‘Legislation requires profound consideration’
The PNCR-1G and the AFC are opposing an extension of the parliamentary session for five bills which they say require careful analysis and for which no special reasons have been advanced by the government.
Robert Corbin
Leader of the Opposition and PNCR Leader Robert Corbin told Stabroek News yesterday that the PNCR-1G does not see it necessary to meet outside of the stipulated parliamentary sessions when there are no special reasons.
Arguing that it would be illegal for parliament to convene during the statutory recess, he said that he was writing the Speaker of the National Assembly, Ralph Ramkarran saying that the parliamentary opposition do not consider parliament would be meeting legitimately since no special reasons have been advanced by the government.
Corbin said that Prime Minister Sam Hinds wrote to him and he responded that they would not be prepared to meet during the recess because there was no special reason. Notwithstanding the parliamentary opposition’s views, he said the Prime Minister got up and in breach of the Standing Orders proceeded to adjourn the session to next Thursday.
The Leader of the Opposition said there was no emergency to warrant an extension of the parliamentary session since the five new bills could have been tabled before the recess and there is no need to rush them through parliament at this stage.
Samuel Hinds
He said that the wiretapping bill has far reaching implications for citizens and their civil liberties even though he charged that the government was already tapping telephones.
AFC Leader Raphal Trotman told Stabroek News that the AFC would not be attending parliament next week since their MPs have made plans for overseas travel which include business and vacation. He said that could not be reversed on account of the bills being tabled as part of the government’s planned legislative agenda.
“No where in the request for an extension of parliament does it state that there is a national crisis that requires the recess be put back,” he said.
More important, he said, the bills are dealing with weighty matters for which there is need for broad-based consultation, including for one that disposes of preliminary inquiries in certain cases and the wiretapping bill.
The wiretapping legislation, he said, has serious implications for people’s constitutional rights and civil liberties. “What is the rationale for pushing through with this legislation in a matter of five days,” he asked, adding that “if the government feels it alone can make the decisions, I would hope it doesn’t do so.” If the government is saying that the wiretapping legislation is urgently needed for security reasons, he said that would be a farce since he was quite aware that wiretapping was going on.
Raphal Trotman
In his letter to Hinds on August 7, Corbin said “As you would appreciate, these bills require in depth analysis, widespread consultation and profound consideration before we could reasonably respond to their thrust, import and intent.” Noting that this problem was compounded by the fact that many members of the opposition would be unavailable “we consider it unreasonable to be expected to effectively scrutinize and arrive at informed positions on these bills in such a short time, and with already depleted numbers”. Corbin therefore recommended a deferral until the parliamentary recess ends in October.
Asked for the reasons for the extension of the sessions to accommodate the bills, Ramkarran told Stabroek News that he received a letter from the Prime Minister seeking an extension of parliament for “special reasons” in keeping with Standing Order No 9.
Standing Order No 9 says that notwithstanding anything contained in Standing Order No 8, which provides for the sitting of the assembly “unless there are special reasons for so doing, no sitting of the National Assembly shall be held from 10th August to 10th October in any year.”
The special reason was for the debate of five new bills which were tabled at the last sitting.
Special reasons in his view did not set a particularly strong requirement and so he acceded to the Prime Minister’s request. He however asked that the Prime Minister confer with the opposition. While the opposition is not in agreement with the extension of the sittings into the recess period, he said he would hope that when parliament resumes on Thursday there would be full attendance. The five bills were only tabled on Thursday.
Plea bargaining
The Criminal Procedure (Plea Bargaining and Plea Agreement) Bill 2008 makes arrangements for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) or any prosecutor, police prosecutor or attorney authorized by the DPP and the accused to enter into a plea agreement.
The explanatory memorandum of the bill says the proposed law “seeks to reward a person who has entered into a plea agreement and is cooperating with law enforcement authorities or whose cooperation is beneficial to the administration of criminal justice.”
Paper committals
If the Criminal Law (Procedure) (Amendment) Bill 2008 is passed it will formalize so-called paper committals of accused for High Court trials instead of awaiting the end of a preliminary inquiry (PI).
Clause 2 of the bill says that the magistrate presiding over a PI “may admit as evidence on the part of the prosecutor any statements, documents, writings and other articles tendered to the court in the absence of the witness”.
Sub-section two says that if the magistrate is of the view that the evidence so tendered presents an adequate case he/she may commit the accused person for trial. If the evidence does not constitute a prima facie case the accused
Under the Evidence (Amendment) Bill 2008, provisions would be made for enabling the appearance of detainees before court for obtaining bail etc from the place of detention by audio visual link.
Wiretapping
The Interception of Communi-cations Bill 2008 would likely raise some civil liberties concerns and encompasses internet traffic.
The bill says at clause 2 that “intercept” for the purposes of telecommunication covers “monitoring of transmissions made by fibre optic cable or any other forms of wire line, by wireless telegraphy, voice over internet protocol, internet and all other forms of electromagnetic communication to or from the apparatus comprising the systems”.
For intercept permission to be granted, an authorized officer may apply ex parte to a judge in chambers for a warrant. Clause 4 (2) says the application for a warrant has to be accompanied by an affidavit deposing the facts or allegations necessitating the application, sufficient information for the judge to issue a warrant and other information.
The warrant under clause 5 shall authorize the tapping of communication transmitted from a private or public system to/or from one or more addresses listed in the warrant. Addresses as defined by the bill include “a location, email address, telephone number or other number or designation used for the purpose of identifying telecommunications systems or apparatus”.
The Telecommunications (Amendment) Bill 2008 would require providers of SIM-cards and cellular phones to establish at their own cost a system of recording and storing particulars of its SIM-cards and mobile cellular phones and the customers utilizing them.
