Debate No 29 of 2020 (UNREVISED)

1 No. 29 of 2020 SEVENTH NATIONAL ASSEMBLY PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) (UNREVISED) FIRST SESSION TUESDAY 11 AUGUST 2020 2 CONTENTS ANNOUNCEMENTS PAPERS LAID QUESTIONS (Oral) MOTIONS STATEMENT BY MINISTER BILLS (Public) MOTION OF NO CONFIDENCE ADJOURNMENT QUESTIONS (Written) 3 THE CABINET (Formed by Hon. Pravind Kumar Jugnauth) Hon. Pravind Kumar Jugnauth Prime Minister, Minister of Defence, Home Affairs and External Communications, Minister for Rodrigues, Outer Islands and Territorial Integrity Hon. Louis Steven Obeegadoo Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Housing and Land Use Planning, Minister of Tourism Hon. Mrs Leela Devi Dookun-Luchoomun, Vice-Prime Minister, Minister of Education, GCSK Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Dr. the Hon. Mohammad Anwar Husnoo Vice-Prime Minister, Minister of Local Government and Disaster Risk Management Hon. Alan Ganoo Minister of Land Transport and Light Rail Dr. the Hon. Renganaden Padayachy Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Hon. Nandcoomar Bodha, GCSK Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade Hon. Mrs Fazila Jeewa-Daureeawoo, GCSK Minister of Social Integration, Social Security and National Solidarity Hon. Soomilduth Bholah Minister of Industrial Development, SMEs and Cooperatives Hon. Kavydass Ramano Minister of Environment, Solid Waste Management and Climate Change Hon. Mahen Kumar Seeruttun Minister of Financial Services and Good Governance Hon. Georges Pierre Lesjongard Minister of Energy and Public Utilities Hon. Maneesh Gobin Attorney General, Minister of Agro-Industry and Food Security Hon. Yogida Sawmynaden Minister of Commerce and Consumer 4 Protection Hon. Jean Christophe Stephan Toussaint Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sports and Recreation Hon. Mahendranuth Sharma Hurreeram Minister of National Infrastructure and Community Development Hon. Darsanand Balgobin Minister of Information Technology, Communication and Innovation Hon. Soodesh Satkam Callichurn Minister of Labour, Human Resource Development and Training Dr. the Hon. Kailesh Kumar Singh Jagutpal Minister of Health and Wellness Hon. Sudheer Maudhoo Minister of Blue Economy, Marine Resources, Fisheries and Shipping Hon. Mrs Kalpana Devi Koonjoo-Shah Minister of Gender Equality and Family Welfare Hon. Avinash Teeluck Minister of Arts and Cultural Heritage Hon. Teeruthraj Hurdoyal Minister of Public Service, Administrative and Institutional Reforms 5 PRINCIPAL OFFICERS AND OFFICIALS Mr Speaker Hon. Sooroojdev Phokeer, GOSK Deputy Speaker Hon. Mohammud Zahid Nazurally Deputy Chairperson of Committees Hon. Sanjit Kumar Nuckcheddy Clerk of the National Assembly Lotun, Mrs Bibi Safeena Adviser Dowlutta, Mr Ram Ranjit Deputy Clerk Ramchurn, Ms Urmeelah Devi Clerk Assistant Gopall, Mr Navin Clerk Assistant Seetul, Ms Darshinee Hansard Editor Jankee, Mrs Chitra Parliamentary Librarian and Information Jeewoonarain, Ms Prittydevi Officer Serjeant-at-Arms Pannoo, Mr Vinod 6 MAURITIUS Seventh National Assembly --------------- FIRST SESSION ------------ Debate No. 29 of 2020 Sitting of Tuesday 11 August 2020 The Assembly met in the Assembly House, Port Louis, at 11.30 a.m. The National Anthem was played (Mr Speaker in the Chair) 7 ANNOUNCEMENTS DEBATE NO. 28 OF 04 AUGUST 2020 - LIVE BROADCASTING - ALLEGED INTERRUPTIONS Mr Speaker: Hon. Members, I have an announcement to make in regard to alleged interruptions of the Live Broadcasting of the Proceedings of the Assembly in the course of Debate No. 28 of 04 August 2020, while hon. S. Mohamed was intervening on the motion of no confidence against my good self. You will recall that the issue was raised by hon. S. Mohamed during his intervention. Moreover, kindly be informed that hon. Mohamed equally requested for an explanation by way of a letter addressed to the Clerk of the Assembly. I have thus caused an inquiry to be conducted to ascertain same, and the PICT/Broadcast Manager of the National Assembly has informed as follows – • No downtime was reported on the Digital Infrastructure of the National Assembly. • However, at the Sitting of 04 August 2020, at 1.16 a.m. on 05 August 2020, a downtime on Mauritius Telecom MYT regarding the live broadcasting of the proceedings of the House was reported. • The Mauritius Telecom MYT Network Operations Centre was contacted and the Assembly was informed that there was a planned upgrade on the core router in Rose Hill as from 1.00 a.m. and that same had an impact on live MYT MBC channels (including MYT Parliament TV Channel) for all around Mauritius. • The said maintenance had been planned as from 15 July 2020 by way of an internal memo and that Mauritius Telecom has informed the public by way of a public communiqué. • Moreover, the Network Administrator on standby at the Government Online Centre (GOC) – - confirmed the Mauritius Telecom downtime, and - reassured that the redundancy system of the GOC had been activated, and that no video signal was lost on the Parliament Web TV Portal. 