Holness, Brown Burke trade barbs as Gordon House mace row deepens

Tensions stemming from last week's mace incident in Parliament deepened on Tuesday after House Speaker Juliet Holness publicly accused Opposition Member of Parliament Angela Brown Burke of repeatedly testing the authority of the Chair, disclosing that the St Andrew South Western representative had also disturbed an earlier sitting this year. Brown Burke, in turn, told the Jamaica Observer later that day that the flare-ups were not isolated, contending that growing frustration over what she called sustained efforts to silence and overlook Opposition voices had driven tempers in Gordon House to breaking point.

As the House of Representatives began its sitting on Tuesday, Holness used an extended statement to defend parliamentary discipline and to caution legislators that defiance and disorder would not be permitted to weaken the institution, after last week's combustible scenes during debate on the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NaRRA) Bill.

The Speaker said Brown Burke had also caused a disturbance during the March 5 sitting, when she "rose from her seat and boisterously declared, 'Yuh waan mi fi behave like a virago? Mi a go behave like a virago.'"

"This was not the first occasion on which conduct of this nature has tested the authority of the Chair by the same member," Holness said. "Restraint was exercised in the hope that the matter would not be repeated. But restraint must never be mistaken for permission, patience must never be mistaken for weakness, and silence must never be mistaken for acceptance," she added.

Holness's remarks followed Brown Burke's naming and suspension from the House last week, after the Opposition MP seized the ceremonial mace during the committee-stage debate on the NaRRA Bill, sparking disorder in the chamber and forcing the proceedings to be paused.

Speaking to the Observer after Tuesday's sitting, Brown Burke firmly disputed Holness's portrayal of what occurred and accused the Speaker of routinely shutting Opposition members out of debate.

"We haven't made the case to the Jamaican people. We have sat quietly, we have protested inside of the House, we have spoken to the Speaker, we have spoken to others about the attitude in the House, which prevents individuals on the Opposition side from actually participating in the discussions and in the debate," Brown Burke said.

The Opposition MP charged that standing orders were being enforced unevenly and said her colleagues were often blocked from contributing. "What someone on the Government side will get away with, we won't," she said, also accusing Holness of acting in a partisan fashion. Brown Burke further alleged that the chamber's microphone arrangements had been "weaponised" against the Opposition, with members muted or kept off the official record.

She said the temperature rose during last Tuesday's NaRRA debate after several attempts on her part to come into the discussion were brushed aside by the Chair. "On three different occasions I wanted to make a statement to intervene in the discussion… The Speaker looked at me and just turned her head and looked to the other side," she claimed.

The St Andrew South Western MP conceded that touching the mace ran afoul of parliamentary rules, but maintained that the gesture was a protest against what she portrayed as ongoing disrespect aimed at the Opposition.

"And so I got up. And, as I put it, I interfaced with the mace. And we know what the standing order says. I'm not pretending that it is sanctioned by the standing orders. Not at all. But it was because of that pushing, that ignoring, that disrespectful behaviour of the Speaker, time and time again," Brown Burke said.

She also rejected Holness's version of the earlier "virago" episode, saying her words had been twisted. "I said, 'Do I have to behave like a virago for me to be heard?' That was what I said, and I thought that was an appropriate question. Because I don't believe that I should have to behave like a virago to be heard," Brown Burke told the Observer.

In her own address to the House, Holness contended that the matter went beyond a single MP's behaviour and amounted to a wider challenge to the order and standing of Parliament. "The mace is not a decoration. It is not a prop. It is not an object to be used in protest. It is the symbol of the authority of this House," she declared.

The Speaker also took aim at the conduct of Opposition members in the wake of Brown Burke's suspension, saying the Leader of the Opposition and other MPs took part in "a standing protest and chants" that flouted the authority of the Chair. She said she had previously let pass what she described as "derogatory sotto voce references, slurs, and disrespectful posturing" from a small number of Opposition lawmakers, in an attempt to keep the business of the House moving.

Even amid the heated exchanges, both women hinted that a wider rethink of behaviour and tone in Parliament was overdue. "Order is not the enemy of democracy. Order is what makes democracy possible," Holness told the chamber. Brown Burke, for her part, said she hoped the episode would push Parliament to revisit how members treat one another. "Let's draw a line. Let's determine how we interface with each other. But let us stop the hypocrisy," she said.