Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 06, 2013 Letters
Dear Editor,
After reading Mr. Mohabir Anil Nandlall’s letter “The President has untrammelled freedom to assent to and to withhold assent from Bills.’’ (Stabroek News 9/30), I could not help but wonder whether Mr. Nandlall was smarting from his current existence in a polity where the opposition is either very lazy or incompetent, or both, with a civil society that is practically non-existent, or was it a case of pure contempt for the populace?
Mr. Nandlall takes more than two pages to subject readers to a flawed interpretation of the constitutional provisions regarding Presidential assent to Bills passed in the National Assembly. Equally ridiculous is his rather juvenile logic that prior practices justify current practices without citing where such practices are necessary to confirm with the Constitution. Mr. Nandlall makes the unnecessary reference to the Constitutions of the US and India. Incidentally, Mr. Nandlall and indeed the President took an oath of office to uphold the Constitution of Guyana.
Editor, I may be wrong but I cannot remember reading anywhere that anyone has questioned the President’s authority or freedom to assent to or withhold such assent from Bills presented to him. What people have been saying is that such assent or refusal must occur in the constitutionally mandated twenty-one days. Moreover, where the President refuses to assent he is constitutionally required to give his reason(s) in writing for such. If Mr. Nandlall wants to regard such provisions to act within twenty-one days as being untrammeled freedom, then he is free to.
Earlier reports in the press in relation to the inordinate and obviously unconstitutional delay in having Presidential assent or non-assent to Bills attribute to Mr. Nandlall comments to the effect that these delays were in part because assent certificates needed to be presented by him before these Bills could be signed into law. Since Mr. Nandlall seems fond of quoting from constitutions perhaps he can quote the article(s) in ours which mandate such.
Mr. Nandlall’s justifications for these delays is equal to the logic applied by a motorist pulled over by a state trooper for speeding who tells the trooper that he is allowed to speed because yesterday at the same time on the same highway thousands of motorists were speeding.
Given that Mr. Nandlall made no reference to the actual process of transmission between the Speaker and the President, Mr. Nandlall should comfort himself with the fact that it has not been called into question where Bills go once the Speaker sends them to the President. That the President may choose to ask him to present an assent certificate is certainly within the President’s remit (within twenty-one days of receipt from the Speaker). The Constitution also does not give the Attorney General any mandate in this exercise.
As legal advisor to the government, Mr. Nandlall might want to ensure that his advice to the President is consistent with the provisions of the Constitution.
This issue raises the question as to whether the framers of our Constitution would have contemplated that these twenty-one days would be used primarily for spell checking and other elementary review. My own view is that twenty-one days are just enough time to rubber stamp a Bill or to veto it citing the objections (which had to be known even before the bill would have reached to the President’s desk.). It is commonplace in countries where leaders take seriously their duty to uphold the Constitution that these leaders announce beforehand their intent to veto bills that contain or exclude certain provisions. The question then arises, is the President using this statutory twenty-one day period to properly scrutinise a bill? The framers could not be faulted for presuming that (a) the President has some clue of what was happening in the Assembly and (b) the Clerk was capable of preparing an error proof Bill for signing into law.
Marlon Cumberbatch
Jagdeo giving Exxon 102 cent to collect 2 cent.
Apr 25, 2024
By Rawle Toney Kaieteur Sports – The French Diplomatic Office in Guyana, in collaboration with the Guyana Olympic Association and UNICEF, hosted an exhibition on Tuesday evening at the...Kaieteur News – Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, the General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party, persists in offering... more
By Sir Ronald Sanders Waterfalls Magazine – On April 10, the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States... more
Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.
Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]