Rohee: Referral to Privileges Committee is to bless political act

Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee says that Thursday’s referral by the Speaker of the House, Raphael Trotman to the Privileges Committee of an opposition motion to gag him is a move to validate a political act.

In a statement, GINA said that he was at the time speaking during a television programme, Current Issues and Analysis on TVG.

Rohee said that a speaker is supposed to be impartial and is expected to protect the rights of all in a National Assembly. He said that gagging a Minister could never be the answer.

He noted that the Opposition has a majority in the Committee of Privileges and the report from that Committee will be taken to the House with a majoritarian position and therefore he is not optimistic.

“This is a move to legitimise by parliamentary imprimatur, a political act…the Speaker will say that I now have the views of the Privileges Committee which has been influenced by the majority, there will be a vote and again the majority will win and then the gag order will be debated and the majority will win and therefore they will say that due-process was followed,” Minister Rohee stated.

Responding to the allegations with regards to the July 18 shootings in Linden, the Minister said, according to GINA, that all of those statements that have been made insinuating that he gave orders to shoot are politically judgmental and are not based on hard evidence.

He said that when completed, the report of the Commission of Inquiry (COI) will bear him out.

“It is almost impossible for me to give an order like that, that’s an operational issue. A Minister of Home Affairs, irrespective of which part of the world he/she may be, is barred from giving those kinds of instructions to the police in a scenario like that,” he said.

GINA said that referring to the no confidence motion that the Opposition passed in the National Assembly against him, Rohee said that it was all a sham and had nothing to do with him giving so-called instructions to the police to shoot at Lindeners.

He said it was meant to raise the profile of then David Granger, now Opposition Leader against the backdrop of the impending congress.