Patrick Herminie, the newly appointed Speaker of the Fourth National Assembly, last Tuesday broke the golden rule of the House by making a statement on the merit of a Bill from the chair. After he made some remarks that the debate on the Bill was particularly heated and passionate with divergence of opinions between members of the majority and those of the minority, he said that in principle the Bill is a good one. Clearly, he was taking sides on the issue.
The golden rule is that if the Speaker wishes to participate in the debate he should do so from the floor. That is why the rule requires the Speaker to say, “The debate is open to the floor”. The “floor” here, of course, does not mean the actual concrete, or as in the case of the National Assembly hall, the parquet floor. It means, of course the area where members sit. In the case of Herminie, it meant standing down as Speaker for the day, take his place in an ordinary member’s chair, and wait his turn to speak. Herminie, trained in communist
By having he bill presented by the First Designated Minister, Mr. Danny Faure, Herminie has shown once more that his understanding of the Constitution is spurious and dangerous for our nascent democracy. Under the Constitution Mr Faure is a member of the Executive – that is the President of the Republic, who is the “executive authority of the Republic”. The Constitution says, however, the functions conferred on the President as the executive authority of the Republic “may be exercised by the President directly or through subordinate officers”. Hence, Mr. Faure is a subordinate officer of the President. It was no business of the President either directly or through subordinates to interfere in the deliberations of the National Assembly.
The National Assembly Members’ Emoluments (Amendment) Bill 2007 is an amendment of the Act, a law passed by all the members of the National Assembly, at the first session under our current constitution. That Act states how much members of the National Assembly should pay themselves, but it derives its authority from article 105 (1) of the Constitution, which states, “An Act may provide for the salary, allowances and gratuity of members of the National Assembly”. This article of the Constitution also states that the money to pay them must come directly from the consolidated fund – so that it is never the subject of horse-trading or blackmail each year if it had to depend on the budget.
The amendment, however, has injected an alien element into this Act just as a previous amendment to create the post of leader of government business with a salary, allowance and gratuity different from that of the ordinary members, did. Indeed article 105(3) of the Constitution expressly states that, “A member of the National Assembly elected to the office of Speaker, Deputy Speaker or the Leader of the Opposition shall not, while holding office, be paid the salary, allowances or gratuity payable under clause (1).” In other words, their salary must be different from those of ordinary members. There is no provision here for the post of leader of government business and for a different salary, allowance nor gratuity to go with the title. This usurping of the Constitution is dangerous and detrimental to our emerging democracy.
Herminie, it appears, has developed chronic verbal diarrhea ever since he became the Speaker of the National Assembly. In addition, he has become contemptuous of his fellow parliamentarians and he has developed an attitude of preaching down to them as if he was the master of a class of pupils. For example, as the sitting closed this week, he turned into a self-appointed headmaster who needed to warn the pupils of their behaviour next time. In September when the (class) Assembly resumes its sittings, he said, he would be taking a more hard line approach and will apply the Standing Orders strictly. He even reprimanded members for not showing respect to the Chair during the debates.
He had scathing criticisms of the media too for failing to give a fair reporting of the National Assembly proceedings, whatever that means. He said he was seeking funds to hold a workshop to teach journalists how to better report on matters in the National Assembly. He further stated that he has also invited journalists to attend the sessions of the National Assembly without being subjected to security checks as the media’s present coverage of the National Assembly, according to him, is being done by journalists who do not even attend the sittings of the Assembly. Surely, this man still thinks he is living under and is a big shot in the old Czechoslovakian communist regime. Next, he will order journalists to kneel down and bow before him.
The question remains as to how the new amendment to the Act will be implemented? The law does not give either the Speaker or the Clerk of the Assembly the authority to determine the pay of members. Any attempt to deduct any pay should be resisted and challenged in court. This would mean that Herminie would be dragged in front of a judge to explain himself as well as being sued for stealing the salaries of members of the Assembly.