00:00MSJ leader David Abdullah says the conduct of some parliamentarians is contributing to a wider breakdown in public discourse and
00:08confidence in national institutions.
00:11Some members of parliament, in and out of parliament, are engaged in the use of very violent language, very sexist
00:19and misogynistic language, homophobic language and other kinds of things, some of them bordering on racist language.
00:27The MSJ says parliament is also failing in its responsibility to provide accountability and transparency to the population.
00:34We also see the situation of the PNM senator, Senator John Bates, and the fact that after months this issue
00:44has not been resolved by her party leader.
00:47So you have all of these things which generally bring the parliament into disrepute.
00:51And when you have questions that are not being answered by ministers in the parliament, they're hiding behind some standing
00:58order saying, is it a national interest?
01:00When some very simple answers could be given, you don't have to give out national security secrets, but at least
01:07you could provide the country with some level of information and not hide.
01:11And Abdullah shares this belief.
01:13We have a parliamentary system which is not serving our interests.
01:17And those who claim that, you know, when I went to you, we were told we have a Westminster parliamentary
01:22system.
01:22We don't have a Westminster parliamentary system.
01:25The MSJ is calling for constitution and parliamentary reform.
01:29The party is also urging changes to the process used to appoint state boards.
01:33Abdullah believes civil society should be the ones putting forward nominees, which will then be chosen for a suitable appointment
01:41based on the skills they possess.
01:43So you remove party politics totally from the process and therefore remove the idea of cronyism and nepotism and issues
01:54like that.
01:54And then the board should not go out of office every five years.
02:00He suggests, except in cases where directors are retiring, board members should be eligible for reappointment with a replacement selected
02:09from a list of nominees put forward by civil society groups.
02:13Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
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