The A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Opposition on Thursday called on Speaker of the National Assembly Manzoor Nadir to suspend Local Government and Regional Development Minister Nigel Dharamlall for his “vile” statement in the National Assembly on Wednesday.
During the Consideration of the Budget 2022 Estimates for his Ministry, Minister Dharamlall, in response to heckling from the coalition Opposition’s Members of Parliament, uttered “You gotta get a dildo; that’s what you looking for.”
About an hour later, APNU/AFC MP Sherod Duncan stormed into the Assembly, which was in Committee of Supply to consider the estimates, and began hurling insults at the Local Government Minister while disrupting the sitting in the process.
Duncan used words such as “nasty” which are considered to be unparliamentary language. Further, despite repeated pleas and orders by Speaker Nadir to desist from his behaviour and return to his seat, the Opposition MP continued with his disruptions.
A final order by the Speaker for him to leave the National Assembly was also ignored by Duncan, thus resulting in his suspension for four sittings.
However, the APNU/AFC Members of Parliament wrote Speaker Nadir on Thursday to express their grave concerns over the series of events that played out the House the day before.
In the letter, which was shared with the media, Chief Whip Christopher Jones took note of MP Duncan’s suspension but found it “interesting” that the same level of sanction has not been applied to Minister Dhamramlall, who, he said “…is on public record as uttering while on the floor, one of the vilest comments that could be directed to any female member of Parliament anywhere in the world.”
According to Jones, “This we find totally unacceptable and expect that the same level of censorship will be applied to the offending Minister. It is our hope that you will review your position on both these issues as we understand the difficulty of managing the situation at the time and that you may not have been in possession of all the facts.”
“The dispensation and perception of fairness in the discussions of this Honourable House must be upheld at all times for the people of Guyana to see,” the Opposition Chief Whip further pointed out.
However, while the APNU/AFC is claiming that the remark was made to a female Opposition MP, Minister Dharamlall in an apology posted to his Facebook page, had clarified that it was in response to “incessant insults” by Duncan.
“I read with astonishment, the total fabrication by the AFC of a situation in [Wednesday’s] sitting of the Committee of Supply of the National Assembly of Guyana. Their media release is totally untruthful… On many occasions, the MPs on the Government side have been ridiculed with some of the most uncouth and slanderous things about their bodies, their spouses, their children, their sexuality and even their dead relatives…”
Dharamlall went on to say, “…My heckle regarding a dildo was aimed at verbal excesses of MP Sherod Duncan. In hindsight, I should not have responded to the continued insults on me, my family and deceased sister, (yes they insulted my sister who died 11 years ago) by members of the APNU/AFC.”
This post by the Minister came after he had already withdrawn his “unparliamentary statements” during the National Assembly sitting on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, in the letter to Speaker Nadir on Thursday, Chief Whip Jones also raised concerns about the misapplication of the Standing Orders in relation to the suspension of MP Duncan.
He outlined that the suspension was instituted while in the Committee of Supply instead of the larger National Assembly.
“Giving the sanctity of the Standing Orders of the Parliament of Guyana we feel this error must be corrected for the record. We look forward to your kind review of these concerns,” the letter detailed.
This correction was made during Thursday’s sitting with Government Chief Whip, Governance and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Gail Teixeira, re-tabling the motion for Duncan’s suspension on the floor of the National Assembly.
Currently, Duncan is one of eight APNU/AFC MPs already before the Privileges Committee, for the infamous Mace grab of December 29, 2021 when Opposition members protested the hearing of the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) Bill, which they wanted to be sent to a parliamentary Special Select Committee for review.
The coalition MPs stood banging on their desks when the Bill was called up for debate and subsequently gathered in the pit of the dome of the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC), where National Assembly sittings are being held due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Bill was eventually passed late into the evening but not before the Opposition’s protest escalated into a physical confrontation with Parliament staff after one of the MPs snatched the Parliament Mace from in front of Speaker Nadir.
The other APNU/AFC MPs sent to the Privileges Committee include Chief Whip Jones, Annette Ferguson, Ganesh Mahipaul, Natasha Singh-Lewis, Vinceroy Jordan, Tabitha Sarabo-Halley, and Maureen Philadelphia.
