'Members of HoA behave like street boys & girls' - Hon Fraser
The Third District Representative pointed out that the practice is becoming a norm for the members.
He said, “I see a situation developed in the House of Assembly that I must talk about because it bothers me. Periodically, I would hear one or two law makers get up in this House and say that this is the highest law making body in the country. This is my first call. I put this above everything else when I come here. This is what I come to do. But is that really true for all of us? Is it true for the leader of government? Is it true for the leader of this House, that we put everything aside when we come here to a sitting? I have seen it repeatedly where some functions have been scheduled by the very government on the same day that we have a sitting and we take a recess and the members go to it.”
He further commented that whenever a time is set for the members to return they either return late or they do not return and as a result another date has to be set for the sitting.
“A time is set to come back and nobody knows when they are coming back. Sometimes nobody comes back and we set the sitting for another date. That has to stop,” expressed Hon Fraser during the continuation of the First Sitting of the Third Session of the Third House of Assembly on Thursday March 8, 2018.
Members behaving like “street boys & girls”
Hon Fraser further commented that the members of the House are behaving like “street boys and girls” instead of respecting their duties as parliament members.
“People treat us the way we treat ourselves. We have no respect for ourselves. This is a government. This is a branch of government, three equal branches of government, the Executive, Legislative and the Judicial, and we are still as legislators treating ourselves like some street boys and girls,” emphasised the Opposition Member.
The veteran law maker indicated that the HoA meetings are advertised weeks in advance and if he was the leader of government and someone in his ministry scheduled a meeting for the same day as a sitting he would tell them to reschedule it, adding that he would not leave a sitting to attend any function.
In addition, the Opposition Member mentioned that in all his 20 years of being a member of the HoA, he has never seen this happened before, adding that only some persons would get invited to functions and the other members must sit and wait and hope they return.
He expressed, “What is more troubling about it, is that they might invite two people from the House of Assembly and what are the others supposed to do, sit down and wait and hope that the rest comes back.”
“The business of the people must continue”
Meanwhile, Hon Fraser singled out Dr The Honourable D. Orlando Smith (AL), Premier and Minister of Finance, for leaving during a sitting of the House, while adding that he should be setting an example.
“Premier, you are the leader, you got to stop it. You cannot leave this House of Assembly in a sitting to go attend some other function. You cannot do that and it has to stop. If two members want to go to the college for some function, let them go, but the business of the people must continue. These sittings go on, and on, and on. Time is being taken for granted in here and it has to stop Premier. It has to stop,” Hon Fraser pleaded.
On the first sitting of March 1, 2018 the House was abruptly adjourned so that some of the members could attend the swearing-in ceremony of the new Deputy Governor, Mr David D. Archer. However, the members did not return at the scheduled time and the sitting was rescheduled for another day.
Time & attendance register for HoA members
In was Leader of the Opposition Honourable Andrew A. Fahie (R1), during the House of Assembly on March 1, 2018, criticised HoA members for always arriving late to sittings of the House and called for a time and attendance register to give a “true picture of what is happening”.
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