SINNED TWICE AGAINST THE CONSTITUTION

The rape and mockery of our democracy and constitution by our leaders at the highest levels have now become commonplace. The non-appointment of the deputy speaker, the rape of the order paper, the crass ignorance of parliamentary procedure at the level of our House of Assembly are all shameful acts that deserve strong condemnation.

It is an incontestable fact that given the “configuration” of the House, the election of a deputy speaker is impossible; hence, the call at every sitting to seek to elect one must be construed as an act of intellectual fraud designed to play to the gallery and pull wool over our eyes.

The rape, mockery and ignorance reached a crescendo of sorts when the PM of the country (assisted by the speaker of the parliament) violated the constitution and standing orders of the House of the Assembly by interfering with the order paper. Perhaps, the violation - just like the deputy speaker issue – may deserve judicial review, for if those constitutional atrocities are not checked early, then we may soon unsuspectingly evolved into a “constitutional dictatorship”.

Perhaps, amidst all that is going on, we can be thankful to one bright spark who has risen above the tragicomedy and who have stood up as a tower of power and have become as impenetrable as “matter”

In physics, we learn that one of the characteristics of matter is its impenetrability. In the midst of the evolution of a Chastanet dictatorship, Dr Hilaire has turned out to have true “mass”! He is becoming the “impenetrable champion” of the people, democracy and the constitution. Armed with iron-clad logic, political genius and the fortitude of a champion, he has become a generational role model of sorts that every young man and women coming up should want to emulate.

Amidst all the noise and effluvia, he brings a breath of fresh air of enlightenment to proceedings in the house which to say the least is inspirational. In fact, I would dare say, it is usually after his “enlightening discourse” and “engagements with the speaker” that the proceedings of the house degenerate into junk and “pappyshow”, leaving Madam Speaker rattled, perplexed and confused by the nuanced, deft and expert intellectual penetration of the issues. Dr Hilaire is truly deserving of the title honourable.

The matter of the appointment/non-appointment of the deputy speaker will be the permanent thorn in the speaker’s side. It's an issue she piped herself treating it as a joke initially; but when all is said and done, it will be an ugly legacy she would wish that never happened.

Her accommodation of the PMs unconstitutional request to modify the order paper only added insult to injury, for the PM had absolutely no constitutional authority (in his capacity as PM) to neither seek to change the order paper nor to be entertained by the speaker in that regard. She acted like an ordinary hack holding the highest ranked position in our parliament.

The speaker has sinned twice against our constitution and consequently she does not deserve to hold the position. I think she should gracefully resign her position before the next sitting of parliament.

Given the current “configuration” of the Lower House (with all government members being ministers and the opposition making it clear that their members are not available for the post of deputy speaker), then not only is it “inconvenient” to elect a deputy speaker, it is simply impossible. The question is:  why therefore does the speaker - sitting after sitting, like a broken record- have to make a mockery of our constitution by inviting members to elect a deputy speaker?