Kareem Musa on Standing Orders in House

Kareem Musa

Turning to the procedure on the naming of a member of the House of Representatives…. As you know, the House ended in utter confusion not to mention the chaos after Espat was suspended and ejected by the security forces. This morning, Caribbean Shores Area Rep. Kareem Musa relied on the Standing Orders to outline as to how the situation with Espat should have been dealt with. Musa says that the Speaker could have used other mechanisms.

Kareem Musa, Area Rep., Caribbean Shores

“The first one which is under Section 44 (1) asked him to desist from the presentation and have a seat and that is only done if “the Speaker or the chairman after having called the attention of the House or the Committee to the conduct of the member who persists in irrelevance or tedious repetition either of his own arguments or of the arguments used by other members in the debate, may direct him to discontinue his speech and to resume his seat.” Now that was never done. The Speaker of the House raised to the Honorable Julius Espat that his topic was too broad, but he never told him to sit down. So there was never any breakage there; there was never any order—and this is important when it comes to naming—there was never any order given by the Speaker to sit down. The second mechanism that he could have employed and the one that I believe is applicable in this situation now is the withdrawal of the Honorable Julius Espat, which is completely different from naming. And I will read the section now that deals with withdrawal. “The Speaker shall order any member to withdraw immediately from the House during the remainder of the day’s sitting and may direct such steps to be taken as are required to enforce such order: (A) where the conduct of such member is grossly disorderly or (B) – and this is the one I believe where Michael Peyrefitte felt offended – where such member has used objectionable, abusive, insulting or offensive words or language or un-parliamentary expressions. And on being—and this is important and Honorable Julius made this point – and on being called to order, has refused to withdraw such words or language or expressions and has not offered an apology for the use thereof to the satisfaction of the House. So this now deal with withdrawal, not naming.”

Marleni Cuellar

“And withdrawal means leaving?”

Kareem Musa

“For the day…just leaving for the day—not a suspension indefinitely or for the session. Not only did he misapply the standing orders, he went above and beyond to a more serious section, which is not applicable and that is the naming of a member. And if I may just quickly read this section… “if a member shows disregard for the authority of the chair—and again, disregard means that you were given an order to sit down or given an order to apologize, which that was never done—or abuses the rules of the House by persistently and willfully obstructing the business of the house or otherwise, the Speaker shall direct the attention of the House thereto mentioning by name the member concerned. The Speaker shall then call upon a minister to move and it quotes that Mister so and so be suspended from the service of the House and the Speaker shall forthwith put the question. What that is telling us is that one, the Honorable Julius Espat had to have complete disregard for the Speaker of the House. Two, that the Speaker was then to call upon a minister to name him and that was never done either.  And after the Honorable Sedi Elrington—if he had so named Julius Espat properly…”

Marleni Cuellar

“And by naming you mean?”

Kareem Musa

“Say Julius Espat…Sedi Elrington did not do that. And had he done that, you move to the last part which says that the Speaker shall then put it to the House; he shall put it to a question. “All those in favor of removing the Honorable Espat, say I?” That was never done either. So there was a complete disregard for the orders of the House.”