Lettre à la Speaker : Paul Bérenger, Joanna Bérenger et Chetan Baboolall demandent à siéger comme “backbenchers” du gouvernement au Parlement

Le leader du MMM a apporté des précisions sur le « seating arrangement » au Parlement, à la suite de la lettre de contestation adressée ce lundi par le whip de l’opposition, Adrien Duval, à la Speaker de l’Assemblée nationale.

Dans sa propre lettre adressée à Shirin Aumeeruddy-Cziffra, Paul Bérenger demande qu’il soit attribué, à lui-même et à ses deux collègues du MMM, Joanna Bérenger et Chetan Baboolall, des sièges de « backbenchers » du gouvernement. Il justifie cette demande par le fait que « nous demeurons à ce stade membres d’un parti faisant partie de la coalition gouvernementale, et que l’arrangement proposé est conforme à la fois à la Constitution et aux pratiques parlementaires établies ».

« Toutefois, afin de ne pas vous mettre dans l’embarras et en attendant les développements politiques imminents, nous ne serons pas présents à l’Assemblée nationale demain », précise Paul Bérenger.

De son côté, le whip de l’opposition, Adrien Duval, s’était interrogé sur la présence des trois députés du MMM sur les bancs de l’opposition. Selon lui, ces parlementaires ne peuvent siéger derrière le leader de l’opposition tout en conservant leur statut au sein de leur parti. Il estime qu’une telle configuration serait non seulement irrégulière, mais également incompatible avec les principes constitutionnels.

Pour sa part, Paul Bérenger a apporté des précisions sur le « seating arrangement » et réaffirme que l’arrangement qu’il propose respecte à la fois la Constitution et les pratiques parlementaires établies.

Ci-dessous, l’intégralité de la lettre de Paul Bérenger à la Speaker :

Madam Speaker, I write further to the letter addressed to you today by the Honourable Adrien Charles Duval, Opposition Whip, concerning the seating arrangements proposed by myself and my two colleagues, Honourable Joanna Bérenger and Honourable Chetan Baboolall, for tomorrow's sitting. I wish to place on record a number of clarifications which I respectfully submit for your consideration. First, and most fundamentally: neither I nor my two colleagues have resigned from, been expelled from, or been suspended by the Mouvement Militant Mauricien. The Honourable Opposition Whip's letter proceeds on a premise that is, in important respects, beside the point. The question of whether Members of a governing party who have left that party may sit on the Opposition benches does not arise here, because no such departure has taken place. We remain, in full standing, Members of the Mмм.

Second, it follows that we do not seek to sit on the Opposition benches. What we seek is to sit on the backbenches of the majority side of the House. This is an entirely different proposition from that which the Honourable Opposition Whip has described, and his objections, however forcefully stated, do not speak to it. A governing party's Members are not obliged to sit in a single block immediately behind Ministers; the backbenches of the majority have always accommodated Members whose political position, for whatever reason, requires some distance from the front benches.

Third, this arrangement is explicitly understood to be provisional. The MMM has not yet arrived at a final and valid resolution of its position regarding continued participation in the Government. Until such a resolution is validly reached through the party's proper internal processes, it would be premature, and indeed improper, for any of us to take an irreversible step in either direction. Our sitting on the Government backbenches reflects this transitional political reality. It is a posture of restraint, not of ambiguity.

Fourth, I wish to address the question of the Whip. The Honourable Opposition Whip has no standing to speak to our seating arrangements, as we do not fall within his remit. The mandate of the Government Whip over us remains unchanged. Our physical repositioning to the backbenches does not affect the formal parliamentary structures governing party discipline within the majority.

It would therefore be in order for you, Madam Speaker, to allocate, as previously agreed, seats on the Government backbenches to myself and my two colleagues, in recognition that we remain at this stage Members of a party forming part of the Government coalition, and that the arrangement proposed is consistent with both the Constitution and established parliamentary practice. However, in order not to embarrass you and pending imminent political developments, we shall not be present at the National Assembly tomorrow.