PM Holness needs to apologise for walking out of Parliament
Published:Thursday | March 21, 2024 | 12:07 AM
THE EDITOR, MADAM:
During his contribution to the Budget Debate on March 19 in Parliament, Opposition Leader Mark Golding stated:“ When the former Speaker was forced to resign as a result of an Integrity Commission investigation, the move to replace her with the wife of the prime minister, so that the head of Parliament is now the spouse of the head of Government, does not sit well with the tradition that the Speaker must act independently of the government of the day.”
After that comment by Mr Golding, government members led by Prime Minister Andrew Holness arrogantly, misguidedly, and preposterously walked out of Parliament. They were protesting a statement by the Opposition leader that the head of the legislature and executive were not independent of each other.
As far as I am concerned, Mr Golding said nothing wrong, inappropriate, and distasteful. He was only positing a view relating to the Speaker of the Lower House, Juliet Holness. The auditor general and Integrity Commission reports have been presented to Speaker Holness for many months now, and yet Mrs Holness has still not tabled these important reports in Parliament.
It is a national disgrace that Mr Golding did not get to finish his presentation as, with just 14 members on the opposition benches, they lacked the required quorum of 16 members for the sitting to continue. This country needs to be told which six Parliamentarians are under Integrity Commission investigations for alleged illicit enrichment and contemporaneously, PM Holness must, as an urgent national and governmental priority, inform the Parliament and country why the Integrity Commission has not been able to certify his statutory declarations for the past two years for this is a serious issue. Let me state here that I have the greatest respect for the prime minister and Opposition Leader Golding; however, PM Holness needs to publicly apologise for irresponsibly walking out of Parliament, along with his JLP Government MPs, while the Opposition leader was making his Parliamentary presentation. PM Holness need to demonstrate a much higher level of political maturity and conduct.
It is sad that Jamaica’s Parliament has now become a huge embarrassment across the world.
Will Opposition Leader Golding be allowed another opportunity to conclude his presentation to the Budget Debate?
ROBERT DALLEY, Esq