After Thursday’s shame, MPs must lower their rhetoric

Their Senate counterparts call it the ‘double - intake’ august House because of the large number of MPs. But our National Assembly is anything but the august House, an epithet meaning ‘profoundly honoured, of supreme dignity, majestic, venerable, noble’.

It is fast losing its stature not just because of the punch-up and chaos witnessed this week or the rancorous ‘mpigs’ demonstrations last year but also because of the many negative aspersions often peddled by the members themselves.

Committee members ‘sexing up’ reports to exact payouts, investigation reports altered after deals, payments for voting in certain ways, passing poor laws, poor quality of debates etc. Perhaps, the most dramatic was this week’s special sitting to pass the security amendment laws where every Standing Order was breached to craft a law military-style.

Parliamentary fights are fairly common these days because government sponsored motions and decisions before a House often generates heated disagreements and passionate debates. There is a whole website dedicated to parliamentary fights for their comic value, ranging from traditional punch-ups to the use of eggs, tomatoes, tear gas, water, pepper-spray, furniture and other objects.

In the annual rankings, Ukraine has led the pack in recent years but the list includes many — Italy, Turkey, Taiwan, Georgia, India, South Korea etc. Ours is no exception in this regard but not in the manner in which the Bill was passed.

It was bound to happen. The grandstanding by both sides was clear ahead of the debate; it was going to be their way, or the highway. By Wednesday evening, the die had been cast. It was now up to the Speaker to make a Solomonic decision to resolve the impasse and keep the House orderly, and on track.

The Westminster tradition that this country borrowed is the impartiality of the Speaker, which is fast eroding in the National Assembly. Again, this obvious bias by speakers is also gaining currency in several countries.

In Australian Federal Parliament, the current Liberal party speaker, Bronwy Bishop, is accused of running the House as a ‘protection racket’ for the Prime Minister. She has thrown the opposition Labour MPs out of the chambers 200 times this term, compared to only four times for the ruling party members, and she has no apologies to make.

In the US House of Representatives, Republican Speaker John Boehner is considered one of the worst performers in their history; flounders in the office and rarely able to control his own GOP caucus. In his term, the US had a government shutdown and two near debt defaults largely due to his failure to offer leadership in the House, negotiate effectively with the president, and his lack of impartiality.

On Thursday the Speaker had the opportunity to rally his members but lost it. Cord MP Hon T.J Kajwang had reasonably sought some little time for his colleagues to review the proposed amendments before commencing the session. He ignored it. Later in the afternoon and in the confusion, TNA MP Hon Johnson Sakaja appealed to the Speaker to give some timeout for consultation, and urged him to be impartial in disciplining members misbehaving on both sides. Again, he ignored that request.

He opted to lead his Jubilee troops to bulldoze the Bill through as if under pressure to deliver it before sunset. The loser was himself; he came out embellished, his House in a shambles.

The Legislature was in utter ridicule, and his members woefully divided. The winner was the Executive, having got its Bill endorsed, and its nemesis in tatters. It had the National Assembly where it wanted, in its grip. Has the Bill been passed legally? Yes! The tradition has it that failure to comply with its Standing Orders does not invalidate its decisions.

The President can sign it into law. Of course, without prejudice to the Senate which could be the next battlefront. To amend 22 laws affecting the populace in the counties without the input of Senate is preposterous. Quite likely, the Senate will bring amendments to involve county governments in management of security at the county level.

The senators who joined the brawl from the Speaker’s Gallery goofed and ought to apologise to the Speaker. The MPs now need to lower their rhetoric to avoid polarising the nation. Those opposed to the Bill are not terrorist sympathisers, nor are its proponents prophets of doom. It’s all in a day’s work.