GOVERNMENT continues to voice its disapproval over the manner in which Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr. Raphael Trotman, and Leader of the Opposition, Mr. David Granger, are conducting parliamentary proceedings. Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall is of the view that the insistence of the Opposition and the Speaker of the National Assembly on going ahead with the composition of the parliamentary committees, in light of ongoing court proceedings, is highly objectionable.
The Attorney General explained that the court has not issued an order, neither did the motion filed ask for one, to restrain the Speaker or the Opposition from constituting the parliamentary committees.
“There is no order prohibiting them from constituting the nine-member committees; however comity amongst and between the branches of government would suggest that one would defer to the other…you have a position where the matter is in the court…this precise issue is before the court and the arguments have commenced….yet the Speaker and the Leader of the Opposition are moving at breakneck speed, and in complete disregard of the court’s process and the fact that government has sought the court’s guidance on this precise issue,” the Attorney General said.

The Attorney General further explained that government will have to decide what approach it will take if the Opposition continues to violate every tradition and convention known to parliamentary practice.
“Whenever the standing orders do not suit the agenda of the Opposition, they are displaying a proclivity to use their majority to change the standing orders…I do not know how long we can continue down this path; but it is quite unprecedented in Commonwealth Parliamentary practice,” the Attorney General said.
Guyana is a part of the British Commonwealth which has evolved parliamentary conventions, traditions and practices that have developed over long number of years.
“ Parliaments around the British Commonwealth have faithfully upheld these traditions and practices…one of them is that a constitutional reform committee, if the parliament decides to establish one, would be chaired by the Attorney General of the country, as it is a technical legal committee and the Attorney General is the guardian of the Constitution,” Minister Nandlall said.
He said that the Constitutional Reform Committee has been constituted, and the Leader of the Opposition, a former soldier, is the chairman of that committee.
“This is in violation of every tradition in the British Commonwealth…they have gone ahead and made Mr. Granger, Chairman of a technical legal committee… there is no country in the world where a soldier heads a constitutional reform committee,” Minister Nandlall said.