The Tribune

By MALCOLM STRACHAN

THE unexpected announcement of the prorogation of Parliament has set tongues wagging.

The Whatsapp groups and the domino tables were alive with speculation over why the government had done it.

Certainly at first glance, it seems to have been done in something of a hurry. Why on a Saturday afternoon, for example – no newspapers the next day, people out enjoying the weekend – if it was being done to catch the public attention, well, the public was looking the other way at that time.

There has also been no commentary about it from the government – no explanation of the reason for resetting the Parliamentary session.

Of course, the explanation can be quite simple – but gossip loves a vacuum, and lord knows we love to gossip.

The easiest explanation is that any day now it seems that it will be announced that our current Governor General, CA Smith, will announce his departure from the role that he has occupied through our 50th anniversary celebrations.

It seems a fitting time. Fifty years of the nation done, all the ceremonies that go with it largely completed – though a few things go on through the year – and time to pass on the baton.

Cynthia “Mother” Pratt is widely rumoured to be the successor, and broadly thought of as a good choice. Mother Pratt is largely well-loved, especially in the communities that she has helped and worked with over the years. She was the first woman to hold the post of Deputy Prime Minister and she certainly suits the profile of the role.

Say what you like about the PLP but one thing that is absolutely true is that the party loves its ceremonies – and halting the parliamentary session gives the chance for a new Governor General to read the Speech from the Throne for the new session. You can see some eager soul saying wouldn’t it be wonderful for Mother Pratt to have that as her first major duty.

So it may be as simple as that. But with the move also come some perhaps unintended consequences – or perhaps intended.

Recently, a voice note from PLP chairman Fred Mitchell warned party supporters of a rough week ahead – that week presumably came about last week with the charging of party MP Kirk Cornish with two counts of rape plus charges of assault and making death threats.

Now all kinds of people are having their say about that already, some without the awareness that now a court case is actually taking place, the best thing they can do – the thing they should do – is just shut up and let justice take its course.

Still, already some are speculating that the Cornish case is one of the reasons for proroguing Parliament – so that the administration does not have to face awkward questions such as whether the accused MP should be allowed to sit in the House, whether he should be expelled from the party and so on.

That’s foolish talk – the government simply has to say that it is awaiting the outcome of the legal process. Every person accused of a crime is regarded as innocent until proven guilty – and as for whether someone facing charges should be kicked out of the House, just look across to the Opposition benches where Adrian Gibson still sits as an MP while he fights his own legal battle.

The rules do not require someone to resign as an MP in the face of accusations – which is only right, or else it would expose the governance of our country to the risk of trumped-up claims merely for the purpose of removing people from the House.

The Cornish situation is not the only awkward one facing the government, however – with further questions pursuing the now invisible man, Minister of Immigration Keith Bell.

Having been advised not to answer accusations against him and his ministry by Fred Mitchell, Mr Bell has been absent from sight, by and large, and certainly not answering the long list of questions about his actions, which range from the irregular to the potentially unlawful, it is alleged.

If we are now prorogued until October 4, Mr Bell does not have to rise in the House to speak for close to two months, during which time perhaps some are hoping the news agenda will move on and people will forget what has been claimed.

That seems unlikely – especially with bigger questions particularly relating to the Chinese workers who were released at Mr Bell’s direction, such as why so many people were unable to produce any identification.

And as much as those two months will permit a purported investigation into matters, it also gives the Opposition time to gather more evidence of irregularities ready to produce on day one of the new session.

There are other investigations circling, of course – such as that of the council that is alleged to have broken the law by accepting money for a beach clean-up. For some reason, that investigation is being carried out by a ministry rather than police despite it seemingly being clearly against the law.

Handily for the government, questions that have been tabled for ministers also fall away with the end of the session – so a series of questions posed by the FNM remain unanswered.

There are two things in politics – reality and perception.

The reality is probably the simple explanation – the party may simply want to make a big deal out of the change of Governor General and give Mother Pratt a spotlight for her debut.

But the perception in society at large is that perhaps the government is trying to avoid something.

The absence of senior figures explaining why there was this sudden prorogation, timed during a weekend, may be entirely innocent but it does make people wonder.

For the coming weeks, those people will be left to wonder with no chance for ministers to be questioned in the House, and some of those ministers, such as Keith Bell, seemingly avoiding any opportunity to be questioned by the media over the issues before them.

As I said earlier, gossip loves a vacuum. Until October, Whatsapp and those domino tables are going to have plenty of stories to tell.