Basseterre, St. Kitts, July 06, 2016 (SKNIS): Opposition Parliamentarian Honourable Patrice Nisbett, who represents St. James and St. Thomas (Nevis 11) in the Federal Parliament, has congratulated newly appointed Speaker of the National Assembly, the Honourable Michael Perkins, whom he said has had a positive influence on his life as his exemplary high school teacher.
While some opposition parliamentarians could not muster anything good to say, and others absented themselves from the honourable chamber on the momentous occasion of Honourable Perkins’ elevation to Speaker of the House, Mr. Nisbett found common ground (both he and Perkins are Nevisian) and praised Speaker Perkins for playing a positive role in shaping him to be the person he is today.
“Mr. Speaker, I have known you for some time. I think we are in Nevis and here on the different political divide. If my recollection serves me right, you would have taught me Mathematics in third form, so I would have had the opportunity to engage with you at that particular level,” Mr. Nisbett said in the Sitting of the National Assembly on June 30, 2016.
“I would hope that as a result of your imparting some knowledge to me, I have been able to become the individual that I am today, so I would imagine that you would have had some influence and some impact upon my life, my student life at least, at the Charlestown Secondary School,” he added. “I remember you being very alert and very agile.”
Mr. Nisbett went on to congratulate Speaker Perkins.
“I would want on behalf of the People of Nevis 11, on behalf of myself, I would want to congratulate you on your elevation to this high office and I would wish you the best in your Speakership and would hope that we are able to get a fair and balanced deal on this side of the House and of course once we move quickly to deal with the rules of the House, we will be able to clear out the necessary ambiguity and loopholes so that persons understand clearly what the rules are…and so I wish you all the best and I hope that you have success,” Mr. Nisbett said.
He also thanked Mr. Franklyn Brand, Former Speaker of the House, whose resignation due to ill health was announced in May of this year. Mr. Brand also hails from Nevis. Mr. Nisbett agrees that the Parliament needed reform from what it used to be under the Douglas Administration and indicated that Former Speaker Brand had brought about some measure of reform under the Team Unity dispensation.
“I would want to join with the honourable members in thanking the Honourable Franklyn Brand, the Former Speaker of the National Assembly for his service to this Parliament and also for his service to the people and country of St. Kitts and Nevis,” Mr. Nisbett said.
“We would have had certain interactions with Mr. Brand and I believe generally we were moving in the right direction in relation to the reform of the Parliament and the reform of the various institutions of the Parliament which one would have hoped would have promoted and enhanced the democratic traditions here in St. Kitts and Nevis,” Mr. Nisbett added.
Meanwhile, Speaker Perkins has pledged that the Parliament will be “starting afresh” as far as the Speakership is concerned. He said that he will be “fair, transparent and stern where necessary” while demystifying the proceedings of Parliament, that is, simplifying things for the listening audience.
“I will do all that is necessary to ensure order and decorum in this House,” Speaker Perkins said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris lambasted opposition members, whom he referred to as a “bitter club” for some of them not being able to say anything good on the election of the new Speaker.
“I am disappointed that the members opposite could not raise the standard on this occasion. The election of a Speaker to this august body is not a light matter and it is a matter that should be dealt with in a way befitting the high office to which you are now being elevated,” Prime Minister Harris said.
Dr. Harris said that since he has been a Member of Parliament from 1993 never has he “witnessed Members of the Opposition go to the low that those who have walked out have gone on the occasion of the election of a Speaker.”
“Persons would consider it unbecoming that on the election of the Speaker, the House would be divided,” he said. “What that does, is that it gives the Speaker the comfort to know that we’ve come to this post and position with the full support of the Honourable House and I have a solemn duty to exercise fairness even at perhaps a higher level than I have anticipated because I come with the blessings as it were of all sides of the honourable chamber. Indeed, there was even in relation to that tradition (Westminster) that when a Speaker of the National Assembly would contest any seat there is no one who would stand in opposition to the Speaker. That has been a tradition for a long while.”
Prime Minister Harris took umbrage to Members of Parliament for St. Christopher’s three and two.
“And so when it comes like a day like this to hear the bitterness, the acrimony, coming from the Member for number two (Hon. Marcella Liburd) who never stays for a full sitting of the Parliament, who always comes and goes and the Member for number three (Hon. Konris Maynard), who will not grow up and learn…when you hear them use this this highpoint in the life of the Parliament to seek to diminish it by personal conveniences…,” Dr. Harris said.
“I don’t see what kind of conduct the remnants of the Douglas Party in Parliament are showing. There is a time and place for everything. Today was neither the place nor the time for the members opposite to come here to sully this beautiful and historic occasion with their old time stories for it wasn’t anything new that they had brought; it wasn’t any new idea that they hadn’t canvassed before that it was important to bring it to seek to sully a celebratory occasion and I condemn them for being petty. It is time for them to grow up,” Prime Minister Harris said.
Neither the Leader of the Opposition, Honourable Dr. Denzil Douglas nor Opposition Senator Nigel Carty attended Parliament that day.
“We have to end the parochial politics,” Prime Minister Harris said.
“Why is it that the unhappy people in opposition want to make every occasion an unhappy one?” he asked.
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