THERE was uproar in the House of Representatives on Friday as Speaker Bridgid Annisette-George put UNC MPs Saddam Hosein and Rudranath Indarsingh out of the House. Annisette-George gave them their marching orders after they openly protested Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi's statement that Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar's allegations that Government "gutted" two bills granting Tobago greater self-governance,were in contempt of Parliament.
Al-Rawi said that at a news conference on Wednesday, Persad-Bissessar claimed to have document that "was a list of amendments before the committee of the whole of this House presented to the committee of the whole House of Representatives." He said Persad-Bissessar then alleged that Government "had effectively gutted the Tobago Autonomy Bills which were before the House, by removing critically essential clauses of the bills, using its simple majority."
To punctuate her theatrical act of protestation, Al-Rawi said Persad-Bissessar "then proceeded to tear up the papers that she demonstrated in aid of her statements."
He said no amendment mirroring anything claimed by Persad-Bissessar "was ever presented to Cabinet, was ever circulated in Parliament and laid before the committee of the whole.
"No list of amendments in committee to cause the type of ‘gutting’ amendments as alleged by the Leader of the Opposition ever took place and therefore does not exist in the records of the Parliament."
He said checks with the House's secretariat had confirmed this, and it was disconcerting and inexplicable that Persad-Bissessar would seek "to wilfully deceive the population and attempt to place in the public domain false impressions of the records of this House."
He reminded MPs, "The law of Parliament to be found in the treatise of Erskine May establishes that any person who falsifies, alters or misrepresents the records of this House commits the offence of contempt of this House."
Erskine May's book Parliamentary Practice, by a former clerk of the British House of Commons, is the authority on Westminster-style parliamentary proceedings.
Al-Rawi observed that Indarsingh repeated Persad-Bissessar's claims in a television interview earlier in the day.
Annisette-George overruled Hosein's objections that Al-Rawi was anticipating an outcome of the committee's deliberations on the bill, saying Al-Rawi's statement was about "something that took place in the public domain."
Indarsingh complained to Annisette-George that Al-Rawi was implying that he and Persad-Bissessar were in contempt of the House for their respective statements.
"I am trying to seek where the attorney general is heading with this."
Annisette-George overruled Indarsingh and told him to sit down.
Al-Rawi continued, "I have already referred to the law by which our Parliament governs itself and that it is a contempt to misrepresent the records of Parliament."
Hosein asked, "Is this a motion referring anyone to the committee of privileges?"
Annisette-George told Hosein, 'Please have a seat."
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