Former Home Affairs Minister and Opposition Member of Parliament (MP), Clement Rohee, has cast blame on his successor Khemraj Ramjattan for allowing a matter that didn’t require the Police presence to be blown out of proportion in the Parliament Chambers on Monday.
Rohee said as the Minister who has responsibility for the Guyana Police Force
President David Granger
(GPF), Ramjattan may have been responsible for calling in the Police and he thinks the Minister should therefore bear full responsibility for the assault on both the male and female Opposition MPs.
“As long as it was not a criminal offence, neither the Speaker nor the Clerk of the National Assembly have the authority to call on the Commissioner of Police(ag) to take action in a matter at the Chambers of the Parliament. The decision to call in the Police had to be taken at a political level in which the Minister of National Security must have been involved,” the former Minister alleged.
Rohee argued only that Minister has the legal authority to give ‘general orders and
Former Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee
directions’ to the Commissioner of Police (ag) who in turn, given his ‘command of the Force’ would issue orders to the Commander ‘A’ Division of GPF to proceed to the Parliament to ‘deal’ with the situation therein.
The Opposition MP said based on these theories, there is absolutely no mystery about how the Police got involved in the events on Monday at the Chambers of the Parliament.
“It was Ramjattan’s call to the Commissioner of Police (ag) that gave rise to the arrival of Police ranks at the senior and junior levels at the Chambers of Parliament. In the circumstances, therefore it is Ramjattan who must take full responsibility for the gross, brutal and highly unprofessional assault by junior ranks of the GPF on the women parliamentarians of the Republic of Guyana,” he alleged.
More importantly, Rohee claimed that it was blatantly obvious that the ranks were
Chaos erupted in Parliament when Police storm the chambers
unprepared, if not totally untrained to deal with the situation obtaining at that time in the Parliament Chambers. He observed that there were no female among the Police ranks present who allegedly assaulted the women MP’s in what he described as “brutish efforts” to extricate MP Edghill from his seat.
“The orders given by a rank of the Force to attack the circle of both male and female MPs supporting MP Edghill is tantamount to gross misconduct and a breach of the Standing Orders of the GPF,” he added.
The former Minister said the women MPs who were allegedly assaulted had sought medical attention and now has in their possession medicals from certified and registered physicians to prove their claims of physical assault and injuries caused by ranks of the GPF.
“And whose presence can only be explained by the instructions issued to the Commissioner of Police (ag) by Ramjattan as the Minister who has responsibility for the Guyana Police Force and who in the final analysis must bear full responsibility,” the Opposition MP added.
Unprecedented
Providing his view on what took place in the Parliament Chambers on Monday, President David Granger was quick to cast full responsibility on the Opposition without giving a full analysis of the issue.
While he condemned the action, the President’s focus was only on Edghill whom he claimed displayed a vulgar behaviour. He said the Opposition Parliamentarians’ behaviour was also unprecedented. “It was a very poor display on the part of Mr Edghill and his colleagues to demonstrate to the public and to our children that the honourable House should be the scene of such a disorderly show,” he opined. Granger said the same respect given to him, or the Chancellor of the Judiciary, should also be given to the Speaker of the House who is the head of the legislative arm of the Government.
“I can’t imagine that the Speaker should be faced with that type of vulgarity… the head of the legislative branch (of Government) must be treated with respect,” the President declared.
However, the President did not address the other issues which saw Police ranks entering the Chambers of Parliament and attempting to arrest Opposition MP Juan Edghill.
The President said he is opened to meeting with Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo to address any concern that would address any issues that they might be facing as an Opposition.
The Opposition has repeatedly stated it is disappointed with the manner in which the Speaker, Dr Barton Scotland, who is perceived to be bias, handled the matter.
While the Speaker has denied calling in the Police to have the elected Opposition MP removed, it has been reported that the Speaker may have passed that instruction.
The Opposition feels that even if its MP broke the Standing Order the issue could have been dealt with properly to avoid it to escalate to the point it did on Monday.
Following the incident with Edghill on Monday, the MP was suspended for four days.
