House stand-off looms - Plans to postpone censure motion irks Opposition
Published:Sunday | June 19, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer
Government and Opposition are this week, set to wrangle in Parliament over another delay in the debate of the censure motion against former national security minister, Dr Peter Phillips.
Depleted numerically in the House of Representatives, the Government is preparing to wrestle with the Parliamentary Opposition to postpone the motion, triggering what is likely to be another Parliamentary stand-off.
Normally, there are 32 Government members, including Speaker of the House, Delroy Chuck, and 28 Opposition members in the House.
However, a sudden change of circumstances has shifted the numerical balance in favour on the side of the People's National Party at Tuesday's next sitting when the motion is scheduled to be debated, as at least five Government members will be out of the Parliamentary chamber.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding and Daryl Vaz, his information minister, are out of the country vacationing in Paraguay.
Finance Minister Audley Shaw is in China, while Industry and Commerce Minister Karl Samuda is out ill.
Speaker of the House Delroy Chuck is without a vote unless there is a tie.
Leader of Government Business Andrew Holness told The Sunday Gleaner that the debate would definitely be postponed.
"The censure motion is unlikely to be taken on Tuesday due to the fact that the prime minister is not here and at least two others will be out," he said.
Not so, declared Phillips, a former House leader himself.
He contended that Holness had given the Parliament a solemn undertaking to debate the motion.
"I believe it is clear that the leader of the House said that the censure motion will be taken on the 21st (June), that is a solemn commitment that he gave to the House.
"It has already been on the Order Paper (of the House of Representatives) for too long. It has to be taken by convention," declared Phillips. "And a motion of censure must be taken, although this one has special circumstances around (it), but it is the 21st, not a postponement."
tardy opposition
However, Holness is suggesting that it has been the tardiness of the Opposition that has already thrown the Parliamentary agenda out of whack.
The House leader complained that the Government was keen on debating the Special Prosecutors' Bill but the Opposition keeps requesting a postponement of the debate.
Holness said the Government side has been quite cooperative.
Phillips is the third member from both Houses of Parliament brought to book for the role they have played directly or indirectly in the Manatt-Dudus issue.
The Member of Parliament for North East St Catherine, Gregory Mair, brought the motion against Phillips in the aftermath of revelations that he had signed two secret memoranda of understanding to facilitate the wiretapping of communications involving suspected criminals.
However, while the Emil George-led Manatt-Dudus commission is of the view that there was no misconduct in Phillips' action, the Government wants to press ahead, but has encountered a second obstruction.
The first was when George requested that debate on the motion should not commence until after his report was released.
The three-member commission has since recommended that any amendment or memorandum of understanding (MOU) concerning a law or treaty, whether operational or not, which affects the constitutional rights of individuals, is being introduced or amended, such amendment or memorandum should be referred to Cabinet and the prime minister.
They also found that that the MOU was in contradiction to local wiretapping laws in relation to the transfer of data, as a result of which Christopher 'Dudus' Coke's constitutional rights were breached.
A censure motion was brought against the prime minister in the Lower House and minister of justice and attorney general, Dorothy Lightbourne, in the Senate.