FORMER Prime Minister Owen Arthur said he was saddened to see the level to which Parliament had plummeted.
And according to him, Speaker Michael Carrington was a representation of the “poor rakey parliament this parliament has become”.
At a hastily called Press conference by the Opposition yesterday, Arthur acknowledged that the Opposition had lost confidence in Speaker Michael Carrington to preside fairly.
Arthur, the Member of Parliament (MP) for St Peter since 1984, said the basic rights of the Opposition were trampled for vexacious reasons.
“I was elected in this House to speak in the House. That is what being a Member of Parliament does.
“After 25 years in this Parliament, it saddens me the tragic state to which our Parliament has fallen. I have seen members on all sides, under all speakers, enabled to exercise the fundamental right of a Member of Parliament, the right to speak in the House of Assembly.”
Arthur said that when the Speaker of the House reportedly said in the past that Members of Parliament should be required to report to their constituency, he may have gone too far.
“As a Speaker of Parliament, he is totally out of order to be laying down rules that are supposed to be binding upon Members of Parliament, outside his House.”
Arthur said his colleagues had nothing to be ashamed of and must be commended for their fight for democracy.
He said the DLP Government after two years had not settled and this was why they would continue to lash out in and out of Parliament.
Arthur said there was a need for the quality of Parliament to be restored. (MK)
