When meme culture, Parliament collide

DURING the budget debate on October 8, Speaker Bridgid Annisette-George cautioned all MPs about the statements they make in the House. That is par for the course.

However, on this occasion, the cause for the Speaker’s intervention was highly unusual.

The day before, Moruga/Tableland MP Michelle Benjamin sent the House into uproar when she deployed an infamous jibe, made popular by meme culture, in ridiculing Finance Minister Colm Imbert.

“The Minister of Finance came to promise a highway again,” Ms Benjamin said. “I am tempted to use the words of ‘Princess Margaret,’ Madam Speaker, when she said, ‘Let them put that highway between they leg.’”

In a video that first circulated widely online years ago during the People’s Partnership administration, and which has since generated thousands of memes and parodies, a woman used those words in rejecting a highly contentious highway project.

Ms Benjamin intended to redirect them at the current administration, but they were originally aimed at the prime minister at the time, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, now Opposition Leader and Ms Benjamin’s political boss.

At first, as MPs rose to object to Ms Benjamin’s contribution in the House on October 7, the Speaker simply urged Ms Benjamin “to be very careful with where you going.”

However, on evident reflection, the Speaker returned to the issue the next day.

“The usage of the expression that was made by the member for Moruga/Tableland does not reflect the civility of this house,” she said at the start of the sitting. “Such a statement has no place in this society and certainly not in this House. I wish to caution all members.”

She noted the original remarks were misogynistic and described Ms Benjamin’s use of them as “unbecoming to say the least.”

This incident, as trite as it might seem, betrays a parliament system still struggling with the issues of gender attitudes and equality while being increasingly disconnected from contemporary life.

It is interesting to note all the principal actors involved are female: the Speaker, Ms Benjamin, the Opposition Leader, the person who originally uttered the jibe as a way to insult someone putting on airs. Leader of Government Business Camille Robinson-Regis also objected to Ms Benjamin’s remarks.

All operate in a political system which has seen women rise to the highest posts, yet still struggle, election after election, appointment after appointment, to achieve gender parity. Women remain just a quarter of elected representatives.

A parliament that reflects social media trends might seem like a hip, hopeful thing.

But the gauche nature of Ms Benjamin’s oratory this week, and the timing of the resurrection of the “Princess Margaret” meme years later, only reinforce the sense of a profound disconnect.

MPs can do better.

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