8 Thank you. SITTING OF TUESDAY 04 AUGUST 2020 - HON. SHAKEEL MOHAMED - EXTRACT OF DEBATE NO. 24 OF 07 JULY 2020 – POINT OF ORDER Mr Speaker: Hon. Members, I have a second announcement to make. During his intervention in the course of the debate on the motion of no confidence in Mr Speaker at the Sitting of Tuesday 04 August 2020, the hon. First Member for Port Louis Maritime and Port Louis East (hon. Shakeel Mohamed) stated that he had with him a document purporting to be an extract of Debate No. 24 of 07 July 2020 of the Private Notice Question, in the course of which he raised a point of order. Incidentally, the hon. Mohamed wrongly referred to the slot reserved for PNQ when, in fact, the facts which form the basis of his point of order arose during the intervention of hon. Prime Minister in the course of the debate on Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting the Financing of Terrorism (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill (No. 5 of 2020). The point of order was to the effect that an hon. Member could not refer to a document unless he tables the document which he was quoting from. He went on to state that the video footage of the proceedings, after he had raised the point of order, shows Mr Speaker addressing the hon. Prime Minister in the following terms “get ready to table the document”. However, the hon. Member alleges that when one consults the Hansard, referring to the document he had in his hand, nowhere he could find the above words. In so doing, hon. Mohamed set out to adduce evidence on an instance of impropriety of the conduct of the Speaker in support of the motion of no confidence in Mr Speaker. I have caused an internal inquiry to be conducted to ascertain the veracity of the evidence adduced by hon. Mohamed to that effect. The inquiry from the Hansard Editor in regard to the above has revealed the following – (i) Once the unrevised version of the Hansard is uploaded on the website of the National Assembly, the relevant extracts of the debate, that is, the instances where Mr Speaker and hon. Members have intervened are selected, printed, sent to them for minor corrections, if any. 9 (ii) She has confirmed that she has sent the relevant extracts from the unrevised version of the Hansard to the hon. Member for necessary action and he has not returned same to the Hansard Unit. (iii) The extracts of my interventions were also sent to me on 09 July 2020 for necessary action. The Hansard Editor has also confirmed that I returned the file back to her and that no corrections/alterations have been effected by me. (iv) She further confirmed that the words which hon. Mohamed alleges to be missing in the Hansard, which, in fact, reads as follows, I quote, “Hon. Prime Minister, be ready to table any document you are quoting from.”, were at all material times, and are still, in the Hansard on the website of the National Assembly. As far as the uploading of the Hansard is concerned, the PICT Manager has confirmed the following – (i) Debate No. 24 of 07 July 2020 was uploaded on the website on 08 July at 10.42 p.m. (ii) According to the audit trail, the said debate was the subject of further updates on 10 July at 4.24 p.m., on 13 July at 2.44 p.m., on 17 July at 5.18 p.m. and on 22 July at 5.37 p.m. (iii) That the words which hon. Mohamed has allegedly stated to be missing in the Hansard, which, in fact, reads as follows, I quote, “Hon. Prime Minister, be ready to table any document you are quoting from.”, were at all times, and are still, present in the Hansard on the website of the National Assembly. It is clear from the above that the evidence adduced by hon. Mohamed in support of an impropriety in the conduct of Mr Speaker is unfounded. It is obvious that the hon. Member has insinuated that the Hansard has been tampered with. In so doing, the hon. Member has instilled the doubt in the minds of hon. Members and the nation at large as to the accuracy and authenticity of the Official Report which is published under the authority of the Assembly. In the light of the internal enquiry reports mentioned earlier, the findings are abundantly clear that the hon. Member has misled the House. I consider that such a vile, gratuitous and baseless accusation against the Chair strikes at the very root and dignity inherent in the highest institution, whose primary mission is above all the passing of laws to shape the future of our country. 10 The hon. Mohamed ought to have realised that casting aspersion on the authority of the Chair could only undermine the people’s confidence essential to the good running of Parliament. In the circumstances, I take the view that a mere apology from the hon.

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