I have been reflecting over the last 48 hours or so, on what transpired in the House of Representatives on Friday last. There is something rather bizarre about last Fridays parliamentary sitting and it has left me quite disturbed.
I have been active in politics for quite some time in this country although I have also done other things—all having to do with development of people and development of institutions.
I cut my teeth in the politics of this country with TAPIA when I lost my first election. I have served in both the House of Representatives and the Senate before, and in the Robinson NAR Administration I was Leader of Government business.
Among the things that disturb me about Friday, September 23, is how early it is in the life of the Keith Rowley administration for what took place on Friday to have happened in Parliament.
It is extraordinary by any standard, that Parliament would be reopened, that there would be no joint sitting of both houses, that debate on a saved bill would begin again, that a government minister would present, that no Opposition member would be allowed to reply, that the Government would insist on suspension of the House of Representatives for an hour to talk to the Opposition, that the Opposition with whom the Government wished to talk would object to proceeding in that manner, that the matter would be put to a vote inspite of vociferous objection by the Opposition, that the vote for suspension of the House for an hour would be carried, in spite of said objection by the Opposition with whom the Government wished to speak and that the Government would wait in a room for the Opposition to show up.
It is also extraordinary, that in the only verbal communication between the Leader of Government business and the Chief whip on this matter, the Leader of Government business would indicate the location in the Parliament building where the Government would be heading, indicating no agenda or objective of the meeting, and then proceed when the Opposition does not show up, to send a tracked version of changes to the bill informally, outside the Parliamentary process, handing it to someone in the corridor.
I would say that all of this is quite extraordinary.
What is also extraordinary is the behaviour of the Leader of Government business. It is a convention of Parliament that Leader of Government business and Chief Whip on the Opposition side, speak on the conduct of business in the House and mutually agree on the sequence of business on a given day or sitting. Every action by the Government on September 23, was without warning, without engagement, without discussion without agreement.
It is very extraordinary that three Parliamentarians, never mind which party they represented, would be suspended from the House, including a former Leader of Government business and a Leader of the Opposition and former Prime Minister, in a debate in which a three fifths majority is required and the Opposition presence and goodwill, absolutely required for successful passage of the bill under debate.
Whatever the Executive branch of Government says or does, the Executive cannot pass the tax information exchange bill on its own. Co-operation is required and therefore, one would have expected, that the business of Parliament would have been conducted in a certain way.
The Opposition came to Parliament prepared to debate and to battle at Committee stage until whatever hour, to have our amendments considered and accepted and to pass a good bill before the appointed deadline.
Given the Government’s behaviour on Friday, September 23, I ask, did the Government treat the Opposition with respect? Did the Government treat the conventions of Parliament with respect? Did the Government treat the Parliament of T&T with respect?
Given the thin line, evident over T&T’s political history between Executive power and Parliamentary autonomy should the Government have been allowed to bulldoze its way through the Parliament, assault the Opposition in the way that it did, and railroad its way to adjournment of the House at the tea break, leaving the FATCA compliance issue in limbo? Is that an acceptable way for the Government of T&T, who needs the support of Opposition members to pass the bill, to have proceeded?
What we witnessed on September 23, on the eve of T&T’s 40th Anniversary as a Republic is bad governance at its worst.
What we witnessed is no less than abuse of executive power with no regard whatsoever for Parliament as the supreme law making body in the land.
We witnessed this before when a State of Emergency was declared to contain former Speaker Occah Seepaul. And because this abuse of executive authority and power is in the DNA (genetically encrypted) of Mr Rowley’s party we have seen it before not only in relation to the Parliament but, also, in relation to a former Chief Justice who was hounded and accosted in his own home without regard or concern for the notion of independence of the Judiciary.
What happened in the Parliament on September 23, must not be glossed over or taken lightly. It represents a gross violation of Parliament, parliamentarians not in the executive branch, and actions by Government subversively undermines Parliamentary autonomy and Parliamentary democracy.
Only a party with authoritarianism inbuilt in its DNA would act so callously, so cavalierly and think that they can get away with it.
On September 23, complying with FATCA on time was not the only casualty of brutality by the Keith Rowley government. A more important casualty was Parliamentary democracy and by extension democracy itself in T&T.
The independent press as well as independent thinking people would do well to reflect on what is taking place in the Parliament and our country and whether what is happening is all right. There are some people who have no time for the UNC and they can give good reasons. But the UNC is the official Opposition in Parliament.
Many law abiding citizens put the UNC there. This has to be respected.
But the issue I am raising is more than about UNC or any party. It is about Parliament as an institution and about executive accountability to an autonomous Parliament which is accountable to the sovereign people.
Dr Bhoendradatt Tewarie
MP for Caroni Central