Yesterday, your Eyewitness explained his preparations for the sparks (or worse) he expected to fly during the first sitting in the National Assembly for a while. After all, precedent had been set for a whole new type of mano-a-mano “parliamentary engagement”!! Sadly, he had to put away his popcorn, which is ruined when it gets soft – which it did. While the Order Paper was chock-full of subjects to debate, the Opposition PNC/AFC –in the person of LoO Norton – interjected that they wanted to move a motion to suspend the scheduled business and debate what he called the “urgent” need to rectify the “bloated voters list” for the LGE.
Now, Norton should know better!! In fact, your Eyewitness is ABSOLUTELY certain that he knows better on the sort of motion he was introducing. He’s been around the (parliamentary) block – and then some – in his long political career. The Bible of parliamentary procedure, written by Erskine May, pronounced thusly on his proposed motion: “The matter must not be a grievance that is continuing, which does not qualify as a sufficient matter of urgent public importance.” Now the Opposition has been whining and whingeing about the “bloated” list from thy kingdom come, so it is certainly “continuing”. He knows that for such a motion to be approved, it had to satisfy three rather rigorous conditions – to ensure that the scheduled business of Parliament is dealt with.
In our Parliament, the precedent has clearly been established that the matter that is sought to be interjected must be DEFINITE, URGENT and of PUBLIC importance. Now, this “bloated list” isn’t even a legal term, since the Opposition’s solution to their claimed “bloating” is to eliminate all overseas Guyanese from the list!! This means taking away one of the fundamental rights of citizenship – the right to vote – which the Courts have ruled is unconstitutional!!
Do they really want to go in this direction?? Well, it certainly can’t be done so cavalierly on the fly, since it would need a constitutional amendment that demands a two-thirds majority in Parliament.
But what did the PNC/AFC combine gain by rebuffing the opportunity afforded? Their positions on a host of subjects would’ve been reported in the mainline media they complain are marginalising them. They could’ve shown up the PPP on suicide, constitutional change, and trying to reduce the number of road fatalities caused by drunken and reckless driving etc. These are subjects of great interest to the Guyanese electorate. By leaving the forum to the PPP all by their lonesome, the Opposition’s hammering another nail into their coffin!!
Your Eyewitness is beginning to think that maybe there’s gotta be another leadership election in the PNC!! The AFC is already dead meat and smelling “renk”!!
…on US visas
Against the backdrop of the UK – the erstwhile colonial power that had ruled both countries once upon a time – removing the need for visas for Guyanese to visit Old Blighty, he fully expected that the US would match them when their Consular Officer met some Govt officials!! After all, it’s the Americans who’ve been trumpeting how good we have it now that ExxonMobil – a super-sized American company – has struck oil!!
Now that we’ll soon be the THIRD LARGEST non-OPEC oil producer in the world – and enjoying the highest per capita GDP in the world! – would Guyanese want to remain in the US, to live in dank basements?? Especially when they’ve just been regaled with news about how their favourite destination – New York City – is so crime ridden that even the rats are fleeing over to Jersey!?!
Your Eyewitness thinks that in protest against their assumption that we’re in the same boat (pun intended!) as Haitians and Venezuelans, Guyanese should stop lining up in front of the US Embassy!!
…on rigging bed sheet
Ever since Guyanese learned Mingo used a soiled bed sheet to project his personally tabulated SoPs, Guyanese wanted to know where Mingo sourced the bed sheet and, more pertinently, how’d it become stained!!
No answer yet!!
