Stop ramrodding complex bills in rubber-stamp Parliament

… PPP to Govt

The A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government is once again being accused of undermining parliamentary democracy, as it plans to rush three critical pieces of legislation through the National Assembly during Thursday’s sitting.

Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo is expected to move a motion on Thursday, suspending the Standing Orders to allow for the Municipal and District Councils and Local Authorities (Amendment) Bill No 14 of 2015, the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (Amendment) Bill No 15 of 2015, and the Anti-Terrorism and Terrorist Related Activities Bill No 16 of 2015 to go through all three stages (first, second and third readings) during the Thursday, December 17 sitting.

The motion is said to have received the leave of House Speaker, Dr Barton Scotland, thus clearing the way for it to be moved on Thursday.

However, the Opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) is protesting this development, which it described it as a “flagrant violation of parliamentary democracy.”

The Opposition is complaining that it was after 13:00h on Tuesday when its Members of Parliament (MPs) began receiving copies of Bills.

“It is noteworthy that none of these Bills were seen before this afternoon (Tuesday) and although they were dated as being gazetted on December 9th and 10th, none has been posted on the Official Gazette Guyana website nor on the Parliament of Guyana website,” a statement from the Office of the Leader of the Opposition said.

The PPP/C added that this move is denying the National Assembly – the highest law making body in the country – the opportunity to scrutinise and examine these pieces of legislation.

It added that this will also prevent the public from having enough time to know what business is before the House, while preventing them from being able to exercise the freedom to express their views on these matters before the House.
The PPP said that a quick glance of the Bills is revealing.

It added that the Municipal and District Councils and Local Authorities (Amendment) Bill seeks to increase the number of signatures required to support a political party list under Proportional Representation.

These amendments, the Party said, essentially make it extremely onerous or may even deny smaller parties from participating in the LGE.

“These amendments are undemocratic and must be opposed by all,” it argued. As it relates to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (Amendment) Bill, the Opposition said its MPs, members of the  public nor civil society and members of the public were not given adequate time to  scrutinise the proposed amendments.

“One has to ask why the rush on this new AML/CFT (Amendment) Bill when the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs has denied that Guyana is not compliant with FATF? Why isn’t there the same urgency to set up the AML/CFT Authority and the FIU as provided for in the Government’s AML/CFT Amendment Act 2015?” the Opposition asked.

The Anti-Terrorism and Terrorist Related Activities Bill is an entirely new 98-page legislation, which the PPP/C said it has never seen before.

“Due to the nature of the Bill, developments in other countries on terrorism and concerns with human rights here in Guyana, this Bill should be properly and publicly scrutinised in a Parliamentary Special Select Committee,” the Party said, adding that, “this move by the Government to deny scrutiny and to rush through these Bills further exposes the new Administration for its undemocratic actions. Their actions fly in the face of positions taken by the APNU/PNCR/PNCRIG and AFC in previous Parliaments.”

The Opposition reminded that the Final Report of the Special Select Committee on the Needs Assessment of the Guyana National Assembly, April 10, 2006, which was unanimously adopted by the National Assembly specifically amended the Standing Orders to prevent Ministers moving that Bills be considered “forthwith” and “not allow bills to be taken through all their stages in one day” unless in a case of an emergency.

The PPP/C said in its statement that its MPs want the Commonwealth Secretariat, the European Union, the United Nations and in particular, the United Nations Development Programme, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the Organisation of American States, the Caribbean Community (Caricom), the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank to note what it called a “new assault on parliamentary democracy” by the Government and to take a stand in support of parliamentary democracy in the 11th Parliament.

The PPP/C is also seeking to rally the support of civil society in opposing what it said is a consistent erosion and abandonment of parliamentary democracy by coalition Government. This is not the first time the Government is accused of subverting parliamentary democracy.

Back in August during a the consideration of the Budget 2015, the  Government moved to reduce to three, as opposed to the seven days conventionally allowed for the Consideration of Estimates.

Then in November, Dr Barton Scotland denied a request by the PPP/C for the convening of the National Assembly to discuss a motion aimed at quashing the exorbitant salary increase Cabinet Ministers gave to themselves.