| Privileges Committee meeting aborted – Speaker now has right to allow MP Rohee to speak, says AG |  |  |  |
| Written by GINA |
| Monday, 21 January 2013 21:36 |
THE Committee of Privileges that was slated to meet yesterday, to review whether Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee had violated any of the standing orders of the National Assembly, was abandoned, following which Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General Anil Nandlall expressed the view that he believes “it is safe to conclude that Mr. Rohee will be allowed to speak in the National Assembly on the next occasion that he attempts to do so.”
 Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall The Legal Affairs Minister had dispatched a letter last week to the Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs, in which he called for the meeting of the Committee of Privileges to be ‘aborted permanently’ or be ‘adjourned indefinitely’. Minister Nandlall, in the letter, reminded the Clerk that the Speaker has said orally that he would “not proceed with the matter in the Privileges Committee unless and until the matter is determined by the Court.” “This morning, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) echoed a similar request, and therefore, the Speaker, I believe, had very little choice but to accede to the joint request of the government and APNU,” the Legal Affairs Minister reasoned. The Legal Affairs Minister stated that the Honourable Speaker Raphael Trotman now has the responsibility of ensuring that Member of Parliament, Clement Rohee is accorded the right conferred upon him as a duly elected MP. He noted significant comments made by the Speaker when the meeting commenced. “If I interpreted him correctly, he said very clearly, that his interpretation of the Chief Justice’s ruling is that Minister Rohee has a right as an elected member to speak on any matter. So hopefully, one would expect that that would be given effect to shortly, hopefully, by Friday.” The Parliamentary Opposition has consistently, within the past year, made attempts to force Minister Rohee to step down from his ministerial post through a no-confidence motion in the National Assembly, and through public disturbances. They have also charged that he gave direct instructions to police ranks in Linden in July which led to the shooting of three persons involved in protests in the mining town. A subsequent Commission of Inquiry has since exonerated the minister. Another motion was then passed in the National Assembly in an attempt to prevent the minister from speaking. The Speaker ruled against it, but the parliamentary opposition, disregarded the ruling and in an unruly spate of actions, drowned the minister out when he rose to speak, forcing the adjournment of the sitting. The issue was taken to the Courts by the Attorney General, and Chief Justice (ag) Ian Chang recently ruled that Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee has a right to speak in the National Assembly as an elected member. |
