The decision by Oropouche East MP Dr. Roodal Moonilal, to write to US Ambassador Joseph Mondello after his request for a motion was denied in the Parliament, is a dangerous undermining of the integrity of the House.

This was the sentiment shared by House Speaker Brigid Annisette George, during a strongly worded address at the start of Friday’s sitting of the House of Representatives. 

In a letter dated April 28th, 2020, Dr. Moonilal wrote to US Ambassador, alerting him to what the Opposition sees as the government’s undermining of US sanctions which blocks fuel sale to Venezuela. This is in regard to a shipment of gas fuel from the State’s Paria Fuel Trading Company, which left Trinidad and Tobago’s shores on April 21st, to go to Aruba. Global reports have suggested that the fuel may have eventually been sent to Venezuela. In that letter, he also wrote that the Speaker “refused to grant her permission for the matter to be debated and aired in the Parliament indicating it did not meet the high bar required for a motion of urgent public importance”.

Responding directly to the matter, Speaker Annisette George defended her decision not to allow the matter to be allowed as one of urgent public importance because it failed to meet the requirements according to Standing Order 17 which dictates that matters must be definite, urgent and in the public’s interest. ” This is not my interpretation of Standing Order 17,” she said, adding “This is well recognised, long settled, Westminster Parliamentary Practice. Many of you frequently boast of your longstanding service as Members of Parliament. Therefore, most of you know that this rule and its application have existed long before I took this Chair, and that nothing I have said here is new”.

She rejected bias on the matter. “The Member for Oropouche East undoubtedly knows the right way to seek redress; after all, he once held the office of Leader of this House. The Member’s actions can therefore only be construed as a flagrant display of disrespect to this House, an attempt to mislead and inflame citizens and to bring this House and the Chair of this House into public odium and disrepute.”