An agreement between both sides in the Senate to ignore normal procedures for the passage of the ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007 Act (the Sunset Legislation) to meet the November 1 deadline almost collapsed Friday under the weight of the Opposition’s objections to the new restrictions imposed on the news media by speaker of the House of Representatives, Michael Peart.

Opposition senators wanted the Senate to debate the media issue, as a condition for them going ahead with the Sunset Legislation debate.

Government members lined up behind the president, Senator Syringa Marshall Burnett, to resist the move which was eventually delayed until the motion for the adjournment.

But in between, a number of interesting things happened.

. The Opposition senators left the House after Senator Marshall Burnett refused their request.

According to Opposition Senator Anthony Johnson, they left to discuss how they would proceed after the president decided against discussing the media issue and to heed Senator Johnson’s call for the newly built door separating the Press gallery from the Hansard gallery to be opened.

The president said that for Friday she would allow the media to set up their television cameras on either of the galleries, pending a meeting, the Clerk had informed her, would be held Tuesday morning to discuss the issue.

But Johnson insisted that in order for the media to cover the Senate properly, they needed easier access to the side galleries. He said that it was completely “out of order” for the Senate to have to accept the introduction of this “encumbrance” from the House of Representatives.

Senator Dwight Nelson (JLP) felt that the Senate should have an opinion and the president should make a decision.

The president said that the presence of the Press was not an issue in the Senate. She said that the door would remain closed until a decision was made in the House. She suggested that while the new requirements “may be a little laborious, there is access”.

Johnson felt that the Senate was not obliged to accept the decision taken by the lower House and questioned the effect on the upper house’s independence.

Senator Donna Scott-Mottley (PNP) noted that there were specific areas designated for both the Press and Hansard. She didn’t think that because Parliament had been “loose” in keeping them separated in the past that they should remain so now.

“Is it then being said that we must ignore the rules and if there is any attempt to return to the rules we must just abandon that?” she asked.

However, Scott-Mottley did not state the rules which restricted the Press from entering the Hansard gallery or vice-versa. And it seemed that she is not aware that Hansard (which records the debates in Parliament) was once operated by the Gleaner Company.

Incidentally, it is interesting that although attorneys-general from Caricom had signed off on the draft Sunset Legislation from April this year, right here in Jamaica, it took the Government nearly six months to table a draft in the House. So much so that the Government had to rely on consensus with the Opposition to ensure that it meets the November deadline.

The new limitations on the media were triggered by the publication of a picture in the Daily Observer of Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller doodling during leader of the opposition Bruce Golding’s contribution to a debate on the Opposition’s no-confidence motion brought against the Government.

Censure motion update

The Privileges Committee of the House of Representatives met last week to decide what sanctions to apply to Opposition MP Karl Samuda (North Central St Andrew), but failed to achieve its objective.

Samuda was censured for telling the House that a report on the Sandals Whitehouse scandal, apparently prepared by Noel Hylton, was submitted to the Cabinet. The Government has insisted that it was never submitted to them.

It was evident from Tuesday’s sitting of the House that the committee’s efforts would not bear fruit, after acting Leader of the House Fitz Jackson announced that the Leader of the Opposition, Bruce Golding, would replace Leader of Opposition Business Derrick Smith on the committee.

It is inexplicable that having seen this development the day before, Government members of the committee turned up so ill-prepared on Wednesday.

The committee referred its terms of reference back to the House for advice after Golding raised the point that with the censure motion passed in the House, the censure issue is closed.

“Parliament has censured him, that’s the end of that matter,” Golding told the committee. He noted that when Parliament, in 1971, censured Michael Manley and the resolution was carried, that was the end of that matter.

He said that the question of punishment was a separate issue altogether, because Samuda could not be punished for being censured.

“You can only be punished if you have committed an infraction, and that infraction can only be contempt or a breach of privilege. But in the decision of Parliament, not once in this resolution is there either the word contempt or privilege. Not once,” Golding insisted.

Golding’s references included the Standing Orders of the House of Representatives which are mostly silent on the issue except for Standing Order 72 which states:

“(1) There shall be referred to the Committee of Privileges any matter which appears to affect the powers or privileges of the House and it shall be the duty of the Committee to consider any matter so referred and to report thereon to the House.”

The question is, if the Standing Order gives the committee the right to consider “any matter which appears to affect the powers or privileges of the House” and report to the House thereon, how come this issue was handled the other way around, with the House making the decision then sending the matter to the Privileges Committee?

It will be very interesting to see how the House of Representatives explains that.