Transport and Aviation Minister Glenys Hanna-Martin defended MICAL MP V. Alfred Gray's right to speak in Parliament yesterday. Hanna-Martin charged that the opposition's efforts to bar Gray's contribution in the House on Monday were "juvenile, disgraceful and inane". She suggested that the opposition is engaged in "kindergarten politics" and has resorted to launching "vicious" attacks on the government because it is "out of ideas".
Speaker of the House of Assembly Dr. Kendal Major suspended Opposition Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis, St. Anne's MP Hubert Chipman and Central Grand Bahama MP Neko Grant from the House of Assembly for one sitting on Monday after they continued to bang on their tables as Gray was addressing the House, despite repeated warnings from Major. Opposition members have repeatedly disrupted Gray in the House of Assembly following accusations that the MICAL MP interfered in a judicial matter in Mayaguana in March. Minnis said on Monday that the opposition stands firm in its belief that Gray should either resign as minister of agriculture and marine resources or be fired even though the attorney general did not pursue charges against him.
As she wrapped up her contribution to the 2015/2016 budget debate, Hanna-Martin noted that Gray has a right to account for his ministry.
"The member for MICAL is duly elected by the people of Mayaguana, Inagua, Crooked islands, Acklins and Long Cay," she said.
"They are entitled to have their voice in this House and nobody has the right to stop it. I want to put my people on red alert; if anyone in this House tries to silence their voice in this House, Mr. Speaker, I want them to be on alert. Which member in the political spectrum is going to stop their voice?
"The member is also a minister of the government and he must account constitutionally under this budget exercise. That's his duty and for the side opposite to try and stop him from carrying out his constitutional function is disgraceful. It is the most juvenile, disgraceful, inane behavior I have seen in all my 13 years in this House, Mr. Speaker."
Minnis, who rose on a point of order, said he resents Hanna-Martin's summation of the opposition's stance.
"We stood up on a point," he said. "It was not juvenile."
He later added that through his efforts to silence Gray, he was defending the "good name of The Bahamas". Montagu MP Richard Lightbourn, who also spoke on a point of order, said there is a distinction between the member for MICAL speaking and him speaking as a minister.
"When you have a member who is a minister in the government speaking with the administrator in an island and interfering with the judicial system, that is a very severe issue, Mr. Speaker," Lightbourn said. "No one has any objection to him, to the member for MICAL speaking. He can speak all he wants, but he should not continue to be a minister in this government. That is the issue."
It was alleged that Gray interfered after Mayaguana Island Administrator Zephaniah Newbold, acting in his capacity as a local magistrate, convicted Jaquan Charlton, 19, on March 19 of assault and resisting arrest and sentenced him on the spot to three months in prison.
Prime Minister Perry Christie subsequently revealed that Gray had invited him to relieve him of his local government portfolio pending the outcome of a police probe.
Last month, Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson said that no one will face criminal charges over the matter due to what she called the "conflicting nature of the evidence", but Christie has not reinstated Gray as local government minister.
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