…insists that she must apologise
The Parliamentary Opposition yesterday retaliated against Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, when she again stood in the National Assembly to add her voice to the ongoing 2014 budget debates.
As the Minister commenced her speech, members of the joint opposition, the Alliance for Change (AFC) and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), swiftly vacated their chairs and headed for the nearest exits.
The only opposition member who remained grounded was APNU’s Chief Whip and Shadow Minister of Education, Amna Ally, who was slated to speak immediately after Manickchand.
On Friday Manickchand, first attempted to make her presentation but was ‘drowned out’ by the Opposition’s ‘table banging’ and calls for her to apologise to the APNU member Jaipaul Sharma for comments that were deemed “highly improper” by Speaker of the House, Raphael Trotman.
Manickchand’s comments were voiced in the House on Tuesday last as APNU’s Volda Lawrence was making her budget presentation. She was highlighting the fact that a number of underage girls are being impregnated by older men.
The Education Minister in heckling mode noted that the “APNU member Sharma” would know about such activities.
Although the Minister was initially barred by Speaker of the House from making a presentation in the House until she offered an apology, he had subsequently reversed his decision.
Leader of the Opposition, David Granger, in an invited comment yesterday said that the opposition is still demanding that the Education Minister apologise to its member, Jaipaul Sharma.
However, General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party, Clement Rohee, at an earlier press conference at Freedom House yesterday said that based on an agreement that was forged between the Opposition and the Government sides on Wednesday that the Education Minister should have been allowed to speak.
He said that the meeting was convened before Trotman and saw the attendance of Chief Whips of the APNU and PPP/C, Amna Ally and Gail Teixeira, along with APNU’s Joseph Harmon and Manickchand. According to Rohee, the outcome of that meeting was that Manickchand would be allowed to speak based on certain agreed language.
However, APNU’s Harmon is adamant that the only agreement made was with regards to the Education Minister offering an apology to Jaipaul Sharma, an accord that she failed to adhere to thus triggering the ‘walk out’, yesterday.
And although the House was void of the opposition, Manickchand continued her presentation even amplifying how Guyana has been able to sustain eight consecutive years of growth. In fact Manickchand sought to applaud her colleague Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh, who was instrumental in crafting the budget which, she said, is expected to “bring goodness to the people of Guyana.”
“To Dr. Singh, the Honourable Minister of Finance, we are proud of you; we are grateful to you for the efforts you have made over the years and we stand with you on this budget,” added the very vocal Education Minister.
Manickchand went on to bash comments made by the opposition earlier in the debates that the staff of the Finance Ministry “are tired and should go home.”
“I think that was one of the most unfortunate things that we have heard in this House for the entire budget debate…Professional staff can vote however they want but they should be allowed to work in peace without being targeted and their professionalism should be respected,” said Manickchand much to the support of her colleagues on the Government side.
She added that entire conferences are organised around the world to have more women involved in the budgetary process of States.
“Here in Guyana we have a young bright, hard-working, articulate person, she is a woman, she is Sonya Roopnauth, she is our Director of Budget, we should be proud as a nation that we have done what conferences are organised to do.”
“Regardless of which side of the House you sit on, that should be a matter to celebrate,” asserted the Education Minister.
Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2014/04/08/opposition-stages-walk-out-on-priya-manickchand/