Kicksin’ in Senate?

WHILE it is accepted that debates in Parliament are not tea parties and they should provide some leeway for the cut and thrust of the political arena, it is important not to allow them to degenerate into fish markets where members lose respect for time-honoured traditions, the tenets of proper debate, the inviolability of Standing Orders, the authority of the Chair and the dignity of the national forum itself. It is our view, in fact, that Parliament and its members have a general responsibility for setting standards and examples of good conduct for the rest of the country, particularly our young people, and when members of either house continually misbehave they may be contributing seriously to the growing indiscipline in the society.

Having said all that, however, we must accept the reality that Parliament is the central arena of our adversarial political system and will always be subject to the attacks of members seeking to gain some advantage against the other side, whether guided by the rules or not. An argument may also be made that it should be allowed to reflect the robustness of our culture. So while we cannot fault President of the Senate Dr Linda Baboolal for reading the riot act on Tuesday in order to deal with what she described as the growing "unruly and disrespectful" behaviour of Senators we should, at the same time, remind her of the essential confrontational nature of the national forum and that it would be foolhardy for her to expect gentlemanly behaviour from members at all times.

Issuing warnings may be useful, but it is her job to maintain order and deal with breaches as they arise. It may seem unfortunate that the President should have to resort to such strict warnings to rein in the conduct of Senators who, sitting in the "Upper House" with its more decorous, reflective and objective image, and not having any constituents to appease, should be less prone to indulge in the passions and aggression of the inter-party political battle.

In censuring unruly members, Dr Baboolal said: "I have seen members of this Honourable House shout across at each other, call each other names, ignore the rulings of the Chair, threaten the Chair, engage in loud cross-talk, waste the Parliament's time by participating in irrelevancy and repetition and show disregard for the Standing Orders of the Senate." The Senate President added: "I will he failing in my duty if I do not take the steps necessary to reverse this trend of behaviour in the House, which is slowly becoming unruly and disrespectful." Her warning appears to be a timely one which, we expect, will serve its intended purpose and be digested by at least one particular Opposition Senator who may be the chief offender in this regard — at a recent session, he packed up and walked out in a huff, loudly declaiming her ruling as "an abomination".

This clearly is unacceptable behaviour particularly since the Senator is experienced enough to know that the Standing Orders do not permit him to refer to matters transpiring in the other place and he should not be peeved when he is prevented from doing so. In our view, what the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House should be most concerned about is the maintenance of proper procedure in the Parliament by the rigidly impartial application of the rules. Experience has shown that the even-handedness of the Chair will always be challenged but, in the final analysis, the obvious independence and fairness of the Speaker and President, their equitable approach to administering the rules, is the best and only way of dealing with unruly members and ensuring the decorum and effectiveness of the nation's parliament.