PNCR to continue selective participation in Parliament
Kaieteur News
July 30, 2004
The main opposition PNCR will continue its policy of selective participation in the work of the National Assembly given the ruling PPP/C’s agenda to exercise control over the highest forum of the land by way of the Executive, Opposition Leader Robert Corbin said yesterday.
Corbin stated that President Bharrat Jagdeo and the PPP/C need to be reminded that the policy of selective participation was implemented by the PNCR primarily because of: the President’s persistent failure to keep his commitments to implement the matters agreed with the Leader of the Opposition during the constructive engagement process.
The decision was also taken because of the President’s refusal to have a credible Commission of Inquiry into the alleged existence of state-sponsored death squads under the direction of the Minister of Home Affairs, Ronald Gajraj, Corbin said yesterday at his party’s weekly press conference.
But Corbin pointed out that the PNCR’s policy of selective participation did not prevent the representatives of his party from actively participating in the work of the Public Accounts Committee.
However, this fact is conveniently being overlooked by those who have mastered the arts of public deception by lies and distortions, he said.
The PNCR leader charged that despite the Parliamentary and Constitutional reforms which have been agreed, the PPP/C administration has persisted in its policy of executive control of the National Assembly. ”Although the Parliamentary Management Committee (PMC) is charged with the responsibility to consider and decide on matters relating to the business of the National Assembly, the budget for the National Assembly was not determined or approved by the PMC but imposed by the Office of the President,” he declared.
He pointed out that the PMC, since its establishment, has tried to rationalize the scheduling of the sittings of the National Assembly to avoid the incidence of 5-minute and other short-duration sittings.
He recalled that the PMC requested that the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Reepu Daman Persaud, submit his quarterly projection of Government legislation which he expects to table in the National Assembly, but this was never done.
He noted that the PMC agreed that any complex and/or controversial Bill should automatically be sent to a Special Select Committee immediately after its Second Reading.
This, too, has been ignored by the PPP/C administration, he said.
He contended that the ruling party has a track record of seeking to foist Bills on the National Assembly at short notice and under the pretext that the Government’s access to IMF or World Bank funds would be jeopardised if the Bill is not rushed through the National Assembly.
Corbin said it is instructive to note that the first sitting of the National Assembly for 2004 was held on March 15.
He recalled that at that sitting, he requested leave to move the adjournment of the National Assembly on a definite matter of urgent public importance in order to have the death squad issue debated by the National Assembly.
Speaker of the National Assembly, Ralph Ramkarran, turned down the request and the subsequent requests to have the matter placed on the Order Paper.
Corbin said the Speaker, however, allowed Gajraj to make an “inappropriate” and “highly emotional and inflammatory” speech on the matter during the debate of the 2004 national budget.
The Opposition Leader accused the PPP/C of resorting to a propaganda blitz whenever the party is confronted with truths that cause it to be uncomfortable.
He said this is intended to distract attention from the party’s misdeeds and scant regard for the basic norms of good governance.
He stated that the national television station can be used for the PPP/C’s propaganda purpose while the government flagrantly breaches the agreement in the May 6th communiqué with respect to equitable time for Parliamentary parties on the State media.