Letter to the Speaker: Paul Bérenger, Joanna Bérenger, and Chetan Baboolall Request to Sit as Government 'Backbenchers' in Parliament
The leader of the MMM has clarified the seating arrangement in Parliament following a letter of protest sent on Monday by the opposition whip, Adrien Duval, to the Speaker of the National Assembly. In his own letter addressed to Shirin Aumeeruddy-Cziffra, Paul Bérenger requests that he and his two MMM colleagues, Joanna Bérenger and Chetan Baboolall, be assigned seats as government 'backbenchers'. He justifies this request by stating that 'we remain, at this stage, members of a party that is part of the government coalition, and that the proposed arrangement is in accordance with both the Constitution and established parliamentary practices.'
'However, in order not to put you in an awkward position and pending upcoming political developments, we will not be present at the National Assembly tomorrow,' Paul Bérenger specifies.
On his part, the opposition whip, Adrien Duval, questioned the presence of the three MMM deputies on the opposition benches. According to him, these parliamentarians cannot sit behind the opposition leader while maintaining their status within their party. He argues that such a configuration would not only be irregular but also incompatible with constitutional principles.
For his part, Paul Bérenger provided clarifications on the seating arrangement and reaffirms that the arrangement he proposes respects both the Constitution and established parliamentary practices.
Below is the full letter from Paul Bérenger to the Speaker:
'Honourable Speaker, I write to you further to the letter addressed to you today by 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 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 MMM.
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 address 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 proposed arrangement 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.'
