And while the business of today's debate proceeded without incident, with the 6 PUP members wrapping up the debate un-interrupted, on the adjournment things, once again, got out of control. UDP member for Collet Patrick Faber tried to speak on the adjournment. He wanted to discuss past PUP Mayor David Fonseca and the $403,000 in City Council funds that he left office without accounting for. But the Prime Minister and the Speaker were determined to make sure that didn't happen. That resulted in another showdown between the UDP and Madam Speaker. Our team had already left the assembly and the Government Press Office refused to provide us video of the event so we have a portion of the radio broadcast to give you a best approximation of what happened, we have pieced that together with still images from our archives.
Hon. Patrick Faber, Collet Area Rep.
"What my further point is Madam Speaker is that the Prime Minister himself should make a comment because this is public money Madam Speaker."
Elizabeth Zabaneh, Speaker of the House
"Honorable Member, I will just like to say that I think this is..."
Hon. Patrick Faber,
"Madam Speaker yesterday you tried to stop me."
Elizabeth Zabaneh,
"We're not trying to stop you but I think it is prudent that the people involved..."
Hon. Patrick Faber,
"I can stand here and I can list every single check number, I can list every voucher if the House wants me to go through that. I am trying to get out of here too but if you insist that I must do all of that I can list every single voucher number and every check number."
Elizabeth Zabaneh,
"I don't think that I'll allow that today. I am telling you that I will not allow that today."
Hon. Patrick Faber,
"On what grounds? We have been down this road before where you have tried to stifle us from speaking. This is the National Assembly of this country. We have a right to speak Madam Speaker...on what grounds are you telling me that I am not being allowed to speak?"
Elizabeth Zabaneh,
"You're totally out of order and I said I will not allow that under standing order 91."
Hon. Patrick Faber,
"I was going to forward then to say that certainly this is a matter of corruption and of course the PM would need to make a point or a statement on what had happened. You remember when you asked him sometime last week to make a comment he just ignored you and walked away and said he had nothing to say. When I got up to make this point, the Prime Minister was the first to jump up to say I couldn't speak on that matter because the matter was before the courts, and matters before the courts where they might be some influence from those who are in the National Assembly, we should not speak on those matters and that is true. But this matter is not before any court, this matter you will remember has just been reported to the police and the police will do their investigations and when police is finished, they will hand over the findings they have to the DPP and he will then determine whether criminal proceedings will come from it.
She made a ruling on Standing Order 91 apparently which gives general power to the Speaker to cut the meetings in special extenuating situations which I could not understand. Nothing bad was going on there, nothing out of the ordinary was going on there; it was just simply a member with a national concern trying to voice that concern.
The Prime Minister makes the claim that he is trying to reform the ways of the government. He is the one who tries to make the claim that he is going to be tough on corruption. He is the one who has in fact instructed all the members of hi s party and the other side of the House to make this big claim that they have learnt the lesson from March 1st and that they will try to do things differently, they will try to spin everything around and this is just another example that they are not serious about doing any of that. They want to continue with business as usual.
We now have to sit down again in a meeting of our central executive to decide what steps we are going to take because we have been down this road before and this lady just seems to, every chance she gets, tries to stifle us and it cannot be that when she or the Prime Minister or somebody from the other side does not like to hear the truth, or does not like for us to expose the people's business or expose to the people what are the issues that she will stop us from talking. That cannot work."
That UDP central executive meeting will be held on Monday afternoon.
