BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – SOCIAL COMMENTATOR Dwyer Astaphan has expressed his hope that the Motion of No Confidence filed by the Parliamentary Opposition in the Speaker of the Federal Parliament would be debated soonest, especially with the sitting Government having suffered through its MoNC not seeing the light of day for more than two years.
Leader of the Parliamentary Opposition Dr. the Rt. Hon. Denzil L. Douglas – on behalf of his Opposition colleagues – filed a MoNC against Speaker the Hon Michael Perkins, citing that he acts with partiality to those sitting on the Government Benches.
“The Opposition has a right under the Rules to put forward together a Motion of No Confidence in the Speaker. They are not doing something that they are not allowed to do. Having said that, I do hope that the Motion gets a chance to be heard, especially given the fact that the present Government, which not too long ago in opposition was itself the victim of several failed efforts by itself to have its Motion heard when Dr. Douglas occupied the Prime Ministeship and Mr. Curtis Martin occupied the seat of Speaker of the House,” Astaphan said.
Astaphan reminded that the MoNC, which was filed then, was against the sitting Prime Minister and his Government and it never made it onto the Order Paper for debate in the House. He questioned whether or not former Prime Minister Douglas finds Speaker Perkins’ perceived bias outrageous when compared with the perceived bias of the last Speaker to sit under his administration, Curtis Martin.
“At that particular time, the MoNC was one against the Prime Minister and Government of the day. That was blocked! I recall for about 766 days and never given the light of day in the Parliament. It therefore begs the question, unavoidably unfortunately, as to whether in Dr. Douglas’ opinion the bias which he and his team perceive in Speaker Perkins is egregious and offensive to proper parliamentary practice and democracy, while that of the former Speaker and Government, which Douglas led, was not egregious.
“Because, while I as a concerned and responsible and self-respecting patriot do not support any form of bias by a Speaker, I cannot but wonder whether Dr. Douglas either has a distorted and perverted sense of right and wrong, given the denial of that motion signed by the majority of elected Members of the Parliament for over 700 days when he was Prime Minister. Or perhaps he has now found his conscience; perhaps he had an epiphany.”
The former Minister of Government said there are striking similarities between Dr. Douglas’ behaviour in Parliament when he was Prime Minister and now that he is Opposition Leader.
“Maybe while the former Speaker tolerated these serial excesses by Douglas and his subordinates, the present Speaker declared his intention not to tolerate any such behaviour from any side.
“Here is what I support: a Speaker upholding the rules of Parliament in a fair and balanced and consistent manner without fear or favour either way. All of this that is happening now tells us that we still have a long way to go when it comes to good governance in Parliament and parliamentary democracy and so forth. But it tells me Dr. Douglas wants to determine what the games are and how the game is played, whether he is Prime Minister or Leader of the Opposition. He wants to have his cake and eat it. The Speaker felt, perhaps with some justification, that he had been disrespected, the seat of the Speaker had been disrespected by Mr. Carty.”
Last week during the 2017 Budget Debate, Senator the Hon. Nigel Carty was suspended from Parliament after he – as the Speaker explained – laughed at him while he was ruling on a point of order.
Carty made attempts to address the House but the Speaker insisted that he leaves the Chamber immediately for the remainder of that day.
The Opposition has described Perkins’ ruling as unprecedented, unmerited and that it forms part of the grounds on which the Motion of No Confidence has been filed.
