Bedlam

(Dis)order in the House!
To be human is to have differences of opinions. But since our days as cavemen (and cavewomen), we’ve worked out ways of settling those differences other than bopping each other on the head with clubs. But to read the reports of what transpired in Parliament last Thursday night, you wouldn’t be blamed for concluding that such information hasn’t trickled into Guyana.
The screaming and shouting from both sides of the House got so bad that THE SPEAKER WALKED OUT!!! You heard that right. We’ve had the opposition walking out (nowadays whenever Rohee is allowed to speak)… we’ve even had the government walking out, but probably for the first time in the history of parliamentary governance, a Speaker picked himself up and walked out of Parliament!
But a great irony was lost on the MPs – who just followed the Speaker out as if he were the Pied Piper of Georgetown. He should’ve led them down into the Demerara River to suffer the fate of the rats from Hamelin. The irony is that, of all the institutions intended to lower the rate of head-bopping in modern times, Parliament probably has the most intricate set of rules to prevent the sort of nasty behaviour that was displayed last Thursday night.
For instance, MPs aren’t supposed to address each other directly – their speeches are directed to “Mr Speaker”. They refer to each other as ‘the honourable this’ or ‘the honourable that’. MPs are supposed to speak only when recognised by the Speaker. The point was that it was admitted that the quest to take national power might fray some tempers – and the rules were meant to temper the said outbursts.
Throw out those rules – or disregard them, which amounts to the same thing – and what you have is the law of the baboon. The one that can scream loudest or beat their chest most thunderously carries the day. And this is what happened last Thursday. The Speaker’s words are supposed to carry the day, but the opposition showed what they thought of that office when they disregarded his ruling on Rohee’s speaking.
They obviously thought that having secured him his seat, he was supposed to overlook their transgressions of the rules. In a brutal further example of their disrespect for the office, when the deputy speaker had to temporarily take the Speaker’s seat, she refused to follow the incumbent’s precedence and denied Rohee his freedom to speak.
“Mischief, thou art afoot.” The course it will take is the destruction of Guyana – unless better sense prevails.
Double standards?
We noted with dismay the ugly verbiage on the Chinese government’s initiative to share news and information from their country and their country’s perspective via a TV channel. We emphasise that the granting of permission to broadcast etc are matters for the government to explain. What we’re concerned about is the attempt to muzzle alternate views.
The institution of democracy demands an informed citizenry that can make decisions on issues before them. We now live in a globalised world. How can the ordinary citizen become truly ‘informed’ if he/she hears from only one quarter? In this regard, we note the initiative by the U.S. Embassy to launch “American Spots” at the National Library and UG – with more in the offing.
As the U.S. ambassador pointed out, the American Spots will “have books on the National Parks of America, on notable American leaders, on U.S. history and government and Native American culture”. What’s so different about the Chinese initiative apart from the fact that the latter is more high tech? From a purely pragmatic standpoint, we’d better start appreciating that, as even the Americans are talking about a “Chinese century”.
Big eye?
What’s this unseemly fracas between the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC)? Did the new building ‘full’ somebody’s eye? Put Guyana first!