So the President has made good his threat to prorogue Parliament! He suspended the proceedings of the House for an unspecified period, although constitutionally a prorogation cannot exceed six months. The President cited as the reason for this unprecedented action his belief that “the Parliamentary Opposition intends to disrupt Government’s business by forcing a debate on their No Confidence Motion”. He expressed the hope that this action would allow for possible accommodations by both sides of the House to replace an atmosphere of confrontation that might have been precipitated by a debate of the motion.
The President’s action brought to the fore once more the excessive powers vested in the presidency by our flawed constitutional arrangement dating back to 1980. Even the architect, former President Forbes Burnham, did not find it necessary to use this provision even in his darkest hour, a provision that would have enabled him to remain in power in the midst of a rebellion of even the staunchest of his supporters. Former President Desmond Hoyte also never entertained the thought of proroguing Parliament when faced with three of his greatest challenges in the pre-1992 period: fighting off his Deputy for control of his party; implementation of the Economic Recovery Programme; and local and international pressure to free up the electoral process.
Instead of rising above the political fray and displaying genuine statesmanship, our current President has allowed himself to become an interested party in the various disagreements among the
