I was a Member of Parliament for almost 20 years. I am now in receipt of a parliamentary pension. In calculating my pension, the Parliament Office calculated my period of service and the salaries I earned, and computed the monthly average. When they did so for me or do so for any MP, they only take into consideration the time served.
During the time I served, there were five elections. Each time Parliament was dissolved, I was no longer an MP; and between that dissolution and the time I was re-elected an MP, I received no salary from Parliament. And when my retirement benefits were calculated, this was taken into consideration.
Given that between dissolution of Parliament and when Parliament reconvened there was an average of about four months, and given there were five elections, in computing time served, I lost about one and a half years of service. There was nothing unfair about this. This is the law.
No MP, no minister, serves continuously; in accordance with the law, ministers serve only from the time Parliament commences until the time Parliament is dissolved. There might be some arguments surrounding when the 11th Parliament ended, although those arguments are frivolous; but whatever the arguments, we cannot dispute that Parliament was definitively dissolved on December 3, 2019.
On that day, Guyana no longer had any MP. On that day, Guyana no longer had any Minister. There was no such creature as Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo. Each time since then that he appeared as Guyana’s Prime Minister, he was acting illegally. The dismissal of Guyana’s Prime Minister was even more final when the elections were held on March 2, 2020. Even in this wild time, in these uncertain times, even as the majority of Guyanese continue the struggle for democracy, laws and the Constitution matter. Both the laws and the Constitution say there is no Cabinet.
Moses Nagamootoo, last Thursday, just one day before Good Friday, the holiest day of the Christian calendar, sinned his soul in declaring that the Cabinet continues to function as normal. For the Cabinet to carry on, it means that Guyana is fully a dictatorship. When Nagamootoo confessed that David Granger and his cabal continue to act as if nothing has happened, he formally announced the Granger-led dictatorship.
In so doing, he announced that Granger and his cabal do not regard the laws and the Constitution, and that they threw the Constitution out of the window a long time ago.
That Nagamootoo continues to squat in the Office of the Prime Minister is a crime. Yes, it is the height of arrogance, but it is criminal also to occupy an office, giving orders and spending taxpayers’ money. Whatever the arguments, we know that Parliament was formally dissolved by an official promulgation that David Granger made in December 2019. Since that time, the Cabinet was also dissolved.
But even if there are legitimate legal arguments that the Ministers continue to function, there can be no further arguments that on March 2, 2020, when more than 450,000 Guyanese voters went to the polling stations to elect a new government, there no longer existed any cabinet.
While, it is true that the President remains in office until his successor is sworn in, that is not true for any minister, including the Prime Minister. We can argue when exactly Moses Nagamootoo lost his job as Prime Minister, but one thing is crystal clear: on March 2, 2020, Nagamootoo and all his ministerial colleagues lost their jobs.
Carrying on as if nothing matters is what dictators do. Essentially, Granger sent Nagamootoo out just before Good Friday to tell the nation and the world that Guyana is a dictatorship. That is what Nagamootoo did on Thursday, April 9, 2020: he openly told the Guyanese people the cabinet continues because those in office are a dictatorship, and elections or no elections, they will carry on. He sinned his soul, again.
In actuality, Nagamootoo and the rest of the Cabinet lost their jobs a long time ago. When the No-Confidence Motion was passed on December 21st, 2018, the Parliament was declared no longer in session. On January 2, 2019, the then Speaker of the House confirmed that fact, the Speaker making clear that the Parliament stood dissolved. That was the last day the Parliament met, conceding that the NCM indeed ended the life of Parliament.
David Granger was obligated to dissolve the Parliament and hold elections by March 21st, 2019. APNU+AFC tried desperately to change that reality by tying up the matter in court using the mathematical nonsense that 33 is not more than 32. That legally tied up the dissolution until the CCJ confirmed the Cabinet was dismissed and the Parliament was dissolved upon the passage of the NCM. The CCJ restarted the time and the time was extended to September 18, 2019. APNU+AFC ignored the new deadline.
Whatever the arguments, no one can dispute that there has been no Cabinet, at least since December 3, 2019.
Thus, since the COVID-19 Task Force is headed by the Prime Minister, and there is no Prime Minister, even in the fight against COVID-19, we have an illegal entity leading the fight. This is utterly unacceptable.
