THE parliamentary Opposition on Friday boycotted the “Afternoon of Reflection and Celebration of Guyana’s 50th Independence Anniversary” contending that the programme lacked inclusivity.The Opposition’s position was conveyed to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr Barton Scotland and Clerk Sherlock Isaacs by Opposition Chief Whip Gail Teixeira.

“Whilst we originally assumed that this was a Parliament of Guyana activity, we realised that the Parliamentary Management Committee had not been involved in the planning of the activity. On further inquiry, we were informed by the Clerk that this was your activity as Speaker.

“Regrettably, the opportunity provided by a parliamentary activity on our 50th Independence Anniversary to reach out and be inclusive and achieve some modicum of bipartisan consensus between the two sides of the Legislature appears to have been ignored,” Teixeira said in her letter.

She added that the 50th birthday as a nation calls for forward-thinking and a vision of the future in order to anchor the next generation(s) with “a pride of place” in Guyana and inclusion is key and critical.

“Therefore, we find what appears to be an inexplicable restriction on the recognition of parliamentarians to the First and Second Parliaments alone. In our opinion, the 50 years of our independence includes all parliamentarians who have served and continue to serve Guyana over these five decades and 11 Parliaments.

“Therefore, the opportunity to be more inclusive and to reflect the diversity in our Legislature and of our nation — gender, youth, age, ethnicity — appears to have also been lost,” the Opposition Chief Whip said.

Two parliamentarians, Oscar Clarke and Llewellyn John, who were listed to speak were from the same parliamentary political party, Teixeira also pointed out.

“We have noted that no Member of Parliament for the PPP who served in the First and Second Parliaments has been included on the programme. Nor are we aware of what attempts have been made to contact the six (6) surviving members. It may have been wise, in retrospect, to have sought the assistance of the People’s Progressive Party on this matter.

“One of these parliamentarians, in particular, must be specifically identified due to the glaring lack of any female MP on the programme, and, that is Mrs Philomena Sahoye-Shury (a member of the 2nd Parliament) who also served as a parliamentarian as recently as in the 9th Parliament,” Teixeira said.

She contended that the lack of inclusivity of younger MPs, female MPs and ethnically diverse MPs reflective of “who we are as a nation”, in the programme, “is a sad reflection of where we are as a nation at 50 years old.”