When raucous behaviour is allowed to go unpunished in the highest court of the land, what message are we sending to Barbadians, especially members of our young population who would aspire to such high office?
What occurred in the House of Assembly in the post-lunch session last Tuesday should be condemned in the strongest possible language – pardon the pun – since it resulted in a shocking outburst that was unparliamentary and quite unbecoming of the usually engaging Opposition Member of Parliament William Duguid.
But Duguid apologized yesterday, admitting he had fallen short of the traditions and standards of Barbados’ 300-year-old Parliament by resorting to a verbal outburst that was globally broadcast via Youtube and Facebook and was soundly condemned by the Barbados Christian Council.
It is now left to be seen whether any other parliamentarian will admit to the “grievous” provocation of which Duguid spoke yesterday.
Sadly, the offending remarks Duguid complained about are almost inaudible on social media, while the Christ Church West MP’s reply will loudly resound on those online recordings.
This is not the first time such untoward behaviour has occurred on the floor of the honourable House. In December 2004, a Barbados Labour Party MP was also blasted islandwide for comments which the then Opposition Democratic Labour Party leader Clyde Mascoll believed were in reference to his elderly mother. The BLP also claimed then to have been provoked.
Six years later, allegations surfaced of a gun being brandished in the precincts of Parliament by a DLP Cabinet Minister, causing a BLP MP to be “fearful for (his) life and safety”.
The incident simmered for months and seemed to have evaporated somewhere in the misty recesses of national memory until it resurfaced last month when a letter, sent on behalf of Speaker of the House Michael Carrington, was dispatched to all sitting MPs inviting them to shed light on what had actually occurred near the steps of Parliament on the night of March 19, 2010.
In the interim, every week one of the island’s state-owned radio stations, namely 100.7 FM, broadcasts sittings live from the Lower House and Senate as a source of information for those in Barbados and for thousands on the World Wide Web.
Furthermore, even as we read, hopeful candidates are working in the field canvassing votes for an opportunity to sit in the House where, to all intents and purposes, order is not always being maintained nor the august nature of the Chamber respected.
We believe the signal achievement of a politician has to mean more than winning enough votes to represent his or her constituency. Being able to sit in the space where our founding fathers stoutly defended Barbadians’ right to free education and Independence from colonial rule, to name a few epic pieces of legislation, must be a privilege, and a special one at that!
If, however, Parliament is allowed to be a bastion of the basest behaviour, then no honourable institution, including our law courts and places of learning, will be safe from what is akin to sacrilege.
The public is listening and watching.
