PHILIPSBURG--“My role is not to assuage the opposition so they do not criticise. My role is to facilitate the workings of Parliament,” said Parliament Chairwoman Sarah Wescot-Williams of the criticism levelled at her especially by opposition National Alliance about the time between meetings being requested and called in Parliament.
Wescot-Williams said she often has to explain the objective of “so-called urgent meetings,” yet some Members of Parliament “continue to belabour the point as a right of Members of Parliament to demand an urgent meeting.”
“If that was indeed the case, every three or more MPs requesting a meeting should say it is urgent, and we get meeting after meeting, Ministers come and go, come back, etc.,” she said. “Members should understand and know when to use the instrument of written questions, oral questions, public meeting or other meeting(s).”
“Ministers are given all reason to procrastinate when, knowingly or not, questions from members come from every angle; when we send Ministers on wild goose chases with stories and insinuations. What do we expect? And several Members of Parliament, including myself, have sat on that side of the table and should know.”
Parliament’s Rules of Order need upgrading; this is an ongoing process. “We are moving ahead and noteworthy are the changes instituting the question hour and establishing that responses to questions submitted in writing be forthcoming within three weeks,” Wescot-Williams said.
The committees of Parliament “are not little silos, they are part and parcel of the procedures of Parliament. Their ultimate goal is to advise the entire Parliament regarding specific matters of interest to Parliament and not to individual members.”
In Parliament, “you have a majority and a minority. That’s democracy,” said Wescot-Williams.
It is customary to request meetings and invite ministers to the House’s floor, when in actuality, bringing a minister into a public meeting is a decision of the Parliament as an entity, not of those requesting a meeting.
“I, in any case, have been lenient. However, if this is the manner in which we want to operate, then I will be very formal on these points. When a meeting is convened and members go in all directions with their questioning, is it surprising that Ministers go and take their time coming back?” Wescot-Williams questioned
“If they don’t have the answers at hand, is the chairperson expected to drag them to Parliament? At least when questions are submitted in writing, they are more precise, void of the sometimes-lengthy narratives and diatribes. What is the aim? Do we want information and answers that the public can use, or do we want to show who can upstage whom?” Wescot-Williams said.
