Is SVG seeing ‘the beginning of a creeping dictatorship?’ – Gonsalves

Opposition Leader Ralph Gonsalves is asking whether St. Vincent and the Grenadines is witnessing “the beginning of a creeping dictatorship” as he said the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Ronnia Durham-Balcombe, has not allowed any of the three questions he submitted for oral answers in Thursday’s meeting of Parliament.

Among the questions if the role that Nicholas Friday is playing as his aide/assistant to his father, Prime Minister Godwin Friday.

Friday told iWitness News in December that his son functions as an aide to him and receives not payment from the government.

However, Gonsalves attempted to place the matter on the Order Paper for Thursday’s meeting of Parliament, asking a six-part question about the younger Friday’s role in the government, including whether he has taken an oath of secrecy.

He said on Star Radio, his Unity Labour Party’s radio station on Monday, that the speaker had informed him that the question would not be permitted as it breaks the rule that says, “Not more than one subject be referred to one question and a question shall not be made of excessive length.”

Gonsalves said he had also attempted to ask about “an abnormal presence of swarming flies across St. Vincent and the Grenadines” and whether Minister of National Security, Deputy Prime Minister St. Clair Leacock, had visited His Majesty’s Prisons as part of his tour of national security facilities across the country.

Gonsalves wrote to Durham-Balcombe on Sunday and read the letter on radio show on Monday.

“I  disagree  profoundly  with  your  ruling  in  each  case  and  accordingly  request  a  favourable reconsideration of your decisions,” the former prime minister said.

He suggested that, in the alternative, the speaker permit the questions to be listed  on  the   Order  Paper and invite the MPs to whom they are directed to answer or decline to answer.

“Whether or not you accede to my requests, suggestions, and representations, these matters will be ventilated fully in and out of the House of Assembly in one form or another,” Gonsalves wrote.

In his radio commentary, Gonsalves said:

“Dr. Friday was asked by a journalist about this matter, and Friday said … he trusts his son and his son is not being paid by the government, as though that solves the problem…

“I’m sure that the young man is a wonderful young man. … This is not an imputation against a young man. Let me make that plain.”

Gonsalves said that the question that was rejected reads as follows:

Inasmuch as the Prime Minister has publicly acknowledged that one of his sons has been, or is, his assistant or aide who receives no salary from the Government, will the Prime Minister state:

a.   What  are the specific roles and duties of his son in the public administration or governance of our country;

b.   By what authority was his son so appointed and engaged;

c.   Has his son been attending private or formal meetings touching and concerning the conduct of public affairs, and if so, how many meetings, with whom, and on what subjects; and is a log being kept of these meetings;

d.   Has his son been privy to official documents touching and concerning the public administration or governance of our country, and has he taken the requisite Oath of Secrecy;

e.   Has his son received thus far any stipend, allowance or in-kind benefit (outside of a salary payment) from the public purse;

f.   Has any person or entity outside of the central government made or is making any financial or other contribution towards his son’s role and participation in the public administration or governance of our country?

“For instance, the first part of the question, he can say the duties is really to help me in dealing with people. That’s simple — people who come by the office,” Gonsalves said.

The opposition leader said that Friday can tell Parliament that the authority came from him, adding that the answers to the other questions are equally simple.

“I delineated the question in parts to make it easy for him to answer; to answer it very shortly — briefly.  And if you notice here, I have a semicolon after each of those parts, and the question mark at the end,” Gonsalves said.

He said it is not sufficient for the prime minister to say that he trusts his son as an aide and that he is not getting any money paid for from the government.

“Well, the thing is more important than that. So, what you’re telling me, Friday, can bring his other son, he can bring his wife. He can bring his wife, he can bring his nenny (godmother). He can bring his uncle in the same way?

“And then, if he does it, all the other ministers and ministers of states can bring their grandfather, their nephew, their brother, they sissy (sister), their brother, their spouse? What sort of a thing is this? I just don’t understand it. These are fundamental questions of institutional democracy and governance.”

Gonsalves asked about the documents that the prime minister’s son might be seeing.

“What meetings is he attending? What are the subjects? Is somebody else — is a financier paying for him?” Gonsalves said.

“OK. He gets no salary. Is he using government stationery? What in-kind property of the state is he utilising? He can’t just go and occupy an office space. People don’t — institutions are important,” Gonsalves said.

“That is why I pose these questions for him to answer. It’s one subject, and the answers required are not lengthy, but Friday will have to answer these questions to the people as I’m raising them now,” the opposition leader said.

He said that if he is not allowed to ask the questions during question time, he would do so during any debate in the national assembly.

“You can’t ask me not to talk about it, unless a new Ayatollah emerges that I don’t know about,” Gonsalves said.

The opposition leader urged the speaker to review her decision, saying that if she did not so he would talk about the issue inside and outside of Parliament.

“You’re not going to be able to muzzle me. … I am too experienced in this business, and the people will hear me as they’re hearing me on the radio,” said Gonsalves, whose Unity Labour Party administration was voted out of office on Nov. 27 after 25 years.

The development comes even as Durham-Balcombe, a lawyer, who was elected speaker for the first time when parliament met on Dec. 23, is yet to preside over a full sitting of the national assembly.

“You mean to say you don’t even hold one Parliament yet — Is this the beginning of a creeping dictatorship?” Gonsalves said.

“I ain’t going to lie down on this; I ain’t going to sit down on this. And I want the speaker to understand that with clarity,” he said, adding that the issue is one of impartiality.

“And you notice that I’m very reasonable in everything what I’ve said. But let no one doubt my resolve on this particular question.”