Opposition Member of Parliament Vincent Henry today trashed the government’s handling of Parliamentary Affairs and treatment of Opposition Parliamentarians.

During his remarks at the Opening of a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association’s Seminar at the Arthur Chung Conference Center this morning, the Opposition MP said the time is ripe for the Guyana Government to answer whether consensus is being practiced in the Parliament of Guyana and whether democracy is being practiced.

Henry said the Opposition hopes that the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association will hold the PPP administration accountable for the manner in which it conducts Parliamentary affairs. But more than that he said, the Government has not been open to working with the Opposition at the Parliamentary or any level, and that he believes, rubbishes the government’s inclusivity talks.

“This government lustily sings a call for a “One Guyana”, but practices the Opposite. Just imagine that the Opposition Parliamentarians who represent at least one-half of the people of Guyana are treated as pariahs by the Government of Guyana,” Henry told a suspenseful audience.

Henry recalled the exclusion of Opposition MPs from this year’s Republic Anniversary ceremony as one of the many examples of the government deliberately seeking to undermine and exclude the Opposition.

He continued by saying that the government is only nice to the Parliament and only approaches the Parliament when it needs money.

“Parliamentary sittings are seen to be more as impediments that as necessary. However when there is a need to dip into the consolidated fund one may rest assured that Parliament will be held,” Henry said.

 Henry told the forum that the government also uses its Parliamentary majority to railroad pieces of legislation through the house although sometimes it is confronted with strong opposition to those legislations.

“Recently we saw the current government using its majority to change the quorum of the Public Accounts Committee, so that they can stymie its work by nonattendance whenever issues to be dealt with are too hot for their comfort,” Henry posited.

MP Henry said the Guyanese people are well aware that the Parliament operates in “an unfair and bias manner”.

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