Dawn Ritch

The prime Minister wears a fuchsia pink suit that I really can't stand, although it is growing on me somewhat.

But every time she wears it to Parliament - and it's been twice now - the members of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition descend into the most atrocious public behaviour. If I had a suit like that I'd burn it, because it must be bad luck.

The only purpose in keeping it is to dramatise to the nation that this most putrid behaviour by opposition parliamentarians is being directed towards a lady.

That suit of hers is a red rag to a bull. It's making the Jamaica Labour Party violate every parliamentary protocol and procedure with maniacal abandon. It teases every social prejudice of certain Opposition members out into the open. The cumulative effect on the television news is to suggest that among them every fly is undone.

Protocol demands that questions be asked during question time and directed to the substantive minister. Questions are to be of a follow-up nature, or for clarification of the specific matter at hand. Protocol also demands that clarification questions must follow from the answers to the original question, and not raise new or divergent subject matters. That is why parliamentary procedure requires that notice be given.

Additional questions which widen the base of your argument, rather than clarify specific points, do not follow proper parliamentary procedure. Nor do questions aimed merely at generating discussion and debate.

Persistent and haranguing questions, some of which have already been answered and some of which demand information that is not readily available without research or consultation, are therefore an insult to the dignity of the House. Such a breach is guaranteed to make the proceedings descend into boisterousness, as it did last Tuesday.

Madame Prime Minister was on her feet, having tabled the forensic report on Sandals Whitehouse. During 'Question Time' one or two questions are to be asked, but Opposition Leader Bruce Golding asked three or four follow-up questions. One was on Whitehouse, another on sugar, and still another on the buying and selling of apartments in Montego Bay.

Forensic report

Mrs. Simpson Miller answered them comprehensively. Following that, Bruce asked three or four more questions on Whitehouse. Karl Samuda then jumped to his feet and challenged the veracity of the forensic report. The latter called and referred to the Prime Minister throughout as "she", "she", "she". Can "she" attest, he asked, to the occupancy level of Sandals Whitehouse last month, and had "she" seen its revenue and expenditure statements.

No prime minister knows without inquiry these up-to-the-minute figures of companies. It was the view of the forensic audit that current record occupancies would repay the investment in the hotel, and Madame Prime Minister said so. Karl Samuda, who seems to have special information on the matter whether accurate or not, persisted in his line of questioning.

Samuda had his foot on the chair, then chucked some paper or other on his desk, took his foot down, and spun on his heel as though to leave the chamber. The whole time he addressed the Prime Minister in this most disgusting manner as "she", "she" "she". He evidently, given his social back ground, cannot bring himself to refer to her by her correct title 'The Most Honourable Prime Minister.'

Then JLP's Clive Mullings immediately tried to grill her, followed by Andrew Gallimore who accused the Prime Minister of a 'cover-up' on Sandals Whitehouse. And this after she'd already tabled an independent forensic report and answered innumerable questions about it, and from four or five different JLP inquisitors.

Boisterous disorder

Former Opposition Leader Edward Seaga would never have presided over his side of the House degenerating into such boisterous disorder. He would have been alert to the risk of bringing his party into public ridicule. And certainly he would never have permitted Gallimore, a junior person serving for the first time, to harass a prime minister. Indeed, such a person would not have been allowed to ask any questions at all.

It is not proper procedure that a raft of Opposition members behave like a bunch of thugs who have jumped in the back of a pick-up truck, wildly firing shots in every direction. Not only is this an insult to the House and the office of Prime Minister, but it makes them look ridiculous and curmudgeonly.

Nevertheless, the Prime Minister, Mrs. Simpson Miller, remained cool and calm throughout. She merely noted that if she were to answer every question for every ministry, she would have no need of a Cabinet.

Obviously, therefore, any further questions would have to go to the ministers responsible. Bizarrely, it was the Opposition Leader himself who then feigned surprise. He said, on his feet, that he didn't now know "what questions (he) dare ask the Prime Minister." Golding is the perfect expression of where ignorance is bliss, it is folly to be wise.

There had now been nearly two hours of questions in the House. The Prime Minister was abused personally and repeatedly by numerous Opposition members throughout. It should be noted that Phillip Paulwell, Minister of Industry, had arrived that day, and tabled his response to JLP Clive Mullings, who had raised questions in relation to contracts at the Government-owned Petcom. Clive Mullings was not there at the time.

Bear in mind that Paulwell's response was already tabled, and everything done according to parliamentary procedure, and it was well past question time. The Prime Minister could have acted out of pique and refused to have the question time extended. But, instead, she proceeded to ask Minister Paulwell to come back into the House and answer Mullings, who had now arrived.

There is a tendency among persons from a middle-class background to treat this gracious Prime Minister in a very vulgar and common way. It has got to the point where they are prepared to humiliate themselves in public, rather than acknowledge the fact that she is as good, if not better than they, despite her humble beginnings.

What is truly amazing is that any politician in modern Jamaica, whether or not descended from the plantocracy, could expect to profit from so overt a lack of respect.