Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman said that despite the sometimes acrimonious debates and seeming infrequency of sittings, the 10th Parliament has achieved significantly in its eight months of operation to the credit of all stakeholders.
“We have reached a lot of milestones in those eight months which we had not in 40-plus years of independence,” he said.
“We shouldn’t just define the work of the National Assembly by the number of sittings per se, or by what you may see on television. There is a lot happening behind the scenes,” he said during an interview with Stabroek News.
“We could have done some more but at the same time credit must be given for what was achieved,” he said.
“The 10th Parliament was ushered in with tremendous goodwill and national support and that in itself has corresponding expectations. It is like the ‘Obama factor’. People expect so much so soon and I am not decrying their right to do so. We came in and I believe we had a very difficult first session of the 10th Parliament. It was convened on January 12 at which the Speaker and Deputy Speaker were elected and then we had a hiatus for another month and a half until March when we started sittings and then we plunged directly into the budget,” he said.
“I would say that despite the fact that we did not meet very often, whenever we met I believe we got a lot of work done. Certainly we covered ground that no Parliament in the English speaking Caribbean has ever covered in terms of the budget cuts and so forth. The last sitting we held on August 10 went until 4 am on August 11,” he said.
“I met with an expert from Canada who said to me that had Canada experienced what Guyana experienced in that period of time the Government would have had to resign and there would have been new elections,” Trotman said.
“We were able to navigate through a very difficult and painful exercise and I think that the National Assembly must be given credit for that. You know at every sitting I have had to give some ruling or the other. This is unprecedented,” he said.
“Outside of the actual Parliament sittings we have had the most questions asked. I have allowed at every sitting oral questions [without notice] which were observed more in the breach. I have been allowing oral questions. It is a culture that I am trying to inculcate in the MPs,” he said. “You will find that at every sitting a Member of Parliament from the Opposition will ask oral questions. Even though it was part of the Standing Orders it was not utilised. For the most part, Opposition members felt that they were not entitled to or that if they did make the request to do so, they would not be accommodated,” he said.
“I believe that under this new dispensation [a parliamentarian] must be allowed to represent. If I go to Region 8 and I reach a situation and I am a Member of Parliament, I shouldn’t have to put in for a written question.
It may be urgent…maybe about the absence of drugs at a hospital,” he said.
He said that the 10th Parliament is the first to see a Motion of No-Confidence introduced against a minister of the government. “Further, simultaneously, while members have been battling in the House, others have been battling in court,” he said, referring to the many court excursions that the government sought to take the opposition on. “One on committees [and their composition], one on the budget cuts, and one on the no-confidence motion against Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee,” he said.
He noted that 28 sittings over a period of eight months works out to a little over three sittings a month and this he said is not an insignificant number of sittings. “Three sittings a month may look bad, but I believe that it is because of the expectations that arose about this 10th Parliament,” he said.
“I believe that firstly we have survived when many people believe that the country would have gone into a downward spiral.
I would never say that there could not have been more done. In hindsight you could always find more to be done. But when you look at the achievements you have to understand that none of us have had any training or experience or exposure to what would have occurred during the first session of the 10th Parliament,” he said.
“I am actually in the process of preparing a newsletter in which I am welcoming the members back asking them and for us all to put our shoulders to the wheel. But I think we made some tremendous steps,” he said.
He spoke of the numerous school tours as part of building interest in the work of the Parliament. “That is something that is significant, even though it is not seen too often,” Trotman said. He spoke of bi-partisan visits to ten schools in Regions 5 and 6 over a two-day period where the MPs would lecture the students.
Trotman said the impact of the ugly debates was brought home starkly when he asked a schoolgirl what she thought of Parliament. Her answer was that people there are always fighting. This is the image that he wants changed.
“I think that I share the disappointment in some aspects of the debate. I wouldn’t say that overall the debates have been nasty and unproductive, but I think that there is a national disappointment about some of the rancour and acrimony that people witnessed. It is something that I am looking at. I have received some input from the Speaker in the UK who shared some notes with me about the very thing and so I plan to share them with the members. I hope to prevail on the whips to rein in the over–exuberance and excesses of some members,” he said.
The Speaker said that the Parliamentary Management Committee is meeting on a monthly basis and this is something that he is adamant about.
“We are looking at getting all parties to submit their outlines of parliamentary agenda so we could be a little more specific in our planning. We are also looking at training for MPs and staff,” he said.
