ONCE again the unrelenting efforts of the anti-developmental, unpatriotic, disruptive and destructive Opposition cabal have been unsuccessful in another move to stymie the growth of Guyana’s economy and stymie development under the PPP/C Government with the extension of time for Guyana to become FATF compliant.           The Parliamentary bullyism continues unabated, and this escalated from the inception of the 10th Parliament, with the much-touted “new dispensation”. Government had reported, inter alia: “At the February 10th sitting, the members of the Standing Committee of Selection were nominated on the floor of the House by both Government and Opposition parties. The two Opposition parties, by motion, reduced the size of the Committee from 10 members with the Speaker as chair, to 9, with 4 for the government, and, 5 (4 APNU and 1 AFC) for the Opposition with the Speaker as the Chair. This was voted on and adopted by majority vote of one.
Since then, the accepted norms and practices of the Committee of Selection have been under attack and its function grossly compromised.
At the first meeting of the Committee of Selection chaired by the Speaker on February 24, 2012, the combined Opposition parties used their majority on the Committee to establish new rules on the composition of the parliamentary committees.
The Parliamentary Opposition ruled, based on what they called the “new dispensation in the National Assembly”, that the Opposition would have the majority of seats on all committees and the number of seats on each committee, unless otherwise specified, would be reduced from 10 to 9 seats. They proposed a formula of 4-4-1 and voted by majority for 9 seats on all committees with 4 for the PPP/C (with 49.3% of the electorate), 4 for the A.P.N.U. ( with 40% of the electorate) and 1 for the A.F.C.( 10.3 % of the electorate).
The Government had also made a proposal at the meeting for parity on the committees based on the new situation in the National Assembly of 5 seats for the government and 5 seats for the combined opposition, 4 for A.P.N.U. and 1 for A.F.C. The Government argued that its proposal was closer to the electoral results than the combined Opposition’s proposal. However, this was rejected. With that, by vote of a majority, the Government’s representation on all committees, which the Standing Orders provided for “no less than 6 no more than 10 members”, was now reduced to a minority.
In fact, the combined Opposition parties now have disproportional representation on the 9 member committees of 54 % which they neither individually (40% APNU with 26 seats and 10% AFC with 7 seats), nor collectively, attained at the polls, and the government has 40 % of the representation on the committees which is below its 49.2% of the polls.”
“On March 13, 2012, the Speaker proceeded to hold the first meeting of the appointed committees to elect the chairpersons which, other than those chaired by the Speaker, became controlled by the APNU, the major Opposition party.”
It is apparent to everyone that the farce being enacted at every session in Parliament is fully rehearsed at secretive extra-parliamentary sessions by the joint Opposition, then played out in the National Assembly, with the House becoming a parliamentary theatre; because almost all of their actions are in discord with the Constitution and/or standard parliamentary norms and conventions.
Unlike the dynamism that prevailed in parliamentary committees convened, and most especially chaired by the Government pre-elections of 2011, parliamentary committees of the current dispensation, even those chaired by the Speaker, are either not functioning, or doing so in a desultory, lackadaisical manner, which goes to prove that they only want the power, but not the responsibility and hard work that goes with it.
However, their tactics are backfiring and they are fast losing support – nationally and at international fora; and the reprieve from FATF underscores this.