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{
    "id": 618649,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/618649/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 114,
    "type": "other",
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    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, I raised the issue of the wording of that Motion which is important because sometimes towards the end of the last Session, I was in Brussels attending the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly meetings which are statutory and happen every once so often; they are scheduled. While attending a meeting at the European Union (EU) Parliament, I remember reading media reports of this country and the glaring and blaring headline on The Standard newspaper was that both the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker were globetrotting; none of them was here to preside over the Senate. What it did not say - because it came from the House - is that the House was still continuing; the House was meeting, nothing was stopped because there is a Panel in the Speaker’s Office. Therefore, the business of the House was going on, and because it assumes in the Constitution and the Standing Orders that the Chair - particularly the Speaker - has very many duties to attend to both locally and internationally; it is not right in my very considered opinion for a Member to have raised an issue in the House; that the Speaker and his Deputy Speaker were globetrotting because all they needed to do was to check with your office or mine to realise that you were attending to matters of national importance to do with the Senate, and that, I was in Brussels attending to scheduled meetings which are in the calendar of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly to which its Committee is among the very few committees that I sit in. Mr. Speaker, Sir, so it is important that we as Senators, in appreciation of the bipartisan role played by the Speaker as an office, to appreciate that even the Speaker, his Deputy and the Panel that helps him to do his work also has other duties just like the Senators. That is the reason why nobody raises an issue when Senator so and so is not in the House because he or she is attending to some international travel or other matters of national importance, whether locally or internationally. So, I just thought that it is important as I welcome Sen. Sang because he will help us as a young man with a great mind. I know that he will make a lot of difference. I request my colleagues to appreciate very much that the role of the Speaker and his Panel is to be as bipartisan as possible, to serve the House as Sen. Hassan said correctly, so that the business of the House can continue. However, at no time has the business of the House been stalled because the Speaker, his Deputy or one of the panelists is not around; that is the correction I thought is important to make so that we do not ridicule this House and the Office of the Speaker by making a statement which, in truth, is not based on any truth at all."
}