Montano’s motion flops in the Senate

The UNC yesterday found itself wiping egg from all over its face as its attempt to embarrass Senate President Linda Baboolal came to grief.

In fact, the motion of censure against Baboolal, which was filed by Senator Robin Montano virtually ricocheted, with the Opposition falling right into their own trap. The normally garrulous Montano did not show up to pilot his own motion. According to Leader of Opposition Business Wade Mark, he was sick. But it became clear that the UNC was neither anxious or ready to debate their own motion. Vice-President of the Senate Rawle Titus, as he noted Montano’s absence, pointed out that under the Standing Orders, someone else could proceed with the matter. Was the UNC  “ready to go”, he asked. Mark, who like Montano, is always primed for a debate,  couldn’t give a straight answer. “I would like to make a statement...to put a perspective... on the sequence of events...” he began.

The Vice-President wanted a clear answer.“Would you proceed?” Titus asked.  To which Mark repeated: “I have a statement to make sir! This is a democracy, and I am the Leader of Opposition Business and....” The President and Mark continued like this for some time. Then Mark made the bitter complaint. “At no point in time the mover of the motion requested or sought to have the motion moved from No 9 to No 1. We are not prepared to cede our right to consultation,” he said heatedly. They continued like this until Independent Senator Eastlyn McKenzie intervened. “I imagine that Senator Montano would have had his cup full and running over under the Presidency of Linda Baboolal and hence he could stand it no more and brought this motion. “I think it would have pleased the Honourable Senator to have it discussed as early as possible,” she said to loud desk-thumping from the Independent and Government benches. “If I were he, I would have been happy to have my motion debated and not sit here under a President in whom I have no confidence,” she said.

McKenzie explained that from her own reading, the practice all over the Commonwealth, was to have a motion of censure against a Presiding Officer dealt with as expeditiously as possible. To sustained supportive table-thumping, she said it could not be that the Opposition was asking the Parliament to allow the President to continue coming to the chamber with the motion like that on the Order Paper: “If I were the President, I would feel very uncomfortable to preside over people who have  no confidence in me. Let’s get over it. Either strike it off or somebody else move it.” Mark said “common courtesy” and “parliamentary etiquette” required that the mover of motion and the Opposition in general be consulted, prior to any attempt to bring the motion forward. “This debate would deal with sensitive matters which have far-reaching consequences and would require research.

Only yesterday the mover of the motion advised the Clerk of the Senate that he was not prepared to move forward because of “sensitive and potentially explosive information about the conduct of the President”. But Government Leader Lenny Saith rose to say that the innuendo from Mark that there was a “dangerous expose” to come about the President was an abuse of the Parliament. There was desk-thumping from his colleagues and the Independent Senators. Titus then told Mark that he had tried to be as tolerant as possible, but he had gone “into an avenue that was entirely unnecessary”. At this point, he again asked if Mark was ready. Mark said the UNC wasn’t ready, and Titus struck it off the Order Paper.

Newsday was told that it was the UNC which first asked Independent Senator Kenneth Ramchand to allow the motion to be brought forward and to be debated before his, in keeping with standard parliamentary practice. The motion, which had to be on the Order Paper for a minimum of 14 days in order to qualify for discussion, asked the Parliament to declare its lack of confidence in Baboolal.