…say no agreement reached on request to hold sugar forum

GOVERNMENT Members of the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Economic Services have taken umbrage at attempts by the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) members of the committee to hijack the body, and slammed the Party for making a public statement expressing their disagreement with the Speaker’s disapproval to their request to hold public forums in various regions on the future of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).
The request was not supported by any of the government MPs and the PPP members usurped the role of the Chairman and went ahead and made a request to the Speaker, Dr Barton Scotland. However, on Monday the PPP issued a statement, purported to be speaking on behalf of the committee, which said among other things, that the non-approval constitutes “another attack on Parliamentary democracy by the Speaker.”
“Further, we view the rejection of this request as nothing short of an abuse of power and an undue interference with, and restriction of, the democratic right of Parliamentarians to properly represent their constituents and the reciprocal constitutional rights of these constituents to receive information from and exchange views with their elected representatives,” the Parliamentary Opposition said.

Abuse of power
APNU+AFC Members of the ESC have however accused the PPP members of abusing power when they took it upon themselves to take advantage of the absence of most of the APNU+AFC members from the meeting which gave them a majority to forward the request without the approval of the Chairman of the ESC, Junior Minister of Finance, Jaipaul Sharma. Sharma had expressed his disapproval on the matter at the very meeting. Sharma along with MP Jennifer Wade were the only two present to represent the government’s side of the House while PPP members Bishop Juan Edghill, Komal Chand and Collin Croal where present. Absent from the government’s side were Ministers Noel Holder, Simona Broomes and Carl Greenidge.

Minister Broomes in an invited comment on Wednesday, told the Guyana Chronicle that in her view the PPP made a personal statement and should not suggest the committee’s stand without holding consultation with all of the members.
“They are in no position to speak on behalf of me because is not to say a statement would have been issued, or you would have been told, or an email or anything of the sort, so quite frankly they can’t speak for me,” she said. The junior Natural Resources Minister suggested to the PPP members to put out their personal standpoint and not to say what the Speaker has done against the entire committee.

Issue an apology
Broomes said that the PPP members of the ESC owe her an apology for putting out such a statement on behalf of a committee that she is a part of.
“You must respect the decision made by the Speaker, the kind of disrespect meted out to the Speaker, I am not a part of it; that is a personal position and the persons who issue the statement as a committee’s position owe me an apology as a member of that committee, they should apologise, you can’t incorporate me into something I have no knowledge about. As a woman I feel disrespected.”

Could not see the light of day
Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder, who is also a member of the ESC, echoed similar sentiments to Broomes since he was out of the country and could not have attended the meeting. He said that the PPP took advantage of the situation. He said that he is not in disagreement with any sub-committee holding public forums but the PPP has another agenda.
“What they are trying to do is to hold meetings and the Speaker is saying that is not what Parliamentary sub-committees are all about. Where are they going with this?” Holder asked. He said if he was present, such a request “could not have seen the light of day” so this kind of situation would not have occurred. He said that the members who were there should have walked out realising the numbers were uneven.

Meanwhile, Parliamentarian Jennifer Wade who was present , however said that herself and Minister Sharma were not in agreement with the request made by the PPP and were taken aback at the efforts to push ahead with the request despite limited numbers present.
“We wanted to know what the hurry was about so we said we cannot support that,” Wade revealed. She said that the PPP’s statement is nothing more than them working in their personal interest which she is not surprised of. “If we are a committee, let us work in the best interest of the people and in the committee’s interest,” Wade said.
The PPP members made a request for the Speaker’s permission to hold public forums in Regions 3, 4, 5 and 6 and after being informed of the Speaker’s disapproval, the PPP said in a statement that it was the ‘Committee’s’ intention to meet with various stakeholders between June 7 and 21, to discuss with them and hear their views on the sugar industry before preparing a report for submission to the National Assembly.

Wild cat campaign
Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, who is also leader of the Government’s business in the National Assembly, described the statement by the PPP as a “wild-cat campaign to stir disquiet and disaffection on all fronts.” The Prime Minister told the Guyana Chronicle that sections of the PPP are resorting to “racist advocacy and, on social media, they elicit responses ranging from civil disobedience to partition in a contrived campaign to sow discord and division.”
He said the party has been trying to hijack the committee to foster its propaganda about the coalition government’s handling of the sugar industry. He said that the Speaker is the image of Guyana’s independent Parliament and as Leader of Government Business in the House, he is committed to the Speaker’s decisions to protect the efficacy of the Parliamentary democracy.
Government had held extensive public consultations with key stakeholders on the future of GuySuCo in which the PPP participated. However, that party had failed to submit its proposals to the Government for a decision to be made on the future of the GuySuCo and the sugar industry, even though Government had sought to engage them and other stakeholders, with consultations since late last year.
One of the stakeholder organisations that were engaged in the process- the Guyana Agricultural and Workers’ Union (GAWU) – had submitted its proposal document which was adopted by the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE). Irfaan Ali, who led the Opposition side during the consultations, had said that the party was not prepared to make its recommendations until the Government had presented a socio-economic study and an economic feasibility study.