The deliberations and the efficient and effective functioning of any parliament in a democracy is very crucial to the developmental process and therefore those who  constitute that body have to execute their duties and responsibilities with the highest degree of commitment  and sincerity. That is, both the members of parliament and the staff of this august body.
It is within the walls of parliaments that policies, programmes and laws are determined or amended, and therefore the business there is a very serious one which could have ever lasting impact on a nation.
In Guyana, our parliamentary system is relatively young and is still evolving and going through changes. However, that evolutionary process was stifled greatly as a result of that long and dark period in our history during which democracy was thrown out of the window and replaced by a dictatorship through continuously rigged and fraudulent elections.
Between 1968 and 1991, we had four rigged elections apart from a bogus referendum which sought to amend the constitution to pave the way for an executive president.
It was during this period that our parliament became almost useless, because the government of the day would have already made its decisions on various issues and then took it to the House for a mere “rubber stamping.” Motions and questions submitted by the then political opposition hardly ever saw the light of  day and gathered dust on the parliamentary shelves.
This was indeed a most sad and unfortunate period of our history, particularly when one considers that it happened in our early post-independence period and after an epic struggle, led by Dr Cheddi Jagan and the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), to liberate our country from the yoke of colonialism. One would have taught that the post-independence period would have been characterised by a consolidation, strengthening and deepening of our democracy and parliamentary system. But that was not to be, because of power-hungry political leaders who sacrificed the future of our country to satisfy their selfish and egoistic agendas.
Fortunately, after a long and hard struggle, democracy was restored in October 1992 and our parliament was transformed into a more deliberative body through a number of changes to its operations, particularly during the tenure of Mr. Ralph Ramkarran as Speaker of the National Assembly. The current Speaker Mr. Raphael Trotman seems to have the intention of continuing on the path of improving the functioning of parliament initiated by Mr. Ramkarran.
Of course, bringing the operations of  parliament to the desired level has a far way to go, but undoubtedly significant strides have been made in recent years in this regard.
We have now reached a stage where we have new dispensation whereby for the first time we have a minority government with the combined opposition holding a slim one-seat majority which now poses new challenges and approaches with respect to parliamentary deliberations. In addition, we have many new and young parliamentarians and therefore newcomers to the workings of parliament
In such a situation a lot of training would be required to enhance the capacities of the new parliamentarians so that they could execute their functions and tasks effectively. This in turn would ensure that parliamentary proceedings would take place in an atmosphere characterised by the desired decorum, zeal and commitment thereby making the body a truly deliberative one.
In this regard, the current training programme for parliamentarians is a step in the right direction and it would be hoped that such training programmes would be  continuous exercises.