EARLIER this week, Speaker of the National Assembly and Parliament Office engaged the media on various parliamentary issues and aspects of reporting. This engagement provided a wealth of knowledge, which if applied can improve the media’s role in covering issues and facilitating nation-building. Ours must be the discernment and appreciation that ignorance hinders growth and development and therefore is not an option.Parliament is the nation’s highest decision-making forum. It is the most representative, given that it receives the input of elected representatives from various political parties and across the 10 administrative regions, in shaping the country’s future. The Legislature oversees the Executive and passes bills which then become laws, giving meaning to the Judicature’s existence. Arguably, this is a very influential and powerful branch of government.
It is important that Members of Parliament (MPs) know their roles, functions and responsibilities in the institution where they deliberate and make decisions. It has been advised that the Standing Orders, which are the rules governing the conduct of the House and made by the MPs, though some are au fait with them, others do not know them, neither are they seeking to learn about them. This is a serious issue, deserving of attention as a matter of importance, given the role of this august house in the nation’s welfare.
The Standing Orders are probably the most important tool in conducting parliamentary business. They help the delivery of representation with the understanding of their spirit and intent and how they are to be applied. While such ignorance is not unique to Guyana’s legislature, our MPs must aspire to be among those where intellectual curiosity and respect for responsibility require placing high premium on being knowledgeable about the rules guiding their conduct. Parliamentarians, newcomers or veterans, unaware of the rules are more likely to compromise the quality of work in the House, including its explanation to the public, and the representation the people expect from them. This observation ought not to be seen as condemnation deserving of retaliation, but that of concern and constructive criticism from the people, deserving of attention and corrective action.
The financial constraints being experienced by Parliament Office that caused training on the Standing Orders to be placed on the back-burner should attract the attention of the Minister of Finance, himself a parliamentarian. In the meantime, the political parties can step in and fill the gap. Ignorance must not be an option. Both sides of the House have persons, current and retired MPs, with institutional memory who at the party level can conduct training sessions. This training hopefully will facilitate critical feedback and mock debates. This will help MPs honing and sharpening their knowledge and skills to attend to their functions with the seriousness they deserve.
Debates and representations of yore, though they exemplified oratorical brilliance and nimbleness of the issues and Orders, and where such qualities are not pervasive today, it helps if efforts can be made to aspire to reinvigorate the parliament, including acquiring the ability of speaking to a presentation instead of reading.
Another limitation among our MPs is knowledge of the Guyana Constitution. Addressing this may require in addition to in-house party training, personal investment of time to read and acquaint oneself with this supreme instrument. Knowledge of the constitution is a prerequisite in aiding understanding of the construction of bills that ought to flow therefrom; the roles, functions and responsibilities of the Executive and Judicature in the governance and management of the country, and how the citizens must be treated.
It is not lost on us that the knowledge deficiency in the parliament is a microcosm of the national problem. This slippage in society has to halt as a matter of urgency. It would help if the nation’s highest decision-making forum can provide the needed fillip in setting the standard of what is required and will be accepted in organisation, public and private. Ignorance is not an option. Knowledge is power. The pursuit and acquisition of knowledge makes it better to serve the people and further the growth and development of the nation, and this goes for us in the media too. In the instance of our parliamentarians, it would elevate public discourse on governance and improve decision-making.