Photo: Hon. Moses “Shyne” Barrow – Leader of the Opposition
Patrick Faber matter to be dealt with internally
BELMOPAN, Fri. Oct. 13, 2023
Opposition Leader Moses “Shyne” Barrow has been given until Tuesday, October 31, 2023 at 5:00 p.m. to apologize in writing to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Valerie Woods, for describing her as a “waste of time”, “biased” and a “party hack”. This was the outcome of last Wednesday’s meeting of the Constitution and Foreign Affairs, Privileges, Standing Orders, House and Regulations Committee, as reported by the committee’s chairman, Hon. Julius Espat, at today’s House Meeting. But Hon. Barrow remains intransigent. Without skipping a beat, he affirmed to his colleague parliamentarians that his position remained unchanged. None of the browbeating from the ruling People’s United Party changed his mind either. Prime Minister John Briceño even signalled that he (Hon. Briceño) could tell his own tales of a really, really biased former Speaker. But this one, he averred, “generally tries to be even-handed,” much to the chagrin of those on his side of the bench, he said. He asked Barrow, “You think any Speaker under the then Prime Minister Dean Barrow could have ever overruled then Dean Barrow? He would have changed them immediately. But I respected – that was the Speaker. I know my colleagues were very upset over it. But at the end of the day, we need to respect the Speaker.”
Having chimed in during the debate on the adoption of the Committee’s report with a repeat of the reasoning behind the opinions he had expressed in his letter to the Speaker, Hon. Barrow, when asked afterwards in an interview if he intended to apologize, flatly responded, “NO.” He also told the media that his father, former three-time Prime Minister Dean Barrow, fully supports his position.
The debate lasted just over an hour and was presided over by pro tem Speaker, Hon. Jorge Espat, given that the Speaker recused herself. She had, at the start of the House Meeting, referenced the latest comments on the issue. She stated, “I take this opportunity to repeat again, for the record, that members are free to disagree and criticize vociferously. However, such must be able to be communicated in a manner befitting of the respect for the office and for the institution … Honorable members, I am duty bound to preside by the rules and the longstanding best practices of parliaments and presiding officers, without fear, without favour from either side of this House, and so I commit to continue doing so.”
The debate lasted just over an hour and a half and saw Committee Chairman Espat read portions of the letter that UDP Collet area representative, Hon. Patrick Faber wrote to him. As a member of the Committee, it was meant as his contribution to the meeting, which he could not attend. Hon. Faber had written, “The way the Speaker of the House was addressed in the mentioned correspondence is not reflective of the respect and decorum we should maintain. If there are genuine concerns or a disagreement regarding the procedures or decisions in the House, they ought to be communicated in a manner that is both constructive and respectful. The nature of the letter from the Leader of the Opposition was neither.”
Hon. Espat referenced a maxim about apologies, saying, “People who cannot or refuse to apologize often have such deep feelings of low self-worth that their fragile egos cannot absorb the blow of admitting that they were wrong.” He then implored Hon. Barrow: “I plead to you, be a man. Be above the fray … We want an Opposition. We need an Opposition … True leaders acknowledge when they are wrong.” On closing the debate, Hon. Espat said he made a bet with Hon. Kareem Musa that Hon. Barrow would not apologize, but added that he prays and hopes he does.
Deputy Chairman of the Privileges Committee, Dr. Hon. Louis Zabaneh focused his contribution on semantics. He stated, “The Member has been arguing that he sent this e-mail from outside of the House to Madam Speaker, and it was signed by him as Hon. Dr. Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition, House of Representatives and MP for Mesopotamia. Both of those, in my view, clearly make it a document within the House of Representatives … So, the Member is trying to make up his own rules with respect to what is and what is not going to be dealt with in terms of proper conduct, proper behaviour.”
Hon. Barrow, like his 1st Deputy Leader, Hon. Hugo Patt, spoke of the double standards in the House. Hon. Barrow shared just one instance and recalled that the Pickstock area representative, Hon. Anthony Mahler, had, at a previous meeting, threatened him with an invitation to go outside, insinuating there’d be a fistfight. When Hon. Barrow brought that up today, there was laughter on the other side, to which Hon. Barrow responded, “Threatening violence, and you find that funny. That is hilarious. You see the double standards?”
For his part, Hon. Patt shared, “At the same time, we have a member of this House that forms a part of the Cabinet, practically saying offensive behaviour, discriminating behaviour – insinuating things that were very offensive, particularly to the women and to the children of this country. And yet, at no point in time did we see any kind of House Committee being formed to address that matter. If we’re going to apply the rule to one, we have to apply the rule to all. So that if we are asking one member to submit an apology at a given date and time, I think we ought to take a stance and say, ‘Look, if there is anybody else within the House that has done or committed an offence, or has done anything to the likes, I think that that person needs to be held accountable in the same manner.’ If we’re going to ask apologies, Mr. Speaker, I think everybody has to apologize.”
When Hon. Faber stood to make his contribution to the debate, he made it clear, “I am a UDP and I am not in any kind of way siding with the People’s United Party – with the Government, but I am standing up for what I believe is correct as it relates to decorum in this honourable House.” He did indicate that he too has some concerns about how the Speaker rules, but that “there is a proper way of registering or complaining when that is the case.”
When Hon. Barrow called for a division of the vote, both Hon. Faber and Hon. Tracy Panton abstained. Only Barrow and Patt rejected the motion while all the PUP’s present voted in favour. Asked about Hon. Faber’s and Hon. Panton’s vote, Hon. Barrow said the matter would be addressed internally. He also provided the update that he would not proceed to notify the Speaker that Hon. Faber had crossed the floor as he originally accused him of doing after coming out of Wednesday’s Privileges Committee meeting. Instead, he said his colleagues have asked him for the matter to be dealt with internally.