Panday renews battle with Speaker

OPPOSITION LEADER Basdeo Panday yesterday declared that House Speaker Barry Sinanan would not be allowed to treat UNC MPs “like a bunch of schoolchildren,” or protect the Government from the harsh spotlight of public scrutiny. During last Friday’s sitting of the House of Representatives, Sinanan ruled that Oropouche MP Dr Roodal Moonilal’s attempt to have Parliament debate recent flooding in different parts of the country did not qualify as a matter of urgent public importance. Couva South MP Kelvin Ramnath questioned that ruling and the Speaker asked him to leave the Chamber.

A mini-walkout ensued with UNC MPs Moonilal, Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Manohar Ramsaran following Ramnath. Panday was not in the Chamber at the time of the incident. Panday said he has requested a copy of the Hansard so he could ascertain what transpired in Parliament prior to his arrival. However, Panday said his preliminary diagnosis of the matter suggests that Sinanan views himself as some kind of schoolmaster who saw the Opposition MPs as deviant pupils. The UNC leader said he believed Sinanan was still trying to protect the PNM whenever the Opposition raises questions about their performance as a government.

Panday reminded Sinanan that UNC MPs were elected to Parliament, had a duty to serve their constituents and would raise matters in Parliament which were pertinent both to their constituents and the population as a whole. A statement from the Office of the Speaker indicated that definite matters of urgent public importance are “very grave, affects the whole country, its safety and its interests.” Most noteworthy is the rule that the matter must be urgent. “Whether a matter is urgent or not, the Speaker is guided not by the ordinary meaning of the term but by the technical use of the term made in the rule. For a matter to be urgent, it must have arisen suddenly in the nature of an emergency,” the statement continued.

From 1995 to 2001, the breakdown of the Tobago ferry qualified for parliamentary attention under this rule. No such matter was accepted by the Speaker from 2001 to 2002. In January 2003, Sinanan ruled that the crisis in the nation’s health sector qualified as a definite matter of urgent public importance and it was debated by Parliament. In September 2003, Sinanan ruled that the high incidence of infant deaths at Mt Hope Maternity Hospital due to an outbreak of enterobacter bacteria be debated by Parliament as a definite matter of urgent public importance. Panday said he was not going to remain silent on the issue.