“Our children are watching these discourses”
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Deputy Leader Chester Cooper yesterday lambasted the government over the abrupt adjournment of parliamentary proceedings.
House Speaker Halson Moultrie accused the executive branch of the government of failing to act in response to a COVID-19 exposure in the Lower Chamber and of “disrespecting” him.
Cooper told reporters he believed Parliament should not have convened in the face of a staffer testing positive, adding the speaker’s discourse was “concerning” and “unhealthy”.
“While we have long held the view that the Minnis administration is inept and unfit for governance, we did not think it would have overseen what appears to be the unraveling of the legislative branch of our democracy,” he said.
“…The House should not have met in that manner today.
“And it was yet another embarrassing episode of a lost Minnis administration having no grasp as to how to do things in an orderly manner.”
Moultrie advised on Tuesday that a staff member who tested positive for COVID-19 was reportedly symptomatic during last week’s parliamentary sitting.
However, he, along with staff members who were supposed to be in quarantine, were present for yesterday’s proceeding.
The speaker said he contacted both Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis and Leader of Government Business Renward Wells, the Bamboo Town MP, on the course of action following the exposure of the House staff, but got no response.
He added that the House of Assembly has not been sanitized since the staffer contracted the virus.
Cooper called the failure to sanitize the building and the inability of House staffers to get free COVID-19 testing at government clinics, “pathetic”.
“It is disgraceful that any speaker in an independent Bahamas in the middle of a pandemic has to bow and scrape to the executive in order to facilitate testing for staff and sanitization of the House,” he said.
“We have long called for free and widespread testing and better contact tracing.”
He continued: “The prime minister and the leader of government business’ clear violation of social distancing protocols and calling an exposed staff member who should be in isolation into work was reckless, thoughtless and yet another example of one set of rules for the people and another set of rules for themselves.
“We cannot effectively conduct legislative business amid this unhealthy discourse of “war” between the prime minister and the speaker of the House because of what appear to be political differences after the speaker left the FNM.
“At the end of the day, the prime minister has to accept responsibility for this situation. It is of his own making. And he is to be condemned for it.”
Moultrie adjourned House to May 3 citing Rule 88 (9) which states that if disorder arises in the House, the speaker may adjourn the House to a time named by him, without having to put the question to the members.
In recent months, Moultrie has expressed dissatisfaction with the government on various matters, including the separation of powers of the executive and the legislature.
He said the latest actions by the executive is the “law straw”, adding “if you want a war, you can get a war”.
Calling attention to the suggestion by the speaker, Cooper said: “All of the talks about war and war books and wanting war between the Parliament and the executive, between the speaker and the prime minister is of concern to me, our children are watching these discourses and I think it’s rather unhealthy.”
He added that the Parliament not being able to meet in a hybrid or virtual manner is also a failure on the government.
While a resolution has been drafted recommending “hybrid” and virtual Parliamentary proceedings, amidst the ongoing pandemic, there has been no movement on the matter to date.
Moultrie has called the lack of action on the resolution a “complete indictment on the executive branch of the government”.
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