By Binta Jaiteh
Dozens of National Assembly members yesterday expressed dismay over Parliament adjourning Sine-Die (Indefinitely).
The Member for Wuli East Suwaibou Touray raised a motion under clauses 54 b and c for the assembly to adjourn sine-die without debate. “We cannot talk to ourselves and still answer ourselves”, Hon. Touray said
The motion brought division and arguments between the members which resulted to a voting in which 18 members voted for the motion to adjourn without debate while 14 voted against, with abstention 0.
Lawmaker for Busumbala, Muhammed Kanteh said the motion without debate moved by Honourable Touray is technically meant to deny members from raising numerous concerns affecting our constituencies and the country at large.
“I wanted to use this opportunity to buttress on several issues affecting my constituency and the citizens”, he stressed.
‘’Some residents within my constituency Lamin CDC and Madinary Darusalam are faced with an eviction threat. The judgement creditors through the Sheriff Division served compound owners with an eviction Notice for them to vacate from their compounds. Most of the occupations of this said properties are support staffs at the Central Bank of the Gambia (CBG) as in the case of Madinary Darusalam.
He stated that evicting these people means rendering them homeless ‘’I believe the government should do something to settle the judgment creditors to bring peace in that area. As a representative this is the time we have to address the unfortunate situation the citizens are facing’’. He lamented.
Further adding that ‘’during this period I wanted to speak on irregular immigration as a lot youth perished at sea, I wanted to urge the government to address this situation as a matter of urgency. I think the member came up with this motion to frustrate the session and suppress members from debating on burning issues of the country”, he argued.
For his part, Member for Janjanbureh Hon. Omar Jato Jammeh furiously walked out of the chambers.
Jato indicated that it is clear that the majority caucus and some members from the minority caucus don’t want to debate. He described this act as disappointing.
The Deputy Speaker Hon. Seedy Njie noted that the National Assembly is the highest institution in-terms of regular practice of democracy. This is where members are expected to deliberate on issues of National importance. Whatever decisions we arrive on, are done through democratic means, as we resort to voting in whatever we do for those who are in favour or against, depending on the majority.
“When they vote against your motion, it doesn’t mean the end of the world in a democracy and you must respect that principle. Therefore, I wish members who walked out could not have done that. Because of democracy sometimes they also have their way”, he explained.
According to him the member for Foni Bintang Karanai Bakary Badjie is always fond of informing this Assembly that he doesn’t like democracy, sometimes people use democracy to abuse processes and procedures and in this instance that is where we find ourselves at this moment. Some members of this Parliament want to abuse their democratic right, processes and procedures of the Assembly because they know we have no business to consider and they want us to go in voting. This is a peculiar situation and I am not sure what authority or discretion the Speaker has to rule out that or maybe after voting. The issue of adjourning without debate has been settled and majority carried the vote.
Member for Badibou Central Sulayman Saho also said this is a rule of parliament adding that a vote is put forward and members against the motion, all have the right to counter the motion.
“We want to talk about issues that affect our people in this country which is a business”, he told DS Njie
“We are not going backward on the issue of members to debate”, Deputy Speaker maintained.