Opposition kidnapping of legislative committee caused last week's rumpus

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Monday, June 09, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

El Ultimas Noticias editor, Eleazar Diaz Rangel says the heart of the conflict in Venezuela's Legislature lies in the legislation committee, which came under the complete control of the opposition with the desertion of Movimiento Quinta Republica (MVR) deputies ... "the committee did not reflect the correlation of forces inside the National Assembly (AN) and the problem is that the committee controls everything in Parliament ... nothing gets passed to the plenary session without its approval." 

After each attempt to change the composition of the committee was blocked, the government bench decided to approve the internal debate regulation, according to which a draft law would automatically pass on to the Assembly, if the committee did not present its report before the deadline. 

The opposition reacted making blocking the media content law a point of honor by using obstructionist tactics, such as stacking the list of orators to draw the process out. This time round, they decided to prevent the AN board from taking their seats and the result were the fisticuffs we saw last Wednesday. 

The government bench convoked a plenary session in El Calvario. 

The rule isn't clear about the need of the majority to hold sessions outside the Capitolio ... the government bench has shown it has parliamentary majority.

Rangel says he doubts whether the opposition is ready to challenge the basis of democracy which lies in majority rule, especially after signing the negotiations agreement, especially the clause defending the spirit of tolerance. 

Opposition forces have tried to change the balance in Parliament using bribes and even though the government majority has waned, it is still majority and must be respected, as the steamrolling Accion Democratica (AD)- Christian Socialists (COPEI) were in the old Congress and AD and Movimiento Quinta Republica (MVR) majorities in the Constituent Assemblies in 1946 and 1999 respectively.

Rangel suggests that both sides are obliged to act according to the negotiations agreement spirit. "I don't think that the opposition is so blind as not to realize that policies such as the current one means ignoring the golden rule of democracy and not accepting that they are in the minority ... it could force indecisive sectors of society to move in to the government camp."