Fri | Mar 29, 2024

Patterson urges parliamentarians to act more stately

Published:Sunday | December 12, 2021 | 12:13 AMErica Virtue - Senior Gleaner Writer
Former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson.
Former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson.

Former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson is urging lawmakers in George William Gordon House not to bring disagreements to the chamber but instead seek consensus on the way forward before hurling abuses and showing aggression.

Patterson, who retired from politics in 2006 after 30 years in the political arena, 14 of which were spent as prime minister, said that he was now focused on building the P.J. Patterson Centre for African Caribbean Advocacy, and mainly learns of House activities via the news.

However, while he has not been keeping close tabs on activities of the Houses of Parliament because of his numerous local and international engagements, the public display of the legislators has caused him to believe that there is need for a school for parliamentarians, especially first-timers.

“The proper functioning of a Parliament is an essential ingredient to any thriving democracy. Parliament has certain traditions and customs, which should not only be brought to the attention of new members of parliament, but which would greatly assist them in the performance of their duties, and in exercising their role as the body to which the Executive (Cabinet) is directly accountable. For that reason, it is of great value that every parliamentarian should be inducted into the workings of Parliament,” Patterson told The Sunday Gleaner during a telephone interview last week.

“There are a number of young parliamentarians who seem very eager, keen to undertake their functions as representatives of the people, but they would benefit from a learning process. The Speaker of the House and the president of the Senate have to assist the members as to how best they could exercise those functions,” added the elder statesman.

His comments come also in the wake of recent questionable rulings by House Speaker Marisa Dalrymple Philibert, which prevented government members from being questioned by the Opposition in a few instances.

Tom Tavares-Finson is the president of the Senate.

“The Speaker of the House and the president of the Senate have pivotal roles to play and should at all times recognise that although they belong to political parties, they are there to guide the conduct and proceedings of Parliament, and particularly, to offer full protection to the minority, the Opposition,” said Patterson, a former president of the People’s National Party (PNP), which now forms the Opposition.

The former prime minister didn’t consider all rulings made in Parliament appropriate.

“I couldn’t honestly say that all the rulings (House and Senate) they have made are appropriate, but there is a process of challenging those decisions – by motions that can be brought before the House to question the correctness or other rulings that are made by the president or the Speaker,” he explained, expressing hope that they will learn and grow.

“The two incumbents have been chosen by the democratic parliamentary process. I would have thought that by training, they have the capacity and potential to learn and to correct any transgressions which they have made in the past. But I don’t think that process is going to be assisted by persons like myself, who are no longer in the Legislature, seeking to pass judgement on their ability to grow. I think they do [have the capacity to grow and learn], and I hope they would,” he added.

He also called for proper decorum from the leaders of government and opposition businesses in the Houses.

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett is the leader of government business in the Lower House, while Anthony Hylton is the leader of opposition business. In the Upper House, the leader of government business is Senator Kamina Johnson Smith with her opposition counterpart being Senator Peter Bunting.

Patterson said the process needs assistance from those currently in the House with training and experience. Both the House Speaker and Senate president are attorneys-at-law with decades of experience.

Both Houses are governed by Standing Orders and Patterson likened not knowing them to “going to school without a tablet” in today’s school experience and “going to school without a pencil in my time at school”.

Standing Orders, he said, are a “fundamental tool of the trade”.

Develop friendships across party lines

Training has been provided by the Parliament for new House members and there is also a Standing Orders committee.

“Parliamentarians must develop friendships across party lines. There is a dining room downstairs (Gordon House), and that’s where a lot of camaraderie takes place. Sometimes I would hope we wouldn’t leave all of that once we depart from the dining room and wouldn’t feel that once we are in the Legislature and on display, we reveal our skills by being unnecessarily aggressive and abusive. We then become our own worst enemies, and if we think so badly of ourselves, what is the electorate to conclude?” the elder statesman reasoned.

Friendships and relationships created in the Legislature should not only be reflected in the chambers, but in political lives, he urged members.

“Our country will be much the better for it. We will be setting a fine example for our followers,” Patterson told The Sunday Gleaner.

He suggested that training in parliamentary behaviour could be provided by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, a network of past and present parliamentarians and parliamentary staff from more than 180 national, state, provincial and territorial parliaments and legislatures across the Commonwealth. It helps to identify benchmarks of good governance and Patterson believes exchanges and experience-sharing in parliamentary practices in democracies similar to Jamaica’s – such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, in addition to practices in smaller countries with fewer electoral choices – could be useful.

“The parliamentary process needs to be revisited everywhere, but it has to be done in a calculated and not a haphazard fashion. It’s not a single effort. It has to be a combination of all the elements that can contribute to the quality of parliamentary debate and more meaningful participation,” he said.

erica.virtue@gleanerjm.com