Speaker’s response on question surrounding PM disappointing

Dear Editor,

Yesterday, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr Barton Scotland responded to the PPP/C’s letter of complaint that the presence of Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo, in the National Assembly, while performing the functions of the Office of President, constitutes a violation of the Constitution.

In a letter to the press, I detailed the relevant provisions of the Constitution in support of that contention. No one has since proffered a conflicting opinion. Indeed, former Speaker, Mr. Ralph Ramkarran SC, who once expressed a contrary view, finally concurred with me.

The relevant constitutional provisions were explicitly set out in our letter to the Speaker.

After five days, yesterday, the Speaker responded. The

response was disappointing.

Rather than address the simple issue raised, the Speaker vacillated for three long pages. In the end, he transmitted the matter to be addressed by the Standing Committee on Constitutional Reform.

This Committee’s only mandate is to consider proposals for constitutional reform. So rather than ensuring compliance with the Constitution in its current form, the Speaker, apparently, is recommending its reform!

This is a Speaker who exacts from Parliamentarians the highest degree of rectitude but refuses to uphold the supreme law of this land. The end result is that the Head of the premier law-making institution of this country refuses to uphold and in fact contributes to the violation of the most superior of our laws, the Constitution.

Our Parliament must be the laughing stock of the Commonwealth.

How can the public have respect for our Parliament, the Speaker and the laws of this land, when the makers of the law are treating the supreme law with such contemptuous disregard?

Yours faithfully, Anil Nandlall