Copyright guyanatimesgy
Now that the fight to be President of our fair land is over – PPP’s Irfaan Ali won that hands down and earned a repeat performance!! – seems the next battle for power in our political system is to become the Leader of the Opposition – LOO!! The last election upended the old order that evolved since the fifties where the PPP and PNC – born from the same womb!! – alternated those positions. The new kid on the block – Sanction Man – who outbid the PNC (literally, according to PNC leader Norton, who said he saw money “pass hands”) ended up with the largest bloc of seats in the Opposition camp and (not unreasonably) felt he’d be the new LOO. But this is politics, innit?? And while there’s all sorta rules of etiquette we inherited from the Brits – like taking a break for “tea” during parliamentary sittings – it certainly ain’t no “tea party”!! Sanction Man – and his sisters who are his handlers! – don’t seem to appreciate this. First, they kept bitching about the National Assembly not being convened fast enough so he could be “sworn in” as LOO!! Didn’t they brush up on the rules of the game? Firstly, the Constitution gives the President – here Irfaan Ali who Sanction Man had cussed out “good and proppa”! – THREE months after the elections to convene Parliament?? Why should Prezzie hurry? The second area where Sanction Man and handlers simply hadn’t a clue was this “swearing in” of the LOO! They clearly felt that all Sanction Man had to do was show up where Parliament now meets at the Convention Centre – in his (tax-evaded) Rolls they simpered!! – and he’d be “sworn in”!! Well, hopefully, they’ve now realised that in parliamentary affairs there are rules that play out in the glare of public scrutiny – unlike, say, shipping gold out of the country!! And the rule here is the LOO gotta be ELECTED at a sitting of the National Assembly by a caucus of all Opposition MPs – under the direction of the Speaker. So, this means there first gotta be a Speaker and MPs!! And for this to happen the Clerk of the National Assembly – according to Standing Order 6.5 – must prepare an “Order Paper” that specifies the business for each sitting!! And traditionally, the first order of business that would be spelled out are motions to first elect a speaker – who’d then swear in the MPs indicated by their respective parties!! So, Sanction Man discovered only the day before the first sitting yesterday that election of the Opposition leader wasn’t on the Order Paper!! Your Eyewitness expects him to now throw another tantrum and a hissy fit!! He still hasn’t realised in Guyana hardball politics is played!! …by the rules While we’re on the subject of Parliament and its rules, Sanction Man would’ve discovered he and his newly-sworn-in MPs were given a book on “Parliamentary Rules”!! He better memorise them fast!! Daddy Sanction Man had boasted about his memorisation feats – albeit on vehicles’ number plates!! What are some pertinent rules?? Well, firstly, he can’t read his speeches – he gotta speak extemporaneously… “from his head”!! Your Eyewitness suggests that his sisters write them out for him – one of them writes very well – and he memorises then, regurgitates them from the floor! He should make sure to learn to pronounce the big words his sister fancies! If he stumbles over them – as he did several times on the campaign trail when he went beyond “I will get back you shortly”!! – that’ll be a giveaway!! Another point of etiquette is MPs gotta refer to fellow MPs as “Honourable”. But here the problem gonna be whether others will call him that after what he did to the GRA’s coffers!! Sanction Man’s Scrapes are making a big “to do” about who assigned Judge…er…Magistrate Judy to his arraignment hearing for extradition to the US. Hasn’t their (PNC) lawyers told them that constitutionally, that’s the job of the Chancellor??
