“We are prepared to wait until hell freezes over,” House Speaker Raphael Trotman declared, after Local Government Minister Ganga Persaud yesterday remained silent when asked to take the reins on the four local government bills brought back to the National Assembly.
But government members refused several calls to address the bills, following a move by the opposition to give them priority at yesterday’s sitting, ahead of other matters, including the Hydro-Electric (Amendment) Bill and the motion to raise the cap on the country’s debt ceiling, which the administration says is crucial to secure financing for the Amaila Falls Hydro-electric Project.
As a result, after a recess Trotman announced that the bills would be dropped, as stipulated by Erskine May: Parliamentary Practice. Erskine May, on this matter, reads: “If, when the order of the day is read at the table, no motion is made for the second reading or other stage of a bill, and no proposal is made for its postponement, it becomes a dropped order, and does not appear again upon the notice paper, unless another day is subsequently appointed for its consideration.
PPP/C MP Gail Teixeira afterward announced that the government will debate the bills during a parliamentary sitting today.
The Local Government Commission Bill, the Local Government (Amendment) Bill, the Municipal and District Councils (Amendment) Bill and the Fiscal Transfers Bill were scrutinised over the past few months by the Select Committee on Local Government, which was chaired by APNU MP Basil Williams.
With the committee having completed the consideration of the bills, and having agreed on the reports drafted on the committee proceedings on the bills, Williams yesterday introduced the reports to the Assembly, effectively placing them back into the hands of the subject minister, Persaud.
Williams successfully applied for the suspension of the Standing Orders, effectively reordering the matters on the order papers. This move did not sit well with the government side and Teixeira wasted no time in making their dissatisfaction known. Almost immediately after Williams’ motion was announced, Teixeira blasted Williams’ request and described the move as a “dangerous matter.”
The government ought not to be told how its business should be conducted, she said, while also saying that the move violates the government’s right to bring its business in the order it so chooses. She added that the government regarded the bill and the motion for the Amaila Falls project as the “crucial” matters at yesterday’s sitting and lamented the opposition’s attempts to “hack” the government’s business.
These arguments, however, did little to convince the Speaker, who ultimately decided that as much as the move was “unpalatable,” it was allowable according to the Standing Orders.
Teixeira, however, said that there are several aspects of the Standing Orders, which give the government the right to order its business the way it sees fit, and gives the opposition that same right. As such, she said, there should be no procedure which gives the opposition the ability to change what was set by government.
With the government adamant that it would not be “bullied,” Persaud opted to remain silent when asked to proceed with the bills. After Persaud refused to speak, the Speaker then asked Prime Minister Samuel Hinds what his party’s position on the matter was, but the Prime Minister also indicated that he too intended to stay silent.
Later justifying his actions, Persaud told Stabroek News that the opposition was being reckless. “I was prepared to go ahead with the second reading of all four bills.
This is evident since they are all on the order paper,” Persaud said, while adding that the attempt by APNU to “manipulate” the government’s business was unacceptable, and prompted him to remain silent.
Persaud also said that “if they were going to use this power, they should have realised that there will be implications and repercussions.”
Williams, however, told this newspaper that the move reflected government’s unwillingness to release their stranglehold on the local government sector.
“If we are agreed and even the president says he wants local government elections and local government reform—everyone is agreed and were saying the same thing.
What is the problem? The break is coming. We only have about two other sessions until recess and these items are the last on the order paper. When would we have dealt with them?” Williams asked.
The bills, Persaud said, would have been read for the second time in due course at yesterday’s sitting and he added that if the opposition was serious about having local government elections this year, they would not have interfered with the order in which the matters were brought.
“If you serious about local government elections, stop throwing [a] spanner into the pathway of progress,” was Persaud’s caution to the opposition.
AFC leader Khemraj Ramjattan explained that the move by the opposition was aimed at testing the government’s commitment to having the local government bills passed. “…What we wanted to do was to ensure that we brought up these four bills first before we go on to the Amaila Falls motion and bill. The government wants our support for the Amaila Falls Project but we wanted this afternoon to leverage the four local government bills,” Ramjattan said. “Had we gone ahead supporting the Amaila Falls two items, we had suspected that the government was not going to support the four local bills in relation to local government and so that is why we wanted to see how they’re approaching it.”
The government’s true intentions, he said, were revealed by its members’ silence and he promised that the AFC would reciprocate by not supporting the bill and motion concerning the Amaila Falls Project.
