard to the attempt made in 1994/95 to establish the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations and to the fact that the Standing Orders had been changed.

PNC/R Parliamentary Chief Whip Lance Carberry said the reforms were intended to transform the National Assembly from being a rubber stamp and to enable it to function as the people’s watchdog. The establishment of the new committees would allow the parliament to bring to bear the expertise of persons from outside its membership and enable differing views to be considered. He noted that old habits die hard and that the executive would have to adjust to the new role of parliament which would include sending bills to select committees. He expressed the hope that the government would not second guess decisions of the parliamentary management committee.

The leader of the Guyana Action Party Paul Hardy was sceptical as to whether the reforms would achieve their objective. He said the adversarial relationship between the PPP/C and the PNC/R was an obstacle and questioned whether the goodwill necessary for the successful implementation of the reforms existed. “It doesn’t matter how much sense an idea makes, you will always have that pussyfooting around it because the idea will have to come from one of the two and the other side will do everything that they can to prove that it is not good”, Mr Hardy said.

The leader of ROAR, Ravi Dev started by saying that the reforms had been overtaken by the conversion of the PNC/R to the view that shared governance was a possible solution. He said the parliamentary initiatives had come at a time when the PNC still felt that it could beat the PPP at the elections, but this had changed and the PNC/R, GAP/WPA and ROAR now supported the view that power sharing offered a solution for charting a way forward. Despite this reservation, he said that in the brief time the Committee on Economic Services on which he sits had been at work there had been an eagerness to reach decisions by consensus and this illustrated the capacities of the parties to work together on specified issues. Mr Carberry supported the view that on the committees there had been a considerable convergence of views and said he had come across no evidence of an attempt to sabotage the committee system.

The Speaker made the point that these committees are independent bodies and that neither himself, the government nor the opposition should interfere in their work. There was unanimous support for the role the management committee could play in ensuring a more efficient process for the tabling of bills and scheduling them for debate. There had been general agreement that complex and controversial bills would benefit from the select committee process and that the second reading of bills should only take place seven days after they became available to the public at the office of the President. Mr Dev said he thought the government should use the management committee to streamline its operations as in a sense it was bringing the opposition on board as to what its proposed programme would be so it could be more prepared. He expressed the hope that when the parliament returns from its recess the government would have a legislative agenda in place. “Everybody agreed to that, so it’s left to be seen whether the government will get its act together.” Recent reports indicate that the Third Session of the Eighth Parliament will convene this Thursday and that the management committee will make public the list of bills that the government intends to table, so Mr Dev’s wish has been fulfilled.

There can be no doubt that these reforms potentially represent a substantial improvement in the level of the political culture. As Mr Carberry noted there will have to be an adjustment in old attitudes, on both sides, but despite Mr Hardy’s forebodings given the will, the committees provide the opportunity for a much deeper involvement of the opposition in the entire legislative process. The committees also provide the scope for monitoring executive action. Despite the obstacles, and without prejudice to any other discussions or developments that may take place, the parties have agreed on some useful and practical changes to the methods of governance.

The government must now try to ensure that the staffing of Parliament Office is adequate to support the work of the committees. Mr Ramkarran noted that the Parliament Office had submitted a new staffing structure to the Public Service Ministry but because of constraints of space these had not been fully implemented. However, it has just been announced that the Public Utilities Commission will be vacating the eastern wing of the Public Buildings shortly and plans and estimates will be drawn up for construction work to be done.