The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I am so angry, and so proud at the same time, as I write this. I was just watching Loretta Butler Turner’s contribution to a debate on crime in the House of Assembly and was astonished at how the Speaker allowed the PLP front bench to harass her.

They made a lot of noise in an attempt to drown out what she was saying about their failure to fulfil some of their Prime Minister’s promises. That is wrong.

But what really got me upset was how the Speaker allowed several of the PLP’s front bench to disrupt Mrs Butler Turner’s contribution by making speeches of their own with the bogus use of points of order. Obie Wilchcombe did it, Damien Gomez did it twice and Bernard Nottage did it repeatedly.

Not one of these interruptions was based on a genuine point of order. I know the Speaker was inexperienced and lacking knowledge of parliamentary procedure when he took the chair after the last election. But by now he should have made it his business to educate himself on at least the basic rules of parliamentary debate.

The Speaker has no right to demand the member who has the floor to yield whenever another member gets up to interrupt. It is up to the member who has the floor to say whether she will countenance an intervention at that point.

Most MPs will welcome reasonable interventions for the purpose of providing additional information or even taking issue with something they said. But any time during such an intervention she has the right to take back the floor.

When a member rises on a point of order, the Speaker should ask the member to state the infringement of the rule on which his point of order is based. The member should then state the alleged infringement and sit down allowing the Speaker to make a ruling. No debate.

It is obvious that Mrs Butler Turner is effectively carrying the fight to the PLP and that she gets under their skin. So they have decided to use all these unfair tactics to try and derail her. But I am proud to say that she holds her own against the lot of them and is fast becoming one of most effective debaters in parliament.

Finally, may I remind the Speaker that one of his special responsibilities is to protect the minority in parliament from the majority.

FORMER MP

Nassau,

April 29, 2015.