–Minister Teixeira says of Opposition MPs’ efforts to ‘stymie development’

MINISTER of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira, has condemned the conduct of A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) who caused “massive disarray” during Wednesday’s sitting of the National Assembly.

Describing the parliamentarians’ behaviour as “anti-patriotic and anti-national,” Minister Teixeira said the “treacherous” actions were a pre-planned and direct effort to stymie national development.

Not only did the Opposition MPs disrupt the sitting of the House, but there were also attempts to “snatch” the symbolic parliamentary mace.

Their efforts were intended to hinder passage of the Natural Resources Fund (NRF) Bill which essentially replaces the “inadequate” NRF Act which was hastily promulgated by the then coalition administration in 2019.

Soon after its passage, the 2019 legislation was heavily criticised by several stakeholders, including the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), one of Guyana’s leading financial partners, which described the Act as being one that “departs from good practices.”

Speaking during a press briefing at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre on Thursday, Minister Teixeira blasted the Opposition MPs for their protest action, which she described as baseless.

She said that since the bill was initially tabled on December 16, 2021, there has been no attempt by any Opposition MP to offer amendments to the proposed bill or to raise any specific issue that they intend to have addressed by the government.

“The intention last night to stop the Bill, in my mind, is anti-national, it is anti-patriotic, because what they tried to do is stop a Bill that could bring benefits to our people from people. It could open up and provide more money in the economy, in the financial system of the government to allow for improvement in the quality of life of our people in every corner of Guyana.

“We don’t have the money to do that ourselves, but this is our revenue that has been sitting there and we haven’t been able to touch it and this could do well for our country,” Minister Teixeira said.

PREMEDITATED
She said that the events that unfolded on Wednesday at the National Assembly were premeditated and pre-planned, noting that the Opposition MPs carried out strategic strikes to “cripple” the House.

“What happened on December 29, was pre-planned, organised, and orchestrated prior to the events of December 29. People came in with whistles. People came in with placards. People came in and knew where to go to the control room to disrupt the internet to disconnect the internet, the microphones as well for example… so we were totally disabled in the international community. There was no internet. The control room had been invaded and disconnected and disrupted. This was terrorist tactics,” Minister Teixeira said.

Speaking specifically on the significance of the mace, she highlighted that it is a symbol of the authority of the National Assembly and, as such, any attempt to remove it unceremoniously is an attempt to undermine and overthrow the authority of the National Assembly which is the country’s legislature.

DO YOUR HOMEWORK
Minister Teixeira told the Opposition MPs to “do your homework,” advising them to use their platform as parliamentarians to hold the government accountable and not to use it to disrespect the National Assembly.

She reminded them that Opposition could effect change by utilising scrutiny and research to identify any potential inadequacies that would affect the people of Guyana instead of making “unfounded and baseless” comments that cannot be substantiated by evidence.

“We were in opposition for five years. We kept the government’s feet on fire, not by this behaviour of going to steal maces and stuff, but by aggressive, active questions on corruption, exposures on scandals on the Demerara Harbour Bridge, on the Jubilee Park, on the scales, on and on and on.

“We did our homework and we used parliament effectively as an opposition should within the standing orders, within the constitution, within the laws,” Minister Teixeira posited.

She added: “And so what we have in parliament now is MPs who aren’t even reading the Bills. It was very clear in the debate on local content that MPs are speaking who had not read the bill… there is also a petition that went to parliament that they had not read the bill either.”

She advised the Members of Parliament that if they intend to criticise the bills brought by the government before the National Assembly, that they should “do it from some basis of fact or evidence.”