{"id":6775,"date":"2020-11-27T10:07:59","date_gmt":"2020-11-27T15:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/?p=6775"},"modified":"2020-11-27T10:13:10","modified_gmt":"2020-11-27T15:13:10","slug":"legislative-lethargy-by-the-ppp-sn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/?p=6775","title":{"rendered":"Legislative lethargy by the PPP (SN)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Dear Editor,<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The PPP\u2019s legislative agenda is looking conspicuously thin to date. In an August 4, 2020 news report the learned Attorney General Anil Nandlall \u2018committed to begin work immediately to ensure that the legislative agenda of the Government is fast-tracked\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;Accounting for his unproductive stint in the past at the helm of the Attorney General\u2019s Chamber and as Minister of Legal Affairs he noted, \u201cOn the last occasion when I functioned as Attorney General it was in a very difficult political circumstance because we were in a minority Government and it was extraordinarily difficult to get legislation passed and even budgets passed in the Parliament\u201d. He went on to say, \u201cI do not have that debilitating factor now, I have greater independence and I have a greater opportunity to function in that office.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, his seasoned ministerial counterpart Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira, promised \u2018a heavy agenda for the 12th Parliament\u2019, stating \u2018the new Government has an expansive legislative agenda\u2019. With a third of the PPP\u2019s first year behind us we continue to wait and wonder. The Guyanese people, however, are not getting the best out of their Parliament under the PPP\u2019s tenure. We have gotten used to the PPP not fulfilling their promises, like raising old age pension and giving public servants a raise in pay.<\/p>\n<p>They promised robust action on the Law Reform Commission Bill, the Small Busi-ness Bill, The Bail Bill, the Hire Purchase Bill, amendment to the Insurance Act, the Natural Resources Commission Bill, and the revised Petroleum Commission Bill, the Solid Waste Management Bill; and revising the three pieces of legislation the Cybercrime Bill, the Anti-Terrorism Bill and the State Assets Recovery Act. This is what talking the talk looks like.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;Yet quizzed recently by the media on the date for the next sitting of Parliament the Honourable Minister of Parliamentary Affairs astonishingly said she was uncertain as there is not \u201cenough material\u201d as yet. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be able to say right now. If I had an idea I would be able to tell you but I don\u2019t have an idea. I can\u2019t say right now what date we will have parliament, at this point,\u201d she said, according to Stabroek News. This is what not walking the walk looks like.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;The Speaker of Guyana\u2019s National Assembly, Manzoor Nadir underscored the importance of an effective Parliament to Guyana\u2019s oil and gas sector, recently stating that during his tenure parliamentary business will not be impeded by \u201cmaximum administrative delay\u201d. We encourage the Speaker to encourage our colleagues on the other side of the House to let us get on with the people\u2019s business.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This legislative lethargy by the PPP translated into what the Leader of the Opposition Honourable Joseph Harmon, MP, stated, is the PPP \u201ctrying to stifle the National Assembly\u201d. Space will not permit me to delve into the fact that it has been three months since Parliament has reopened yet to date none of the very important committees have been convened despite several requests by the Opposition.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Yours faithfully,<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Sherod Avery Duncan, MP.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Editor, The PPP\u2019s legislative agenda is looking conspicuously thin to date. In an August 4, 2020 news report the learned Attorney General Anil Nandlall \u2018committed to begin work immediately to ensure that the legislative agenda of the Government is fast-tracked\u2019. &nbsp;Accounting for his unproductive stint in the past at the helm of the Attorney [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6760,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latestnews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/image001-7.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4F7T1-1Lh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6775"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6776,"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6775\/revisions\/6776"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}