The parties should stop squabbling and decide on a Speaker

Dear Editor,

It is very disappointing that up to now, since the elections on November 28, 2011, the parties are not yet ready to begin attending to the affairs of the nation. It is over a month now since the electorate has spoken. We are in the New Year, and no date as yet has been set for Parliament to be convened. The three parties – PPP/C, APNU and AFC have been elected by the people to govern and attend to the business of the state, and all that they have been doing until now is squabble over who is to be the Speaker of the House.

The PPP/C wants Ralph Ramkarran to be Speaker, APNU wants Cammie Ramsaroop or Debra Backer and the AFC wants Moses Nagamootoo, and none of them wants to budge from their stand and the nation is hurting. I think that this impasse is shameful and ridiculous. I am not a politician. I am a Minister of Religion and a concerned citizen. And I think that the people we have elected to look after our interests as a nation ought to know that there are for more important matters that need to be attended to than who is to be Speaker. As far as I am concerned, the Speaker should have long ago been appointed. But up to now, there is no solution in sight to that matter.

The three parties should sit together and try to iron out their differences to settle this matter as quickly as is possible in the interest of the nation. President Ramotar, Dr Roger Luncheon, Messrs David Granger, Raphael Trotman and Khemraj Ramjattan as concerned, educated and intelligent men need to realise that they have been elected by the people not to carry on a tug- o-war among themselves but to get busy with the nation’s affairs, and they must stop this quarrelling and get down to business.

I agree with Dr Roger Luncheon one hundred per cent in saying that APNU and the AFC should not be negotiating between themselves over the selection of the Speaker without the involvement of the PPP/C; all three parties should sit together to address the issue.

Long before the elections, citizens had been advocating shared governance.

The decision of the electorate on November 28 has moved the nation one step towards this end. We now have a system of government in which neither the opposition nor the ruling party can make any decision on major issues without the involvement of the other. Both have now been given a fair share in the decision-making process.

Concerning who should be the Speaker of House, I have heard President Donald Ramotar say on an NCN radio newscast that according to the Westminster tradition the Speaker of the House should be a member of the ruling party – the party that won the most seats. Be that as it may, and whatever the reasons are for the stand being taken by the two opposition parties, in the interest of peace, I wish to offer advice.

Everything calls for reasoning. In the interest of the nation, let the three parties get together now and sink their differences. Forget about Westminster and all the other arguments that are being put forward, and select and appoint the Speaker.

My advice is this. Let the cake be shared proportionately among the three parties concerned. The electorate has given the presidency to the PPP/C and the leadership of the opposition to APNU. In all fairness, let the position of Speaker be given to the AFC. If this suggestion is not accepted, I trusted that someone will come up with a better one so that the problem could be solved, and very quickly too, if possible, before the week expires.

Yours faithfully,
Samuel Horatio Johnson