Government senator Trevor Munroe says that despite the fact that Jamaica was about to swear-in its first woman prime minister, he expects little change in the limited number of women in Parliament without a change in the current first-past-the-post system of electing MPs.

Senator Munroe was making his contribution to the annual State of the Nation debate in the upper chamber on Friday. The debate closed a week ahead of next Friday’s prorogation of Parliament’s 2005/2006 session.

He noted that only 15 per cent of the representatives in both Houses of Parliament were women and suggested that the answer lay in introducing a system of proportional representation.

He said that the UN millennium goal was 30 per cent and, therefore, Jamaica’s 15 per cent was not unusual. However, he said that the “unacceptable situation”, is not going to change unless a number of things are done, including combining the current first-past-the-post system with some form of proportional representation.

“No country with our electoral system has gone over 30 per cent female representation,” said Munroe. “And every single country that has gone beyond that, and an African country is now at the head of the list – Rwanda (48 per cent-49 per cent women in their legislature) – has had to combine some form and some degree of proportional representation with constituency representation,” the senator said.

He suggested that the issue of combining both systems, “needs to be put, once more, centrally on the agenda of constitutional reform”.

Senator Munroe said that he was optimistic, in light of the fact that currently the leaders of both major political parties are post-World War II generation, “and therefore two persons by whom (their) generation will equip them to look a little more objectively on the substantial progress that has been made, as also the negatives for which each side and all sides need to take some responsibility and to put the constitutional reform issues again firmly on the agenda”.

He said that if they did not, the Senate and civil society should pressure legislators to return the issue of constitutional reform to the agenda.

Access to Information

Does the Bank of Jamaica Act protect the central bank from the provisions of the Access to Information Act (ATI)?

And is the government seeking to extend similar protections to itself in terms of correspondences between members of the Cabinet and their advisers?

Those are some of the questions which have been left unanswered by the failure of the Joint Select Committee of Parliament which has been reviewing the performance of the Act, since its inception in January 2004, to complete its work.

Last Wednesday, minister of information Burchell Whiteman, who chairs the committee, made the surprise announcement that following upon the BOJ’s efforts to be exempted from the Act, his colleagues in the Cabinet believe that advice given to them by professionals should also be exempted.

According to the minister, his colleagues believe that if documents which are purely advisory and which assist them in coming to decisions are subject to “unfettered public scrutiny”, they may lose their ability to access advice freely and generously, as is now the case.

What was most interesting was Whiteman’s admitting that the Cabinet’s proposal was linked to the BOJ’s submission, although he explained that it was not in defence of the BOJ’s stance.

The court is likely to decide the BOJ’s position, if the committee doesn’t do so when it resumes sitting. But, as Senator Whiteman pointed out, “there is legal opinion that, in fact, the bank’s laws do protect them”.

The announcement may have stunned the Opposition members, who failed to react, but government member Senator Trevor Munroe strongly opposed the BOJ being exempted. He has suggested an overriding clause which would make exemption subject to the public interest.

Munroe felt that the committee should have rejected the BOJ’s proposal subject to a decision from the court.

Whiteman said that the government was already seeking to have all the laws which seem to be in conflict with the ATI studied and put to the ATI unit, as well as supported by the law reform unit. He suggested that the matter be left to that process.

Earlier, Shirley Miller, the government’s legal reform spokesperson, pointed out that the objective of the Act was not merely to provide the right to access official documents, but that the objective is to reinforce and give further effect to the underlying principles of a constitutional democracy, namely governmental accountability; transparency; and public participation in national decision-making.

She said that in pursuing this objective it was necessary that the public interest in the availability of public documents be balanced against other essential public interests.

“The objects clause therefore indicates also that the right of access given by the bill is subject to exemption, which balances that right against the public interest in the exemption from disclosure of information, whether governmental, commercial, or personal of a sensitive nature,” she said.

In addition, there are certain exemptions to which the public interest applies.

But Senator Munroe insisted, “I am saying that the public interest test must apply to everything, including all exemptions under the law”.

