Finally Speaker Sooroojdev Phokeer Replaced – Opposition Continues its Defiance Anyway
20.07.2024
Finally Sooroojdev Phokeer is no longer Speaker of the National Assembly. He resigned under a cloud and while still in a Hospital. Before he resigned, he had had a one-hour meeting with the Prime Minister, who may have twisted his arm. So, Phokeer was then replaced on 18 July by PMSD member, who was Deputy Speaker in a previous government, Adrien Duval. But this change, instead of making the Opposition shout “Victory!” and sigh a sigh of relief to be rid of Speaker Phokeer, brought no semblance of decorum or mutual respect into the National Assembly, and brought the Opposition instead into a bizarre, border-line hysterical, exhibition of shouting inside the National Assembly. Let us analyze what happened.
We will speak, first, at a factual, technical, legalistic level. Then on a political level.
The Government led by Pravind Jugnauth then, acting under Section 32 (6) of the Constitution of Mauritius proceeded to elect a new Speaker. This Section reads, “No business shall be transacted in the Assembly (other than the election of a Speaker) at any time when the Office of Speaker is vacant.” This section says the new Speaker can be elected without the presence of a Speaker. To make it clearer, the Prime Minister said they were also proceeding under Standing Order 7, which is rather more specific, reading:
“7. (1) No business shall be transacted in the Assembly, other than the election of a Speaker, at any time when the Office of Speaker is vacant. Accordingly, the Assembly shall - (a) at its first sitting after any general election; and (b) if the Office of the Speaker becomes vacant at any time before the next dissolution of the Assembly, except in the circumstances mentioned at paragraph (4) of this Order, at its next sitting after the occurrence of the vacancy, elect from among its Members, other than Ministers and Parliamentary Private Secretaries, a Speaker of the Assembly.” And so, the Clerk of the Assembly acted as Clerks act at the first sitting of the National Assembly after elections, guided by this Section of the Constitution.
However, the Opposition from nearby the hall of Parliament, but outside of it, cried “foul”, while the National Assembly proceeded inside, with their loud shouting in the background, out of sight of the live cameras, and becoming louder and louder. It was a strange event, like bad theatre, just when the Opposition had finally had the victory of ousting a truly domineering, absurd Speaker. What happened was the loud shouting reached a crescendo when a group of Opposition MPs, in a group, burst into the back of the Assembly, still shouting, and standing there in a huddle, hurling abuse like “voler”, all the while acting under another Section of the Constitution, Section 50, which reads, “The Speaker or in his absence the Deputy Speaker or in their absence a Member of the Assembly (not being a Minister) elected by the Assembly for the sitting, shall preside at any sitting of the Assembly.” So, they wanted the Deputy Speaker to preside that sitting, and also loudly proclaimed that he should both preside and also be elected new Speaker – as though they had the necessary majority to elect him, and even though they were not actually in the Assembly.
In their subsequent Press Conference in front of the National Assembly, Arvin Boolell also denounced the Deputy Speaker, Zahid Nazurally for not “exziz so drwa, prezid sa seans la”, he should have had “ladinite”, he said, to stand up, but he is “perdi”. “Ki li ti kut zot pu les Deputy Speaker in the Chair?” for the last few sittings of Parliament, he asked rhetorically.
Then, also standing on the pavement outside, Paul Bérenger then read Section 50, and said that Deputy Speaker Nazurally, who he says was present in the National Assembly, had his right to preside. He accused the Prime Minister, the new Speaker and the Clerk of the Assembly of “vyol la Konstitisyon” (sic), adding that “lalwa kler” on this. He did not refer to Section 32, or the Standing Orders. He then accused the Deputy Speaker Nazurally of being an accomplice in the “vyol de la Konstitisyon” (sic). It was as though they had gathered in order to support Nazurally’s bid to take the Chair, and then he had, instead, himself collapsed. And they were left high and dry.
They also brought up the reasonable demand of lifting the suspension of three Opposition MPs suspended by the previous Speaker, but their actions just prior to this were certainly not appropriate for this requests. MP Bérenger then said they were also protesting against the “seating arrangement” in the National Assembly. Realizing how ridiculous this last point might sound to the public, he added that the “vyol” of the Constitution is their main reason for protesting, and they may go to the Supreme Court on this, as MP Lobin also announced, after Bérenger. He also agreed that the Government had plotted to make a political alliance with the PMSD, by offering Adrien Duval the role of Speaker. Clearly the Opposition had been out-manoeuvred by the devious MSM and their previous ally, the PMSD that they had kept as the Leader of their Opposition for three years. So, just three months later, there is every sign that the PMSD, once out of the Opposition, is firmly in an alliance with the MSM. Talking now about Adrien Duval’s problems with the law, is a bit late – they did not mention this when he was in the opposition alliance with them, and a bit early, when no-one has forgotten they were together until only three months ago.
