Demands she be withdrawn from all parliamentary committee

Durrant Pate/Contributor

House Speaker, Juliet Holness, is under fire today from the Parliamentary Opposition, which is demanding that she be withdrawn from all parliamentary committees citing bias and partiality in her administration of the Jamaican legislature and the House of Representatives, in particular.

Opposition Parliamentary Whip, Phillip Paulwell, metaphorically read the Speaker, who happens to be the wife of Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, the Riot Act, suggesting she has mishandled the affairs of the parliament and the impartial expectation of the Office of Speaker, who is administering the affairs of the Jamaican legislature and presiding over meetings of the House.

In going on the offensive in his sectoral debate presentation in the House yesterday, Paulwell remarked,” Madam Speaker, there is one matter of parliamentary principle I must place on the record, because it speaks directly to the integrity of this institution and to the quality of our democracy. The role of the Speaker is, by constitutional design and long-standing convention, one of strict impartiality. The Chair exists above the partisan divide as the guardian of fair process for all Members, Government and Opposition alike.”

Citing Speaker’s meddling

Continuing, the seven-term Member of Parliament (MP) said,  “It is therefore a matter of institutional concern, one I raise with respect for the office and not for the individual, that we have recently witnessed the Speaker’s presence in contentious committee meetings in a manner that has been perceived as lending support to the Government’s position. This is, to my knowledge, without modern precedent in this Parliament.”

Paulwell argued that if the society is serious about Standing Orders reform and is serious about strengthening Jamaican democracy, then the society must also be serious about protecting the impartiality of the Chair (Office of Speaker). That protection is not a courtesy, he reasoned but is a constitutional obligation.

To this extent, he called on all Members of this House to uphold and ask respectfully that Speaker Holness resist her party’s inclination to demean the office of House Speaker and resign from all the committees that are likely to bring the office into disrepute.

Whilst serving on a number of committees, Speaker Holness has been verbally sparing with Opposition Members, the latest being the imbroglio over MP Dennis Gordon and Parliament’s Ethics Committee inquiries.