Who is Guilty of Contempt in Parliament?
BASSETERRE St. Kitts, February 1st, 2013 -- Our National Motto, Country Above Self, has a meaning that is lost on Glen Phillip, Nigel Carty, Denzil Douglas, and the National Executive of the Labour Party. Our national Motto is in keeping with the high principles of what has been called the highest court in the land, our Parliament. This week we witnessed a mockery of that noble institution!
On Tuesday, 29 January, 2013, at an adjourned sitting of the National Assembly of St. Kitts and Nevis, Hon. Glen Phillip, the Parliamentary Representative for Constituency No 4, Challengers to Half Way Tree, including Old Road, delivered a presentation on the floor on the Increase in Senators Bill 2012, in which he made certain statements which were particularly alarming to many citizens and which bear scrutiny.
Listeners would recall that he intimated that even though his constituents may have voted for him, it was the Labour Party who sent him to Parliament and he had a collective responsibility to vote with the Labour Party Cabinet. Not to do so, would make him a Judas, a Benedict Arnold, a traitor, and it was clear that “Ghost” was ‘throwing word’.
Remember that this was in the context of stout objection to the Bill by two senior cabinet members who have since either been fired or resigned. The Labour Party Political Leader and the National Party Executive have openly attacked the Hon Tim Harris and the Hon Sam Condor for their principled stance on both the Land Swap Bill and the Senators Bill. And it seemed that Glen “Ghost” Phillip was towing the Party line and singing for his supper.
But clearly, Mr Phillip is a neophyte (a rookie) in Parliament and someone needs to school him as to his obligations to that august body.
Readers should also remember the strident presentation by Senator Nigel Carty in his presentation on the same Bill on 15 January 2013. Mr Carty spoke at length about the collective responsibility of Cabinet, party discipline and the need to preserve the Labour Party Government. We know that as Deputy Chairman of the Labour Party, he had led the fight to oust the Chairman, Hon Timothy Harris, because he was adamant that he was talking truth to conscience. His principled stance of speaking on behalf of his constituents was constantly derided.
Our Parliamentary rules are contained in the National Assembly Elections Act, Cap 2.01, in the Third Schedule. And while our rules are for the most part silent on the behaviour of Parliamentarians, they place almost unfettered power in the hands of the Speaker to determine what is proper conduct. But they also state at Rule 85 that where our rules are silent, the practice in England pertains.
When one consults Erskine May’s Parliamentary Practice in England for guidance as to the rules governing the conduct expected of Members of Parliament in the discharge of their parliamentary and public duties, it is clear that these members of Parliament would be in deep doo-doo if they were in the British Parliament.
The most recent versions of the Code of Conduct and the Guide to the Rules relating to the Conduct of Members in the House of Commons were published in June 2009.
The Code sets out the public duties undertaken by Members: (1) to owe allegiance to the Crown;
(2) to uphold the law; and (3) to act in the interests of the nation as a whole and their constituents in particular.
It further stipulates that any conflict between personal and public interest should always be resolved in favour of the latter. It states that:
“Members shall at all times conduct themselves in a manner which will tend to maintain and strengthen the public’s trust and confidence in the integrity of Parliament, and never undertake any actions which could bring the House of Commons, or its Members generally into disrepute.”
Any act or omission which obstructs or impedes any Member of the House in the discharge of his duty, or which has a tendency, directly or indirectly, to produce such results, may be treated as a contempt, even though there is no precedent of the offence.
Examples of misconduct include intimidation. To attempt to intimidate a Member in his parliamentary conduct by threats is also a contempt.
Actions of this character which have been proceeded against include: (a) informing Members that to vote for a particular bill would be treasonable by a future administration; (b) summoning a Member to a disciplinary hearing of his trade union in consequence of a vote given in the House; (c) impugning the conduct of Members and threatening them with further exposure if they take part in debates; (d) publishing posters containing a threat regarding the voting of Members in a forthcoming debate.
Both elected representative Glen Phillip and nominated member, Nigel Carty, would not past the scrutiny of the Code of Conduct of the British Parliament by their outrageous statements and conduct. But in St. Kitts and Nevis? They get a free pass.
We are calling on the Speaker of the House to advise himself that this statement that Parliamentarians are supposed to support their party ahead of their constituents is wrong. We are calling on the Speaker to advise himself and these Parliamentarians, Phillip and Carty, that their statement is subversive of the dignity of Parliament and is punishable as a contempt of that Honourable House. We have to ask ourselves if the Speaker should not also get in touch with the National Executive of Labour after he gets to understand the affront to the dignity of Parliament of which that Executive is guilty.
It is hard to imagine that some people could be so ignorant as to put pen to paper and commit a contempt of Parliament or to stand up in front of television cameras streaming out on the worldwide web and implicate themselves in such Parliamentary misconduct.
We have to believe that the Prime Minister himself does not know any better. He has lost his majority in Government, something which he himself has said in 1993 we do not want in this country. It is time for him to go and take Phillip and Carty with him.
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