MR ISMAEL HASSENJEE NAWOOR

Madam Speaker, we have learnt of the demise of Mr Ismael Hassenjee Nawoor, former Member of the Legislative Assembly, on Tuesday 25 November of this year, at the age of 86. In 1983, Mr Nawoor contested the general elections under the banner of the Alliance MSM/Parti Travailliste in Constituency No.3 (Port-Louis Maritime & Port-Louis East), but he was not elected. He was, however, allocated a seat under the Best Loser System to serve the then Legislative Assembly. In 1984, Mr Nawoor was appointed as member to serve the Select Committee on Drug Addiction. He had some problems later regarding this issue. Madam Speaker, may I kindly request you to direct the Clerk of the National Assembly to convey the condolences of the Assembly to the members of the bereaved family of late Mr Nawoor. Thank you.

Thank you. Hon. Leader of the Opposition!

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, on behalf of the Opposition, I wish associate myself to the tribute paid by Dr. the hon. Prime Minister to late Mr Ismael Hassenjee Nawoor. Madam Speaker, may I request you to direct the Clerk of the National Assembly to convey our deep condolences to the bereaved family. Thank you.

Hon. Members, I associate myself with the tribute paid to the memory of late Ismael Hassenjee Nawoor, former Member of Parliament, by Dr. the hon. Prime Minister and the hon. Leader of the Opposition, and I direct the Clerk to convey the deep condolences of the Assembly to the bereaved family. SITTING 25 NOVEMBER 2025 – CONDUCT OF BUSINESS – RULINGS OF SPEAKER Hon. Members, on 29 November 2024, you elected me unanimously as Speaker of the National Assembly, and last Saturday, therefore, I could mark my one full year in this position. Last Tuesday, I had to suspend the Sitting as the aggressive behaviour of some Members had reached its peak, after I had already given two warnings that I would do so if there was no order in the Chamber. I learnt in the meantime that hon. Adrien Duval accused me of being partial. He did this on Top FM Radio. On his Facebook page, which I read, he said that I was "trop souvent dépassée par les événements". Indeed, a journalist of Top FM asked me for a declaration, which I gave him very briefly, but I invited him to listen to my announcement which I am giving now. I accepted this post, hon. Members, on the clear understanding that I would be totally independent, and I invite hon. A. Duval to raise his objections here about my partiality by way of a substantive motion and not just lightly. You can see Standing Order 40(5). He may not like the way that I have adopted for the past year. He is free to hold his opinions. But concerning the conduct of a Speaker, there are rules. Now, hon. Members, I want to refer to the incident which made me suspend the Sitting. Everything is in the Hansard. By the way, now that we have direct broadcast, a very wide audience was also witness to the situation to see how it deteriorated. Any hon. Member will by now have had the same amount of time as me to read the Hansard and to understand how things happened. The decision to suspend the Sitting rather than order Members out was mine. I fully stand by that decision which is based on Standing Order 77, which gives me a wide power to regulate the conduct of business in the Assembly. I am not going to repeat negative decisions of the past by ordering Members out or naming anyone because the place of hon. Members is in the House and not anywhere else. This applies to Members on both sides of the House. And I count on all of you to help me to maintain the decorum of the House. Anyone who does not agree with what is going on is free to raise a point of order and ask for my ruling. But points of order must respect the Standing Orders and Rules of the National Assembly. May I refer hon. Members to Standing Order 41. Further, may I also remind you, once more that, sometimes I need to take time to give a ruling precisely as I must read the Hansard to understand clearly what happened. They say "fools rush in where angels fear to tread". It is better to take time in order to be fair and make a proper decision. But my decision cannot be questioned. I also want to remind Members that at Question Time, we need questions and not statements from hon. Members. All the preliminaries are not permitted. In fact, it is easy with the English language to ask a question by incorporating the fact on which the question is based, rather than make a long-winded introduction which will clearly call for unpleasant remarks. This applies again to both sides of the House. I will not allow long introductory remarks anymore. And there is no need for Members to give rulings as if everyone is a Speaker in this House. Please, let me do what I am here for. Now, for Ministers who are replying to a question, it is not acceptable to use 20 minutes out of 30 to answer a Private Notice Question. We will have to find a good solution on such issues. Even for PQs, Ministers are invited to be precise in their answers. If not, an answer which requires a long explanation may be tabled. Then Members will have to put supplementary questions, if need be, or take notice of the reply and, in due course come back with a new question. Unless there is an urgency, of course. As for the Private Notice Question, it is the time for the Leader of the Opposition, who exercises this right according to our Standing Orders, and it is a long tradition in our democracy based on the Westminster System. Any other Member who wishes to put a supplementary question must wait for the hon. Leader of the Opposition to finish with his supplementary questions before putting a question. Once a Member catches my eye, he/she must wait. Last and not least, I will not tolerate any Member who addresses me in a sitting position. Thank you.