Caroni Central MP Dr Bhoendradatt Tewarie says he would like to see Speaker Bridgid Annisette-George be more even-handed in the Lower House.
Speaking to the T&T Guardian at the Caroni Central Farmers Market Fair and Tutorial at Preysal Secondary School, Couva, yesterday, Tewarie said Annisette-George tends to narrow opposition members’ contribution while giving unfair leeway to government MPs. He was commenting on a heated response by Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh to his question on the Couva Children’s Hospital in Parliament on Friday.
“The Speaker also has a way of narrowing the range in which members of the Opposition can make contributions and she gives a tremendous leeway to the Government and that cannot be right. The Speaker is supposed to be an arbitrator in the parliamentary process and she is to give equal due to all members of Parliament regardless of the side which they sit. I will like to see that principle executed and observed by the Speaker,” Tewarie said.
He said Deyalsingh’s outburst was unnecessary as he was only seeking clarification on whether the hospital would be opened in 2016. On Friday, Deyalsingh said that former prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar commissioned the hospital on August 14, 2014. Responding to Tewarie, he said, “You have the temerity and gall to ask me today when I am going to commission the hospital that you commissioned.”
Clarifying Friday’s question, Tewarie said, “I asked a simple question of Deyalsingh. He outlined what they needed to do before they opened the hospital and I asked a simple question, which was, ‘Will it be done in 2016?’ It was a reasonable question.
“We are two months into the year, there are ten months remaining and when you ask about the hospital, the critical question is ‘when?’ He did not answer the ‘When’ part of the question and I simply wanted clarification on whether they are likely to do it this year.
“I don’t know why he went into that speed, I don’t understand it at all. But everybody has their own way. I think it was totally uncalled for.”