Things haven’t gotten off to such a good start between the two opposition parties of whom much is expected in the New Parliament. Everybody wants to have their own Speaker of the National Assembly and since there can only be one Speaker and since, moreover, no one appears inclined to back off it seems as though this one will go down to the wire.
Mind you, the position of Speaker of the National Assembly is not one to be trifled with and no one is surprised that the Opposition wants to have a crack at selecting a Speaker for the first time. The ruling Party on the other hand, jittery as they are over having lost their parliamentary majority understandably would feel more comfortable knowing that at least one of their own sits in the Speaker’s Chair.
On the other hand it isn’t as if they are electing the President of the Republic and the nation would love for them to get on with the job of deciding who gets the Speaker’s job so that we can proceed with the real business of feuding in the National Assembly.
In a sense the PPP/C wanting to have Ralph Ramkarran back is not surprising. He’s sound, reliable, possessed of a good reputation, respected by the House and usually impartial in his rulings. But then there’s the feeling that a new government requires a new Speaker; that Ramkarran has been around long enough and that someone else needs to get a chance at the job.
APNU wants Debbie Backer. Not a bad pick either; veteran of the PNC’s benches; experienced in the ways of the National Assembly; an intense debater and, like Ramkarran well-respected in the House. On the other hand one would have thought that APNU, given its newness to the National Assembly might have wanted to keep their veteran MP’s on the benches so that they can weigh in when those heavy-duty debates – like the budget debate, for example – come up; and nobody would question the view that Debbie is a heavy-duty parliamentarian; and why not a woman Speaker, anyway? After all, we talk about equality for women but seem to back away from it whenever there is an opportunity to prove that we are sincere.
The AFC wants Moses. Now there’s a tough one for you. In fairness, the AFC did promise that there would be something substantial in the pot for Moses, were he to ‘jump ship’ and now that the man has jumped ship it is time that the AFC delivers on this promise. Setting that aside Moses too is experienced in the ways of the Parliament and as far as we know he is by no means a disliked politician even though after running out on the PPP/C all that might have changed. At the same time one can understand the bitter pill that having Moses as Speaker would be for the PPP/C to swallow. They must already be having visions of Moses asserting himself in the National Assembly and putting his one-time bosom buddies ‘under manners’ for all that they have done to him. But then that’s not the sort of Speaker we want……is it?
Nobody’s budging…….at least so it seems and since we cannot spend the rest of the life of the new parliament trying to determine who the next Speaker will be the best solution might be to go for a compromise candidate……..someone, perhaps, who is not known to be a seasoned campaigner or having an axe to grind for any particular political party. Obviously, it would have to be someone possessed of a measure of competence in parliamentary procedures, someone who is firm but fair and someone who is prepared to learn quickly. It should be someone young too. Somehow, the job of Speaker has always seemed to belong to an older person.
Not many compromise names have come up though rumour has it that one is being whispered in APNU circles. Not much is being said about it and the prospective candidate assumed an air of bafflement when asked whether he had heard the rumour. Whether he is qualified or not for the post is of course for others to judge but he has certainly managed to get his name into the headlines on account of his legal work and there are those who believe that Attorneys at Law generally make good Speakers. So that if the matter of whether it will be Debbie or Moses or Ramkarran drags on for too much longer it is just possible that another name might start to do the circuit …a young attorney named Roysdale Forde.
