Bishop Simeon Hall has chastised politicians for their recent lawless behaviour in the House of Assembly

Bishop Simeon Hall hits out at politicians over House behaviour
tribune242


FORMER Christian Council president and community activist Bishop Simeon Hall has chastised politicians for their recent behaviour in the House of Assembly, accusing them of contributing to the growing wave of lawlessness afflicting the country.

He noted that MPs represent the country both locally and internationally, and therefore have the capacity to influence the opinion of others.

Debate

Bishop Hall said: "Their behaviour is emulated by young people who desire to rise to the annals of Parliament one day. The current level of parliamentary debate in our House of Assembly is becoming less and less inspiring and may have now become a major contributor to the spirit of crime which pervades our country."

The bishop pointed out that people from all walks of life have seen or listened to a parliamenatary debate at least once. "Most recently, they would have seen uncontrollable behaviour; lack of order and respect; and a disregard for those who care to pay attention. It is reflective of today's culture of widespread anger, despair and violence," he said.

"Young and old listening to the parliamentary debate might misinterpret the way MPs speak to each other and cause the public to lower their anger management skills."

Bishop Hall said politicians have an obligation to "work in the best interest of all Bahamians", and that "well-paid officials should do a better job of setting the standard of inter-personal communications.

"If the present tone of debate in Parliament is expected to set the level of dialogue throughout the nation, then we are in far greater trouble than we had first imagined," he said.

Anger

Bishop Hall warned that the nation's "anger index" is at an all time high.

"The criminals are committing more horrific crimes; fights in our schools have become commonplace and more violent; domestic violence and child abuse persists; and respect amongst fellow men is dying," he said.

"It is almost impossible for the unemployed, marginalised and despairing Bahamians to listen to Parliament and conclude that his or her position will soon change."

Bishop Hall said it is little wonder that many people believe the Bahamas "lags woefully" behind other nations in the region in "intellectual exchange" and progressive and innovative ideas.

He added: "It is useless pointing to the bad behaviour and disrespect manifested in other parliaments of the world as an excuse for ours.

"One bad behaviour ought not to be used to justify another bad behaviour.

"If we cannot speak strongly to each other - even vehemently disagreeing with each other - without denigrating the person, we fail the rudimentary examination for participation in the ongoing struggle of nation building," he said.

October 26, 2010

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Bahamas Blog International

Weary Perry Christie, Prime Minister of The Bahamas - Resolves to Change The Rules of The House of Assembly to do away with Unconscionably Long Debating

Weary Bahamian Members of Parliament (MPs) vowed that such grueling and tedious debates would never happen again... De ja vu

Weary Prime Minister Vows To Change House Rules

By Candia Dames

candiadames@hotmail.com

Nassau, The Bahamas

22/06/2004

On a Saturday morning in June last year, Members of Parliament dragged themselves out of the House of Assembly as the sun rose over the city of Nassau.

They were noticeably weary, many of them red-eyed.  Minutes earlier, others could not even manage to keep their heads from hitting their tables after meeting almost non-stop since the Friday morning before.

It was then that they vowed that such grueling, tedious debates would never happen again.

It did.

The promised new House rules were reportedly drafted in some form, but were never tabled.

As a result, this year was another year of unconscionably long debating.

It was clear that while House members for instance sat through part of the debate that stretched into the wee hours of Friday morning, few of them were alert enough to follow intently what was being said.

As Mount Moriah MP Keod Smith spoke up until the two o’clock hour last Friday morning, some colleagues downstairs prayed aloud that his contribution would come to a quick end.

Many of them, including the prime minister, were noticeably drained after listening to the former prime minister for more than five hours.  Even backbenchers had spoken for two to three hours.

Outside the chamber, many members grumbled, “We cannot allow this to happen again.”

De ja vu?

It was pretty much what they had said last year after another marathon debate.

When Prime Minister Perry Christie presented his budget communication to parliament on May 26, he saw it as a departure from tradition.

“My objective, in seeking greater brevity and conciseness, is to facilitate the widest possible understanding and reception for the main issues in the budget,” Mr. Christie said at the time.

His communication lasted 90 minutes – a real record breaker.  It was termed the shortest communication in a post-Independence Bahamas.

But few members of the House followed his lead.

“It doesn’t happen anywhere else like this,” an exhausted prime minister told the Journal last Friday night.

He admitted that he was wiped out and needed to get some rest.

“We have been promising to put rules in the House where the speeches will be severely curtailed,” Mr. Christie added.  “I tried to set the pace by having a departure from the normal budget communication, by dropping it down to a 90-minute communication and really with the intension to making it shorter, succinct, to the point.

“But members decided that they would want to present every detail of the function and operation of their ministry.  It is not followed sufficiently by the Bahamian public because the attention spans are really not that long.  We don’t get the kind of publicity and public relations from it as members of parliament that we ought to if we had a more contained debate.”

Mr. Christie predicted that long debates are a tradition, which has finally come to an end.

“You would find that we will move with the new rules and speakers will have to conform to a different process of dealing with debates generally and most certainly the budget debate,” he said.

Only time will tell if another year passes without new rules becoming a reality.