And this brings us to the politics behind these weird and not-so-wonderful happenings.
First, the MSM was using the election of a new Speaker in order to make a public announcement of its coming electoral alliance with the PMSD.
Second, clearly the Opposition had gathered in Parliament in order to support the Deputy Speaker, Zahid Nazurally, who is a member of Collendaveloo’s Muvman Liberater an MSM ally in Government and who wanted to become Speaker. This way they hoped to thrwart the announcement of the alliance or cause a stir.
However, the MSM did not want this to happen, and just “ignored” Deputy Speaker Nazurally, according to the Opposition members speaking to the Press outside the National Assembly. This, however, then left the Opposition without a tactic for the moment. They had had the victory of getting rid of Phokeer as Speaker, but were unable to taste it! Instead their “victory” was turned by the MSM into its way of consolidating its alliance with their ex-ally, the PMSD, who was their very own “Leader of the Opposition” up to the moment of the PMSD’s breaking from the Opposition alliance only three months ago. So, the Labour-MMM-Nouveaux Democrats were forced to put on their absurd theatre.
Now the Opposition, with Phokeer out of Speaker’s role, has just lost one of its main sticks for beating the MSM with – as the electoral campaign hots up, and in the face of no programmatic differences on vital issues of the moment. Meanwhile, other events that are related to the Speaker issue, if not directly, might indicate that the plot had thickened. On the morning of Parliament’s sitting, in L’Express on page 8, there is a small article about how there has been a statement to the police on Tuesday as a precautionary measure (“par prokosyon”, in Kreol) against the Deputy Speaker, Zahid Nazurally, the very man who was part of the Opposition’s plan to support him. The allegations has something to do with a fight at the level of village and district councils. Nazurally calls this denunciation “fausse et malveillante”.
At the same time, the MSM’s ally, the ML has weakened, and the MSM seems to be taming it further. Collendavelloo, its leader, does not seem to be in good health recently, and he has never been rehabilitated after being revoked as MSM Minister. Anil Gayan, his assistant leader, has been proposed, we read today, as President of the African union. Although this technically means “the state” has proposed him, when the MSM is in power, that means the MSM Government has proposed him. And Zahid Nazurally has been ignored by the MSM as Deputy Speaker.
During the Opposition protests, the Linion Moris was also holding its own public protest in front of the National Assembly, and there seemed some minimal co-ordination between the two protests, one mainly Parliamentary Opposition, the other mainly extra-Parliamentary. Or alternatively, if there was no co-ordination, they both had the political interest of distracting attention away from the MSM’s public announcement of its coming electoral alliance with the PMSD.
The Role of Speaker
Meanwhile the debate on the role of Speaker remains superficial and facile.
The real role of the Speaker is to protect the elected National Assembly from domination by the executive branch of Government. That is his role. He is much more than a “referee” in a football match. Mauritius is a democracy because the Legislature, the elected MPs, are sovereign. The Speaker’s role is to protect this democratic sovereignty. Mr. Phokeer did the exact opposite. He subjugated the National Assembly to the will of the executive, in particular, the Prime Minister. This is what needs to be understood, in order to be changed.
Problems for the Opposition
But the problems for the Opposition are deeper than this.
The Opposition continues not to propose a clear program on any major issue, to distinguish its politics from that of the MSM. After the pandemic at least the Opposition parties could say exactly how they will force the opening up of sugar estate land for food security. Have we not been warned? And on how they will put money into public health, and into universal health services. Again, the pandemic was a Warning Class One. And then, after the genocide in Gaza, and now after the ICJ judgment yesterday against Israel, the Opposition does not stand up and campaign for Israel to be suspended from the UN. That would be a programmatic point. After the executive’s abuse of the National Assembly, the Opposition has no plan to make the National Assembly bigger, stronger, and more powerful relative to the non-elected executive, i.e. the Prime Minister, his Cabinet and the Civil service. The Opposition has no program to kick the USA’s military base off the Mauritian land. In fact, the opposition seems in favour of continued military occupation! The Opposition has no program to introduce the mother tongue as medium in schools, and in the National Assembly – thus leaving a people without full respect for our languages, Kreol and Bhojpuri, which are effectively our mental tools for thinking. And the Opposition alliance’s lack of a common program to distinguish them from the MSM goes on and on.
