ATTORNEY General and Minister of Legal Affairs has expressed concern over the Parliamentary Opposition’s consistent moves towards the denial of rights to Guyanese, using their controlling parliamentary majority.

In a special interview aired on the National Communications Network, Minister Nandlall and PPP/C Member of Parliament Manzoor Nadir addressed the issue of the Former Presidents’ (Benefits and Other Facilities) Bill 2012, which was passed last week by the Opposition in the National Assembly.
Minister Nandlall stated that the most fundamental thing to be noted is “when you examine all they have done in the Parliament, manifested either by a Motion or Bill, there is a common theme that runs throughout. An assault on democracy, they deny rights and they violate the constitution.”
Pointing to the gag on Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee being a denial of a right to speak, he also noted the denial of vested right to property regarding former presidents. He observed that a former president is not an ordinary person, “and here you have people not in government, but in opposition, seeking to take away legal rights and entitlements of seemingly powerfully placed personnel.”
“When they were in power, you saw the same manifestation; you saw the rigging of elections; compulsory acquisition of people’s property wrongfully without compensation; denial of people’s right to express themselves; refusal to allow newspapers to print and a whole regime of denial of rights. Now in opposition, with a controlling vote in parliament, you can see the same theme running through their actions,” the Attorney General declared.
He reiterated that the Former Presidents’ (Benefits and Other Facilities) Bill 2012 was designed specifically to target former President Bharat Jagdeo and reeks of a vindictive intention to play politics with matters of great importance. He noticed that historically, the issue goes back to pensions in Guyana.
Minister Nandlall observed that in 2002, the National Assembly fixed pensions for all constitutional office holders at seven-eighths of their last held salary. Those office holders include the President, Chancellor of the Judiciary, Chief Justice, Judges of the High Court, Members of Parliament, Government Ministers, Speaker of the National Assembly, Director of Public Prosecution, Commissioner of Police and  Auditor General, among others.
The AG noted that the first significant point in the issue, since no commentator highlighted it was that other constitutional office holders enjoy the same rate of pension as the president, hence the heightened attack on the former president.
He emphasised that when the original Bill was passed into law in 2009, there were two other Bills which were approved simultaneously, addressing benefits for the Leader of the Opposition and Former First Ladies. The bills were intended to put into law and to codify a common regime of benefits which were always enjoyed by these persons since Independence.
AG Nandlall pointed out that the Leader of the Opposition Benefits Bill is also uncapped, the justification used in the move against the Former Presidents’ Bill. He stated that if the issue was not focused on targeting former President Jagdeo, then this Bill should also have been addressed, and it wasn’t.
MP and former Labour Minister Manzoor Nadir said that he was appalled at the move towards depriving a worker of his rights, which a former President is, when laws clearly state it cannot be done. He also questioned the declaration by the Opposition during their election campaign that they would cut and reduce the pension of Former President Jagdeo, which is protected by the Constitution.
This view was endorsed by Minister Nandlall who explained that it was also against the Constitution to apply a law retroactively to any of the benefits of any of the past presidents of Guyana, as well as the serving one.
He observed that the Opposition now need to explain to their constituency that they failed to deliver on their promise and to also explain why this was so.
Nandlall highlighted one section of the Bill which distinguishes between natural children and children who are adopted or born out of wedlock. This, he noted, was against the laws of Guyana which have been instituted to protect such children; and the Bill seeks to discriminate between them since, it was noted that at least one former President did have an adopted child.
He emphasised that a series of legislation has been approved to protect children’s rights and they all appear to have been thrown out of the window, since no move has been made to amend it in the former Presidents’ Bill. This, in spite of the fact that the point raised was acknowledged by Deputy Leader of APNU Rupert Roopnarine in the National Assembly. The AG emphasised that the laws of Guyana have removed any and all discrimination against all children in Guyana, regardless of their origin into a family.
MP Nadir observed that with the move towards gaining political points, all principles were thrown out of the window and disregarded. He highlighted the point that the Bill was not even structurally correct and contained fundamental flaws, a fact that clearly shows that not all members of the Opposition benches were involved in its crafting, despite the fact that there are several seasoned lawyers on that side.
Acknowledging that capping the Presidents’ Bill is not an unreasonable request, the AG stated that it must be done in a proper way. It was ridiculing to the Office of the President, he observed, to allocate S5, 000 for a former president. “It is an assault on his dignity. He has to live in a certain standard”. Further, he is entitled to a reasonable amount of security, the AG said.
Should President Donald Ramotar not sign the Bill into law, he will send it back to the National Assembly with the reasons for his non-assent, Nandlall said. “Then the Speaker can put it back to the Parliament. If it then receives two thirds support from the Parliament, then the President must assent.”
Nadir questioned why the Opposition would not want to sit in a parliamentary committee to work out what the benefits of a former president are and to ensure consensus. He suggested that the Opposition was trying to build a case of no confidence in the government.
Nadir explained that the first move in this direction was the Minister Rohee issue and the no confidence motion followed by the gag order, then the Former Presidents’ Bill. “And another no confidence motion to come against another minister. These, in the event they feel they could bring a no confidence move against the Government.”
AG Nandlall noted that “we have these exercises being embarked upon by the Opposition in parliament, and the very Opposition speaks about prudent spending of money and not wasting taxpayers’ money. Every time one of these initiatives is embarked upon, it costs the taxpayers $1.7M each time the Parliament sits in their exercise in futility.”
Secondly, he explained, “we have an entire year of Opposition domination of the National Assembly, with not a single imitative emanating from the opposition which redounds to the benefit of a single Guyanese person. Not a single Guyanese can point to something tangible to enable them to say, ‘I got this as a result of the Opposition in parliament.’ ”
He questioned, “If in Opposition, they are denying former Presidents benefits and rights, they are denying sitting Ministers rights, if they are to hold government tomorrow, what will they do to the ordinary Guyanese people? That is the most worrying thing.”