Opposition leader Dr Keith Rowley invoked the ire of Speaker Wade Mark yesterday after Rowley clashed with Government MPs and also with the Speaker himself during debate on the Procurement Bill as Parliament resumed after a vacation break. Rowley asked whether Mark was entering the debate after Mark sought to rebut a People’s National Movement (PNM) claim that the Government alone had adjourned Parliament in July and the bill had lapsed.
In a stormy resumption of Parliament, Mark also repeatedly warned about MPs’ behaviour, particularly the PNM’s. Disagreements arose during Planning Minister Bhoe Tewarie’s piloting of the bill, designed to promote accountability, transparency and efficiency and reform the procurement process. It was passed unanimously in the Senate and was returned to the House for the passage of amendments made in the Senate.
Saying the bill had been delayed too long and MPs had missed an opportunity to pass it last term, Tewarie drew PNM protest when he said he was sceptical of the PNM’s position on procurement reform because of the PNM’s conduct in the Joint Select Committee (JSC) stage, the PNM’s absention from the JSC report and silence on other aspects.
In reply, PNM MP Colm Imbert said the Government had adjourned Parliament last July and the bill had lapsed but as it had 26 seats, it could have passed the bill without PNM votes, since Government had enough for a special majority vote. Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar attempted to object when Imbert spoke about the adjournment. That drew loud protest from Rowley and PNMites.
Speaker Mark said: “Member for Diego Martin West, cool it. You don’t have to be shouting across the floor. Listen, next year before September is election, but right now let’s conduct ourselves in a dignified fashion. This kind of ‘rangutang’ behaviour, I don’t like it. I’m telling you, I don’t like it.” Mark added: “I want honourable members to conduct themselves as honourable. I don’t think it was fair to say what you just said.
“I made it very clear and the records would show I made a statement some time ago, (that) when the Leader of Government Business moved for the adjournment of the House then, not a single member of the Opposition objected. “If a member of the Opposition had objected, the Speaker would have had to reflect and take a decision in the matter.
“So I don’t think it’s fair to say the Government abused its authority. It was a decision of the entire House to adjourn. The House took a decision of which the Speaker carried out that mandate.” But Rowley took up Mark’s statements, asking if the Speaker was entering the debate. Mark said: “No I’m not in the debate, I’m clarifying.”
PNM MPs continued to protest repeatedly. Rowley, who had previously accused Persad-Bissessar of trying to mislead the public on the issue of the vacation period for the House, angrily protested that what Imbert had said was what had happened and it was not proper. Mark told Rowley: “Don’t argue while I’m on my legs. I’m on my legs, don’t speak like that while I’m on my legs... I’m saying, do not speak while I’m on my legs. If you have problems with the Speaker, file a substantive motion.”
Imbert, continuing his contribution, noted criticism of Government by the Joint Consultative Council (JCC) on the Invader’s Bay issue. He claimed the bill did not properly deal with land disposal. Noting the State was T&T’s biggest land owner and owned over 50,000 acres, he said the situation might lead him to conclude the Government was trying to dispose of State land to friends and family. He did not identify anyone specifically.
Imbert also earned a rebuke from Mark when he loudly told a Government MP to shut up. Mark said: “You can’t tell an MP to shut up, only the Speaker can.”