Ancient rules of an ancient club

NATION

By FRANK SENGE KOLMA
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THE National Parliament is an ancient, exclusive and strange club.
Each member of it does not have a direct say in their own admission. S/he pays the admission fees to a totally different body, then campaigns for support for admission in a separate jurisdiction and is sworn in as a club member by a totally different entity again.
S/he is made a member by the absolute majority of 50 per cent plus-one votes of the total votes cast from specified electorates in the country. S/he holds the membership for and on that electorate’s behalf for a specified period of five years, after which the membership lapses and the incumbent is eligible for readmission any number of times should the member secure the support of the majority of the electorate again.
This exclusive club is the oldest and the grandest of all clubs for the purpose it serves.

The purpose Parliament serves is the noblest in all the land, for it alone proposes, debates, and makes the laws and regulations governing the nation. Further, it ensures that the law is fair, justiciable and that it endures in perpetuity.
It holds the power to put into office the Prime Minister and possesses the inherent right to check any excesses and abuse of power from that source. From time to time if it deems it appropriate, Parliament also possesses the power to put out of power the Prime Minister and the executive government.
While the primary role of Parliament is to pass laws, it has a crucial duty to question and criticise government on behalf of the people.
Balancing these two roles – to ensure things are lawful and that they are politically just – is the most important function of this quaint club to which a full Parliamentary Service headed by the Clerk is attended upon with its own budgetary appropriation under the budget.
This grand strange club has quaint and ancient traditions and practices dating back many hundreds of years and has its roots in the European kingdom of Great Britain.
These time-honoured traditions and practices set the Parliament apart from all other clubs and makes it truly remarkable. These traditions and practices work together to ensure Parliament carries out its duties and responsibilities in right proper fashion.
Debate has arisen in recent times about the appropriateness and utility of some of these, whether they promote or hinder the work of Parliament in this day and age. That debate belongs in another chamber and for now has no relevance to this work.
For this work we find that the traditions and practices of Parliament clothe it in apparel appropriate for its duties and responsibilities.
While symbolic and ceremonial they may be, the values of Parliamentary custom are in the opportunities they provide for scrutiny and amendment, for protecting minorities, for full and unhindered debate and for cautioning unnecessary haste in all that Parliament deliberates on.

Five great principles
Bourinot and Hearn, two widely respected experts in the field of English Parliamentary law have identified five great principles in this field which give credence and timeless usefulness to the traditions and practices of Parliament.
While the English Westminster Parliament and it’s duplicates throughout the Commonwealth of nations is here referred to, all parliaments or assemblies with lawmaking as their primary purpose, are also covered by these principles.
The five great principles of English parliamentary law identified by Bourinot and Hearn are:

1. Public business shall be conducted in a decent and orderly manner.
2. The minority is protected.
   With respect to that Hearn states: “The minority is protected, and the violence or the improvidence of the majority is restrained. Every individual member and the public at large alike find this system their appropriate security.”
   Bourinot adds that: Each House is bound by every consideration of self-interest and justice to observe strictly its rules and standing orders, and to rebuke every attempt to evade or infringe them. The political party which controls the House at one time may be in a different position at another, and is equally interested with the minority in preserving the rules of the House in all their integrity.
   Quoting Hatsell, Bourinot continues:… the only weapons by which the minority can defend themselves from … [improper measures proposed by] those in power, are the forms and rules and proceedings which have been found necessary from time to time, and are become the standing orders of the House, by strict adherence to which the weaker party can alone be protected from those irregularities and abuses which these forms were intended to check, and which the wantonness of power is but too often apt to suggest to large and successful majorities. Consequently the Senate and House of Commons never permit their rules and standing orders to be suspended, unless by unanimous consent; but they may be formally amended or repealed on giving the notice required in the case of all motions.
3. Every member is able to fully and freely express their opinion.
   Hearn makes this point in support: “There is no room for stratagem; there is no stifling of debate. The utmost discussion is ensured…”
4. Full opportunity is provided for the consideration of every measure.
   Bourinot notes that the opportunity for debate has tended to be the subject of some restrictions, which have tended to increase the powers of the Speaker and of the majority, however, he justifies these as taken with a view “to prevent organised obstruction.”
   Hearn adds: “The utmost latitude of discussion is ensured; but, after free deliberation, the action of the majority is unimpeded.”
5. Heedless or impulsive legislative action is prevented.
   Hearn states: “No House of Commons could, in a fit of enthusiasm, sacrifice upon the altar of their country in a single evening their own rights and those of their constituents… Those rigid rules have a sobering effect. They give time for the fits of excitement that are incident to large assemblies to subside or pass away. They cannot, indeed, exclude errors, but they fix the limit of error. Our deliberate judgement may be wrong, but we can hardly be guilty of rashness or improvidence.”

Other key aspects of contemporary parliamentary practice which ensure business is conducted in a decent and orderly manner go well beyond the rules of debate and rules concerning the conduct of members, and include:

• The requirements for notice to be given of most items of business.
• Restrictions on the suspension of standing orders.
• The routine of business.
• Procedures for the calling on, postponement and adjournment of items of business.
• Procedures for putting the question on motions and amendments.
• Procedures for communication between Houses.
• Procedures for the consideration of legislation.

Of course, the decent and orderly conduct of business is also facilitated through the efficient preparation and publication of business papers and the provision of clear and consistent advice by Clerks-at-the-Table.
The customs, traditions and procedures are myriad and confusing. Some Member of Parliament can pass through a full term without understanding or appreciating the full extent of these processes.
Unique ways to open proceedings
Procedures include unique methods for the opening and calling of Parliament, for carrying and laying of the mace as the authority of the house, the standing orders of Parliament, the privileges of Parliament, for giving notice for all business of Parliament, for orderly debate, for passage of legislation, for recording of all matters said and done in the Hansard, for Parliamentary Committees carrying all privileges of the main chamber in their individual sessions and other customs and traditions are antiquated but together they give the Parliament its dignity and standing as the grandest symbol and the bastion of democratic government in all the land, shining inward for the citizens to take succor and comfort from and outward for all the world to admire.
Without them Parliament would not be complete.