It was on the Order Paper for debate, and passage, on November 10, 2014. But the minority PPP government, out of fear of those 10 tiny words, shut down Parliament by a Presidential Proclamation, styled “Prorogation”.
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| Moses Nagamootoo |
Even present “comrade” like Joey Jagan and former leader, Ralph Ramkarran and colleague Henry Jeffrey, have come out against the prorogation, and have joined the call for Parliament to be re-convened.
The PPP, which under Ramotar lost its majority in the National Assembly in 2011, has now found itself almost totally isolated on this issue. The major Western partners have warned that Guyana is stepping out of the folds of democratic states. Caribbean press concluded that whilst the PPP government was elected, it has now lost legitimacy. This is not a good place in which a minority government should find itself.
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| Stabroek Market-Georgetown, Guyana |
President Ramotar is buckling. He knows that he could lose two years of his term, in much the same way that Mrs. Janet Jagan lost hers, and was forced by pressure politics in 1999 to hand the country over to her worse nightmare – Jagdeo.
He has indicated that he would limit the prorogation period and, also, he has summoned the Opposition Leader to talks. But all too late, as no decent Opposition would talk whilst their Parliament is shut down, or under political duress. The combined opposition has said: “no parliament; no talks”. They would raise the tempo: “No Parliament; No Government”.
10 COMMANDMENTS
It is now timely to explain why those historic 10 words have been used as a commandment for the government to go.
Basically, it captured and reproduced one of the Ten Commandments: “Thou shall not steal”.
That was the immediate, underlining reason, for the no confidence motion which I first floated during July 2014 on my Facebook page as a rhetorical question. People responded that it was a good idea.
At that time, we were confronted with a situation in which the Government spent $4.5 billion without the approval, in defiance of the opposition of the National Assembly, and in violation of Articles 217 to 220 of the Guyana Constitution, which prohibit unauthorized and illegal spending of public monies.
The minority PPP Government had thrown down the gauntlet. It would not obey the National Assembly, nor be accountable to the House. It was declared that the PPP would disobey the Guyana Constitution that commands government to spend the people’s money only with parliamentary consent. Parliament is the keeper of the people’s purse.
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The AFC lodged a complaint with the Commissioner of Police that the Minister of Finance has violated the law, and that he has committed an unlawful act for which he ought to be prosecuted. Up to this time, no charges have been laid against the Finance Minister.
A Partnership for National Unity by motion sent the Finance Minister before the Privileges Committee of Parliament for him to show cause why he should not lose his seat or be prosecuted. But, predictably, the PPP circled the wagons.
It considered as an Untouchable the Finance Minister, just in the same way that it cuddled the Home Affairs Minister when three peaceful, unarmed, protesters were shot and killed in Linden and, more recently, vouched for the integrity of the cuss-bird, Chatree Attorney General, when he intimated that an independent, non-government newspaper would be attacked and innocent persons would be harmed.
The prorogation shut down the tribunal, and the Minister remains at large, a free man. Unlike Watergate, when sanctions were finally imposed, All the President’s Men are out there – handing out state vouchers to needy parents, spewing silly excuses for the President’s uncouth behavior, and unleashing feral blasts against the opposition on state media, in what must be a pre-election jaunt.
CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION
The Guyana Constitution provides protection for the people against a rogue government that would violate the law and the Constitution itself with impunity. Article 106 (6) states:
“The Cabinet including the President shall resign if the Government is defeated by the vote of a majority of all the elected members of the National Assembly on a vote of confidence.”
New general elections should then be held within three months.
But President Ramotar made a pre-emptive strike. He shut down the Parliament on the day he re-convened it. He ran from the No Confidence Motion. I was to use cricket parlance on that day when I said that the no confidence motion was like a bouncer. And Donald Ducked. It was my nephew, Mahendra Nagamootoo, a former national and West Indies bowler, who gave Ramotar’s action that spin.
OTHER MAJOR VIOLATIONS
But illegal spending was just the immediate cause. There must be 101 other reasons, many for constitutional violations, why this government must go. ·
o Denial of Local Government elections last held in 1994;
• Refusal by the President to assent to opposition Bills;
• Failure to set up Public Procurement Commission to check corruption;
• Non-appointment of a Chairperson for the Integrity Commission to probe funds of public officials;
• Diversion of billions in public funds to NICIL and retention/spending of same without parliamentary approval or scrutiny;
• Giveaway of television and radio spectrum to cronies of the regime;
• Misuse of state resources and media for partisan, PPP party propaganda purposes;
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• Use of confidential tax information to blackmail critics and to terrorise dissidents;• Complicity in plot to discredit and destroy the character of the Speaker of the National Assembly.
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Guyanese would add to this “Crime List” the lack of protection from widespread crime, joblessness, and despair leading to drugs abuse, suicide and migration.
The PPP can no longer use prorogation as a fig leaf to cover its incompetence and misrule.
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