Lack of meetings results in 35 motions unattended on Order Paper

At least one Opposition member seems to think that the failure of several joint select committees to conclude their work, as well as the large number of private member’s motions which fell off the Order Paper this weekend, are primarily due to the period of campaigning for the leadership of the People’s National Party (PNP) up to February 25.

On last Tuesday’s Motion for the Adjournment, Leader of Opposition Business Derrick Smith noted that the schedule for this week’s sitting, and the fact that Parliament would be prorogued on March 31, made it “extraordinarily unfortunate” that so many matters were left unattended on the Order Paper.

He said that there were 35 private member’s motions still on the Order Paper to be dealt with, 25 of which were from Opposition MPs.

“I would like to say that we are very concerned about a trend. It has been a trend over the last three or so years to ignore private member’s motions placed on the Order Paper by members of the Opposition,” Smith complained.

“It seems to be a blatant disregard for dealing with the business of the nation… We recognise that it will not be practical to deal with any of these motions for the rest of the year. But we want to issue a warning to the government that, in the incoming parliamentary year we are not going to sit back and allow them to stifle the voice of the Opposition by way of not debating private member’s motions on the Order Paper.”

But Opposition MP Mike Henry suggested another possible reason.

“Mr Speaker, we are paying the price of a long, drawn out campaign for leadership. We are paying a price which has ignored the matters which we should have addressed in the people’s interest,” he said. “I don’t put motions on the Order Paper for the fun of it. I speak to what I think are the problems of the country and I think it is an insult to a private member, and I have two of these, one of which has gone over two sessions (years) of Parliament, and I think that they are important to the people’s future and the need for a political direction…

“I have appealed continuously, every week, to the Leader of the House. I wrote a letter last week to the acting leader. He hasn’t even had the courtesy to respond to me,” an angry Henry said, as he threatened to move a vote of no confidence against the government for ignoring the people’s business. At the time Henry made the threat there were more Opposition than government MPs in the House.

But the deputy Speaker, O T Williams immediately made it clear he would not allow it and Deputy Leader of the House, Derrick Kellier said the Standing Orders did not allow it.

However, Kellier apologised for the number of private member’s motions still on the Order Paper, but recalled that there was a proposal to meet on Wednesdays to deal with those motions, which was not supported by the attendance of most members.

“Members had a difficulty turning up on Wednesdays and, as a result, we dropped it,” Kellier said.

“I do not know what the arrangement will be for the new session of Parliament but I will advise the leadership, on my side, that this matter needs to be taken into very serious consideration so we can reinstitute the Wednesdays to ensure we deal with these things.”

Henry countered that it was not possible for Kellier to give that assurance when it was not known whether he would have the same post after the new Cabinet is named this week.

The Speaker, however, concluded: “Mr Henry, the present Deputy Leader has given you his assurance…”

Henry: I am not even sure where you will be, Mr Speaker. I am not sure what is happening in the country and in the reality of the situation…”

Kellier: I indicated that we don’t know what the arrangements will be. That I will advise the leadership on this side according to the sentiments that have been expressed.

On that note, the House was adjourned.

THIS WEEK

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives, jointly with the Senate, will spend most of its sitting honouring outgoing Prime Minister P J Patterson.

However, there are a few issues to be dealt with, including:

. Minister of transport and works Robert Pickersgill will pilot the Airports (Economic Regulation) Act amendment dealing with an improvement fee for the Norman Manley International Airport;

. Minister of education, youth and culture Maxine Henry-Wilson will deal with the controversial amendment to the Broadcast and Radio Re-Diffusion Act, which grants cable channels the right to advertise, among other things; and

. Minister of finance and planning Dr Omar Davies will pilot the equally controversial amendments to the Pension Act.

– The deputy speaker has announced that a team of seven parliamentarians from the Russian Duma will be visiting Jamaica this week.

He said that a function was being planned for them and members are invited to a reception to be hosted by the Speaker on Wednesday.