PNM Senator Fitzgerald Hinds' previous life as a police instructor may (or may not) be what lends to his snappy reaction regarding the shortcomings he perceives on the Government's Senate bench. On Tuesday, Hinds was no less snappy in "helping" Senate President Timothy Hamel-Smith point out to Government Senate leader Subhas Panday where the latter had erred. Attempting to interject a denial into a reply being read into the parliamentary Hansard record is an official no-no and Hinds acquainted Panday with this. Each and every time Panday attempted to do opposite with the help of the Standing Orders. Hinds had Panday in his sights most of the afternoon. "I know that you are a little 'jijiri' because facts were put in your face and it has discomforted you," he told Panday at one point. (Hinds was sure Parliament's Hansard reporters were able to spell his word of the moment. One of several he'd stockpiled and fired that day.) Panday's mumbled response prompted Hinds to declare "Go outside and say it! I will help you pay the bill if I can afford it because you know I'm a poor man... I'll remind my friend about his friend Hakim Jamaal... I'm sure now that I have reminded him about his friend, he will not say anything to me again for the afternoon."
However, Hinds walked right into PP Senator Vasant Bharath's ready retort when he ventured saying:
"If poverty was the cause of crime, the circumstances in which I was born and in which I grew up, I may have been a serial..." "Killer," Bharath interjected smoothly. "...Criminal," Hinds corrected Bharath amid members' laughter. "Some of the most honest, upstanding, and if I may use a Rastafarian concoction,'upfull' and decent citizens I have known are people living in some of the so-called poorest parts of T&T," Hinds added. Independent Senator Corinne Baptiste-McKnight, who spoke after Hinds, acknowledged she had a tough act to follow: "I can't presume to promise you the entertainment you just had," Baptiste-McKnight remarked. The PP Government might well have wished that Hinds' simple logic on the firearm bill was true: "You can't make pelau without rice (so) if there were no guns there'd be no killing." Or could be employed on other matters such as the SIA issue. Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, after initially hesitating to speak on it last week, had an about face on Tuesday, going verbal instead of missive. (Unsurprising, after her last couple office-issued statements on the matter landed her in contention.) If Persad-Bissessar decided to break her silence on that, silence has however been slapped on Works Minister Jack Warner and the CAL board pending the report of aviation expert John Dunne, who Government has mandated to examine issues regarding the ATR planes which CAL had intended to purchase.
This is at the heart of the impasse between Warner and the board. The intervention by Attorney General Anand Ramlogan to bring Donne in-and his edict against further statements from both sides-has gained Government some let-up against escalation of the issue in public, where it has played out with increasingly ominous words. Whether or not Ramlogan would have factored in the negative response it has won from the planes' manufacturer is debatable. But the year-end report is expected to bring to a head this (and other issues) in the PP. Warner, who missed Thursday's Cabinet meeting, returns from overseas tomorrow. The UNC chairman was expected to miss last night's UNC Christmas party at Rienzi Complex, to which party jefes including state board chairmen were invited.
Dooks pulls up absent COP MPs
Hanging fire along with the CAL issue is the Clico matter, fielding no movement from Government. And same from policyholders. Despite such challenges of office, Finance Minister and COP leader Winston Dookeran, at a Fyzabad COP function, expressed a "sense of satisfaction" with the PP's positioning of the country "within a very short space of time." However, Dookeran, noting that all six COP MPs were not present, made an intriguing remark about his crew: "I look forward to seeing all our six parliamentarians under one umbrella at the next appropriate time. Today we have a few but we look forward that they will all recognise that it is the COP that has given birth to the political life to the people in which for whom they fight (sic)," he said. "Therefore the COP will be more than happy to see all our six MPS under one roof in a COP function in the near future." Dookeran, who urged COP to "work in sincerity and honesty with all PP partners," said the PP Government "will rely"on COP. "Have faith, stay the line, keep the fort..." Dookeran declared. His advice didn't however make it to the ears of UNC Fyzabad MP Chandresh Sharma, in whose district the function was held and who had been invited but didn't show up to the PP partner's event, the COP confirmed.
Former House Speaker Sinanan for PNM gen sec
The PNM may be three months away from its party convention, but prospectives eyeing executive posts are increasing fast and furious. PNM officials tip the following to contest posts:
Chairman-Senator Penny Beckles, Franklin Khan.
Vice chairman-MP Colm Imbert, ex-MP John Rahael.
Lady vice chairman-MP Donna Cox.
Treasurer-ex-Senator Mariano Browne.
General secretary–former House Speaker Barry Sinanan, Foster Cumming.
Assistant general secretary-Daniel Dookie, Ashton Ford.
PRO-Senator Faris Al Rawi, Joel Primus, Dr Bose Sharma.
Field officer-Abdon Mason, Indar Parasram.
Operations officer-Sigler Jack (D/Martin West chairman), Irene Hinds.
Imbert was among several who confirmed interest in contesting.
While speculation in PNM continues on whether two slates are shaping up-and one was being supported by former leader Patrick Manning-some PNMites believe Khan's personality, for instance, is tailor made for the post of PRO and the outreach PNM needs to do at various levels.
Meanwhile though some PPers have deemed Daryan Warner-Jack Warner's son-a "traitor" for becoming involved with PNM, the PNM feedback has been mixed.
Some PNMites view his debut with suspicion, believing Warner Jr to be a "spy." Others have welcomed him as a sign of PP's faltering.