The explanatory memorandum of the bill said that “it has been observed that mobile cellular phones are frequently used to facilitate planning and commission of serious crimes.
Also, there has been a spate of thefts of mobile devices by unscrupulous persons. In order to track these sources in the investigation by the police, the identification of the persons in possession of the cellular devices is very vital”.
WOW……..this is what MARXISM is all about ……is Guyana going to be a North Korea Or Burma or little Cuba………..attacks on the print and audio media ….now this ….is it spitefull and vindictivness aimed at Trotman because he is travelling to China soon………i can remember in the past the PPP / Jagdeo would schedule meetings when Mr Hoyte was due to travel overseas causing him to cancel his trip(s).. .they also did it to Corbin.
Mr Corbin you’d better go hire an expert to explain the old Guyanese saying “han’ wash han’ mek han’ clean” You see that unaminious vote on Burnham yesterday;..How else do you think it passed so easily?
Lets see who are interested in exposing the criminal elements .The bill proposes to wire tap those systems that are on the warrants,not everyone’s phone.DO NOTHING FEAR NOTHING.The move to request providers to make available all communication from private and public systems listed on the warrant is a legitimate one in the pursuit of identifying criminal s and their associates.Sitting on the fence is a painful place to be,So,ARE YOU WITH US OR WITH THE CRIMINALS????
you seem to have missed the ramifications involved in communication eavesdropping. You are safe in a foreign country where democracy is real and for anyone to want to tap your phone would be task in itself. How can you trust the guyana government with such authority even though they are doing it with sorrigates like drug baron Roger Khan who is now sitting in jail. Kabaka what is your profession ? tell the letter writers.
What is Corbin quarelling about? If his people are scheduled to travel overseas for business and pleasure, and at the same time they are obligated to attend parliament, I think the most important activity here is for the PNC MP’s to attend parliament, thus cancel their “vacation” as what’s IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE PEOPLE AND COUNTRY. But of course the PNC has never had the best interest of the people and the country on their agenda, instead of what the country has to offer the PNC MP’s members’ best interest. That’s why we had a very screwed up broke derelick country. Now they’re out of power, same thing. What’s new about these people? The least Corbin could have done was order his team to attend parliament especially when there are FIVE bills, one importantly concerning our privacy and civil liberties (phone tapping).
Do we really want to have these PNC people in charge of our affairs once again since we know of their past track record and now showing no improvement in their ways and interests in what’s best for our country?
We could have done so much better in the past WITHOUT the PNC. I am convinced we can do WITHOUT THE PNC TOTALLY in the future.
mackydog…I don’t recall reading anywhere in the article any statement made by Mr. Corbin that his MP’s will be traveling overseas…wasn’t that said by Mr. Trotman? mackydog, you want to put words in people’s mouth.
And on another note you said…”But of course the PNC has never had the best interest of the people and the country on their agenda, instead of what the country has to offer the PNC MP’s members’ best interest.” Does the PPP have the people’s interest at heart? What are they doing on behalf of the people for the high crime rate, what are they doing when the minibus drivers raise the fares unapproved and the poor cannot afford it…what are they doing?
If the PPP have the people’s interest at heart…I wonder why a certain group seeks greener pastures.
Just when I thought that the opposition and PPP were making some progress in getting the people’s business done, this new development tells me that we’re back to the same ole’ same.
Are these guys really serious?
What is the hurry?
You are right. When it comes to putting sustems in place to fight crime ,every one can wait.When time come to complain everybody in line.Wait until another crime story hit the front page again,then you will see the stampeed to point fingers
Mackydog you just wanted to attack the PNC, PNC MP’S and Mr Corbin.
Mackydog, this is what Trotman said ” AFC Leader Raphal Trotman told Stabroek News that the AFC would not be attending parliament next week since their MPs have made plans for overseas travel which include business and vacation”
This PPP Government knew that Parliament recess and no sitting of the National Assembly held from 10th August to 10th October every year. Therefore why the rush – is this an emergency- I guess not. The PPP Members of Parliament enjoy the same benefits during the time the PNC was in Government.
It is well known that the PPP Members of Parliament and their Leader then Dr Cheddi Jagan walked out of Parliament on several times when the PNC was in Office. What interest did the PPP members had then for the Country and the People?
Do you not remember when the PNC was in Office how they destroy the cane by putting fire and destroy the economy do you think they were saints. The five bills need to be carefully examine before pass in Parliament – It is important that every I and T be check out.
If the PPP Government have the people’s best interest at heart – why spent so much money on Carefista X at this time- when we need to look into better education system, reduce the Crime rate, look into reduce the VAT that killing the poor people slowly and for those who cannot afford to put meals on the table.
Then, if this Government is doing so well why the people running out of the country instead of returning back home? And as soon as you open your mouth you either been torture, put in Jail, cut your ad’s, taken off the Air or been fired. So singing praises for this government-for what?
What parts of the bills need to be examined? Conspiracy theory again! If you know what you doing, why delay? What substance can the opposition offer to this bill?
If they had known “what they were doing,” Guyana would not be to the ground in 1992. Now they want to delay any progress which can be made.
FRIEND OF THE GOVT ROGER KHAN WAS WIRETAPPING LEFT RIGHT AND CENTER FOR A LONG PERIOD OF TIME ………..HE DID GET PERMISSION BUT FROM WHOM OP …..I AM SURE HE DID NOT GO BEFORE A JUDGE AND APPLIED FOR PERMISSION TO CARRY OUT HIS ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES
i am no friend of the govt.
i ran away,but can observe and gave straight talk.
MY profession has nothing to do with my ideas and opinions .My conscience is clear, my finance is honestly gained .I have no fear about the law for all my dealings are on the up and up.The authorities are welcomed to tap my phones.Like i said before DO NOTHING FEAR NOTHING>What are you afraid of??