PRESIDENTIAL Advisor on Governance, Ms. Gail Teixeira announced, yesterday, that the government has prepared a briefing on the subversion of parliamentary democracy by the Opposition and it is being distributed to various international organisations. Speaking in the absence of Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr. Roger Luncheon, at this weekly post-cabinet media briefing, she said the documentation was completed on November 28.
“The Government of Guyana decided that it would now go international; it would internationalise the present situation and the threats and risk to parliamentary democracy in our country,” she stated.
According to her, the document has been sent to a number of international organisations, to date, including the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and its branches in several countries, the Organisation of American States (OAS), the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and its member states, as well as various parliaments in the Region.
In addition, Teixeira said the brief has also been dispatched, through foreign missions, to countries with which Guyana has bilateral cooperation agreements, including India, in Africa and the Middle East.
“This internationalisation of what is going on in Guyana is now looking specifically at the threat to parliamentary democracy by the Opposition. This is an unusual position because, in most countries where there are complaints about the subversion of parliamentary democracy, it is usually governments that are accused,” she noted.
Teixeira said, though, that, in this case, it is the Government accusing the Opposition of a dictatorship which is undermining the norms, practices and conventions that are sacred in parliamentary democracies.
The 32nd sitting of the National Assembly will take place on Monday, December 17 and it would deal with Opposition matters.
She advised that the Government did make an attempt to have its business given preference, so that pertinent issues which were prevented at previous sittings due to obstructions by the Opposition, could have been  dealt with.

Not accepted
However, the Government’s proposal was not accepted and the Opposition’s Chief Whip, Ms. Amna Ally has insisted that the coming sitting is for them, Teixeira said.
In addition, she disclosed that the Government anticipates a number of things happening at that sitting, which she said they hope would not cause a further subversion of parliamentary democracy.
Nevertheless, she added that the Government will be tabling supplementary financial papers for the first reading at that sitting.
Teixeira also pointed out  that there are a number of Opposition bills that are coming up and alluded to a “strange one” being tabled by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Member of Parliament (MP), Mr. Carl Greenidge.
That bill, she said, has to do with the amending of the President’s Benefits and Facilities Act of 2009.
“His bill is Number 25 but what has suddenly been circulated, on Wednesday, was a bill of the same name but it is Bill Number 29 and that, in fact, calls for a repealing of the 2009 President Benefits and Other Facilities Act and adding in other clauses to it,” she observed.
She said the Government will be calling for a sitting on December 20, of which the Speaker and the Opposition have already been informed.
Teixeira said the Government, whether minority or majority, must have a right to bring their business to the House and have it addressed.

Still unable
She emphasised that the Monday sitting will now mark the fourth since the recess and Government is still unable to bring its business to the House.
“So we’ve made it clear to the Speaker and, at various meetings of parliamentary committees this week, of our intention, on December 17, to adjourn to December 20,” Teixeira indicated.
She said the Government hopes that the Opposition would not use its one-seat majority to vote against them going for a December 20 sitting.
“If that happens, then I think we’re in very serious waters because I think they are blocking the Government, obstructing the Government from doing its business,” she charged.
But she said, should the sitting be allowed to proceed, Government has seven bills and the supplementary financial papers to table.
In addition, there is also a motion on the 40th anniversary of  Guyana/Cuba diplomatic relations so that the National Assembly will support, acknowledge, observe and celebrate the long and fruitful relations with Cuba.