Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

Speak­er Wade Mark was put in the hot seat yes­ter­day when a stu­dent of the San Fer­nan­do Gov­ern­ment Cen­tral Sec­ondary School asked him to give the truth be­hind the Sec­tion 34 is­sue.He was at­tend­ing a par­lia­men­tary out­reach sem­i­nar at the San Fer­nan­do City Hall au­di­to­ri­um. The stu­dent, Joshua Buck­mire, al­so asked Mark whether there was a chance that 1990 coup leader Abu Bakr would take over the role of Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar. He al­so want­ed to know un­der what con­di­tions an MP could be re­placed.

Mark re­fused to an­swer the ques­tion about Sec­tion 34 and opt­ed to al­low po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tist Dr Hamid Ghany to ex­plain. The Speak­er not­ed, how­ev­er, there was need for a more ro­bust par­lia­men­tary com­mit­tee sys­tem to ex­am­ine leg­is­la­tion."These com­mit­tees will en­sure that when cru­cial laws are in­tro­duced, they go through the leg­is­la­tion like a fine-tooth comb. We are al­ready mov­ing to­wards hav­ing more ro­bust par­lia­men­tary com­mit­tees," Mark said.

Ghany said he would not wish to en­gage in spec­u­la­tion but would pre­fer to present facts which were al­ready in the pub­lic do­main about the con­tro­ver­sial leg­is­la­tion. He said the clause was part of a bill to abol­ish pre­lim­i­nary en­quiries which was brought to Par­lia­ment in No­vem­ber 2011.He said the bill was passed unan­i­mous­ly in both the Low­er and Up­per Hous­es but was set to take ef­fect af­ter procla­ma­tion on a fu­ture date.

Ghany told the stu­dents that in De­cem­ber 2011 the bill be­came law but was not im­ple­ment­ed. How­ev­er, on Au­gust 30, 2012, cer­tain parts of the leg­is­la­tion were pro­claimed by Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards on the ad­vice of Cab­i­net.He said when the me­dia high­light­ed the sto­ry, Par­lia­ment was re­con­vened and the con­tro­ver­sial Sec­tion 34 was re­moved from the leg­is­la­tion. He not­ed that the mat­ter was be­fore the Court of Ap­peal so he could not com­ment on it be­cause it was sub-ju­dice.

Mark said in some coun­tries cit­i­zens had a right of re­call and that was part of the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship man­i­festo.He not­ed that a prime min­is­ter is elect­ed by the peo­ple un­der a de­mo­c­ra­t­ic sys­tem of gov­er­nance and any­one who sought to re­move her with­out con­test­ing an elec­tion would be com­mit­ting an un­con­sti­tu­tion­al, il­le­gal and un­law­ful act.Mark al­so spoke at length about the role of MPs, the pow­ers of the Speak­er and the role of Par­lia­ment in a democ­ra­cy.