I SPENT four days in the Parliament watching and listening to the debates and hearing the questions and answers on the estimates.

This is why I was surprised when I read an editorial last Sunday in which the writer singled out two Government MPs for making remarks on or off the floor.

In my days there, I heard MP Volda Lawrence singing very loudly when Bishop Edghill was speaking. She was singing about the devil and Satan which, I think, was a personal attack on the Bishop.

I heard Cathy Hughes shouting personal comments to Cde Seeraj when Cde Seeraj was on the floor. In fact Cathy Hughes heckled throughout Cde. Seeraj’s presentation.

I heard Moses Nagamootoo sounding obsessed with somebody named “Bobby”, making all sorts of nasty remarks about this ‘Bobby’ person. He did not hesitate, too, to constantly say things of a personal nature to Government members who were speaking.
This was the same MP who last year declared that he tells his grandchildren “shut yuh so and so”.

I heard Khemraj Ramjattan telling a speaking MP that the MP is “deh undressing a girl”.

I heard Mr. Winston Felix constantly shouting across the aisle at various members who were speaking.

MP Bulkhan can often be heard hurling insults at Government speakers or members and Amna Ally, Chief Whip for the Opposition is also very active in her heckling.

It is true too, that the Government MPs also heckle.

Anyone sitting in Parliament could hear the comments I wrote about in this letter, so I was surprised when the editorial singled out the Government members for their remarks and called them vulgar, but did not say anything about Opposition remarks and heckling.

If heckling and commenting is vulgar, then all of the parliamentarians are vulgar.  And if one can be banned for heckling, then we will have no Parliament as a fair speaker would have to ban all of them.

GOVIND SINGH
Deputy Regional Executive Officer,
Region 5