Decorum in the House: The role of the Speaker, VP

Dithapelo Keorapetse | Friday December 18, 2015 17:03

Some dismiss MPs as irresponsible people who are just in the House to play. Some voters have phoned radio stations to complain while others have resorted to social media to bash MPs about their lack of propriety, etiquette or seemliness and their alleged preoccupation with trivia. Many critics of MPs have little appreciation of what’s happening in the House, including the draconian rules MPs work under. In most cases opposition MPs are the ones criticised for bad behaviour in the House. Failure to quorate has also been mentioned as a clear sign of MPs lack of seriousness. This has however significantly improved. Some MPs from both sides of the aisle have been thrown out by the Speaker for nonconformity with the rules of order and procedure. Are the aforementioned accusations fair on MPs,  are they really ill mannered, irresponsible and playful and if so why? What is really going on in Parliament? 

Most of the time what’s happening in Parliament is normal. Politics, at freedom squares and both Parliament and Councils, is by nature rough; it is not like a church service or a corporate meeting where everybody is expected to be silent, listen and speak only when allowed to speak. In Parliament, interrupting someone who is on the floor through side remarks or points of order or procedure or clarifications is normal. It is true that sometimes an MP on the floor is disturbed with derisive or aggressive comments or abuse. If MPs unwarrantedly interrupt  others, The Speaker has to intervene and make a ruling. Because parliament proceedings are not broadcast on TV or radio, many people mistake proper and appropriate interruptions and war of words for  bad behaviour. 

The truth is that the ruling party wants to make Parliament boring and frustrating to opposition MPs and somewhat to the backbench of the ruling party. Most Ministers are very arrogant and respond to questions in a manner that detracts from the role of parliament as an oversight body. They provide inadequate information, lie, mislead and lack seriousness when responding to questions. There’s one Minister who when answering Ministers questions or themes will take all the time and not leave anytime for MPs to make follow ups. This Minister is always heckled for this behaviour and has been recently rebuked by The Speaker for what MPs see as waste of time by repeating himself, being deliberately too slow and time wasting with irrelevant things and not addressing the material question before him. This kind of behaviour invites heckles which may be abusive or points of procedures or points of orders. One Minister said in Parliament that government finances medical procedures, including rare ones which local hospitals can’t deal with and which are performed outside the country for citizens. Who doesn’t know that this is factually incorrect as many people die whilst trying to raise funds for rare medical procedures they have to undergo abroad? These kinds of lies annoy opposition MPs, especially when The Speaker allows them to go unpunished. 

Parliament proceedings are designed such that Government Business takes precedence over Private Members Business. Parliament can only sit if there’s Government Business to deal with or else it adjourns. For example, parliament adjourned on Friday, notwithstanding the fact that there’s a lot of motions, questions and themes by MPs. It doesn’t seem to matter. Motions and themes can only be debated or asked on Fridays, except when it’s an urgent motion. The ruling party, it would appear from the recent posture by The Speaker, will decide which motions are urgent. This fuels frustration of MPs. Sometimes, as one ruling party MP alleged, the Speakership colludes with the government through the Leader of the House to frustrate MPs’ efforts to table urgent motions or uncomfortable questions. This is what leads to fights that people sometimes see in Parliament. 

The Speakership is fast losing credibility and or integrity; it is biased, incompetent and haphazard. When an opposition MP sought to bring an urgent motion on Matsha issue, The Speaker, allowed MPs to indicate their support and allowed others to indicate their negation of whether the motion has to be debated in no order and put the matter to a vote. This was queried, albeit in vain, by a veteran MP as misinterpretation of the Standing Orders. When a ruling party MP sought to table a motion on urgency recently, the Speaker wanted MPs who were in support of the matter in a strict order of only allowing MPs who support to indicate their support. The matter failed because there were fewer than four MPs in support. These inconsistencies in application of the Standing Orders frustrate MPs. Botswana MPs are very respectful of the Speaker and other MPs but the Speaker is fueling frustration and is directly responsible for whatever bad things that are happening in Parliament.  How on earth can a person be nominated for a position of Specially Elected MP without informing them and without seeking their consent? To the Speaker this was normal. It was also normal to reveal the names of those who nominated two initial nominees and to conceal the names of those who nominated the other two “nominees”. This is insane!  How then do you expect MPs to behave normal under these circumstances? 

When a Minister misbehaves, eg like the one who recently disrespected, disparaged and demeaned the Leader of Opposition (LoO), The Speaker didn’t initially intervene until the LoO sought protection. It took MPs from the opposition insistence that the Minister withdraws her unparliamentary remarks in respect of another MP, some MPs and ultimately the LoO. The Speaker didn’t see anything wrong until the matter brought chaos to Parliament. Other than bias, The Speaker is very timid and fearful of the Leader of the House(LoH)/Vice President and she’s not assertive. Sometimes she would change her ruling simply because the VP has a different view. There’s hardly an incident where the Speaker overruled the LoH. The man runs Botswana Parliament, period! The situation is not helped by his superciliousness; hauntingly disdainful and contemptuous and lackadaisical attitude. The man thinks he is better than everybody that his condescension, snobbery and vanity disgust not only the opposition but even the backbench of the ruling party. The only difference is that the former express this disgust publicly whilst the latter whisper and gossip about it. 

Batswana should be rest assured that their MPs are there for them. They shout and heckle Ministers and sometimes the Speaker because they demand justice, accountability and transparency. They demand fairness and equity. MPs accusation of lack of etiquette is fuelled by the obsolete Standing Orders, which inhibit the role of Parliament. They’re frustrated by the biased attitude of the Speaker and the  increasing control of Parliament by the LoHo. MPs are trying to protect the interests of Batswana by speaking against corruption, economic crime, mismanagement and unethical governance. Because they are restricted to protect the country by the rules, the Speaker and the LoH as well as the numerically strong ruling party, they sometimes resort to some extreme means to try to defend the country. These extreme measures are in most cases warranted. But to say they (MPs) are playful and discourteous is not true. If what is being argued here is not true, why then is the ruling party refusing to televise and radio broadcast all Parliamentary proceedings? If Parliament is televised, the public would see who is misbehaving and why, who is sleeping, who is meaningfully contributing, who is displaying arrogance etcetera. 

I wish you a merry Christmas and a prosperous 2016