Prime Minister Godwin Friday has dismissed a claim by Opposition Leader Ralph Gonsalves that government lawmakers are embarrassing him with their conduct in the House of Assembly.
During Tuesday’s debate on a motion to establish a national development bank, Gonsalves suggested that frequent interjections and cross-talk from government benches were undermining the prime minister’s standing and preventing him from speaking for himself.
The prime minister responded as the house suspended the debate of the private motion, brought by government senator Chelsea Alexander, as the time for such a motion had elapsed.
“The Honourable Leader of the Opposition talk about members embarrassing me. On Nov. 27, the members on this side of the House embarrassed him. And let them continue,” the prime minister said.
Friday said Gonsalves was underestimating government MPs, adding, “it’s not who talk loud is who talk best.
“And… what we have seen is that he got a surprise that he didn’t know was coming, and there’s more to come.”
The prime minister was apparently referring to the government’s decision to postpone debate on an amendment to the Constitution.
The change in the law was listed on the order paper, and Gonsalves began a campaign against it one week earlier, as soon as the Order Paper was published.
The opposition leader alleged that the government wanted to amend the Constitution and the election law as an insurance policy in the face of the petitions his party has filed, challenging the eligibility of Friday and his Foreign Minister, Dwight Fitzgerald Bramble, to contest last November’s polls.
Friday’s comments to Gonsalves came after a debate marked by repeated procedural interventions and appeals from House Speaker Ronnia Durham Balcombe for members to limit cross-talk and allow speakers to be heard in silence.
Gonsalves, in his contribution, had argued that some government members, by interjecting while he spoke, were also “embarrassing” the prime minister by appearing to speak over or on behalf of him.
Friday rejected that characterisation, and broadened his response to Gonsalves’ overall approach in the debate on the national development bank motion, saying it revealed bigger political and policy differences between the two sides.
“Everything that I heard from the Honourable Leader of the Opposition displays a stunning lack of imagination,” Friday said.
“You can’t govern based on simply everything that you saw in the past; you have to plan for the future. And that is what we bring to the table… a fresh approach, a new way of looking at things, more creativity, more diligence, hard work and putting the people of this country first,” the prime minister said.
Debate on the motion will continue at a later date to be set after the speaker consults with the Prime Minister, the Clerk and Alexander.
