Dear Editor,
At the beginning of every Sitting of the National Assembly, the beneficence of the Almighty is invoked by Prayer to deliver wisdom to Parliamentarians in their deliberations. The Prayer does not contain a request to ensure the loyalty of members or for predictions as to whether that loyalty will be sustained. I don’t have a line to the Almighty, but I doubt that he/she will, even if asked, convey a prevision to the Government that a member plans to defect to the Opposition and vote against the Appropriation Bill.
If the Government has no foreknowledge, then once the vote is taken, the deed is done. The Government cannot “instantly recall and replace” the member during the vote or after the vote is taken as Mr. Rickford Burke, in his letter published yesterday, suggests. It will be too late. If the Government has foreknowledge before the debate, it can cause the removal and replacement of the member. This process will take several weeks.
If I am “subversive” and “ridiculously dishonest,” as Mr. Rickford hyperbolically suggests, then so must be Vice President Carl Greenidge. Only a few days before my views were published by SN, VP Greenidge said much the same thing which was published in another newspaper. He thought that if the Opposition had the votes, they didn’t have to wait on a no confidence motion. He said they could vote against the Appropriation Bill and bring down the Government.
Yours faithfully,
Ralph Ramkarran
