Two Parliament meetings were put off in the past week for different reasons. Tuesday afternoon’s urgent plenary session on the Progress Committee’s report about the police and prison did not continue due to the same expected inclement weather that led to closing schools early that day.
The heavy rains did not really materialise in the end, but it regarded a forecast whereby the worst-case-scenario must understandably be applied. Still, many government offices remained open, so there was some question as to why the legislature could not.
Ironically, when this meeting was rescheduled to noon – which later changed to 1:00pm – on Friday, it turned out Justice Minister Cornelius de Weever had other pressing engagements.
Thursday’s meeting on the World Bank study of the dump fumes and health hazards was stalled due to the lack of a quorum. The session had been requested by the NA faction with five of its six members attending, while the two-man US party faction was absent without notice.
The United Democrats faction members who were present failed to sign in, so the required majority was not present. It’s not the first time that coalition parties have refused to help facilitate the continuation of meetings called by the opposition and vice-versa.
One could perhaps understand the move if the UD/SMCP government had a problem with answering questions on this topic. However, there was no indication of such from the invited Ministers Miklos Giterson and Emil Lee who had both shown up.
Elected representatives need to appreciate that such cancellations disappoint and even frustrate the voters. After all, these are very important issues that affect the entire community.
What’s more, full-time parliamentarians make a handsome salary. Considering the annual summer and Christmas recesses, as well as the fact that they have meetings the public can follow only every other week and then occasionally just for a few of the five working days, people simply want them to earn it.
