Richard Lord

Hous­ing and the En­vi­ron­ment Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal says sus­pend­ed San Fer­nan­do East MP and for­mer prime min­is­ter, Patrick Man­ning pos­es no threat to the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship Gov­ern­ment but rather to Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley.Mooni­lal made the com­ment in light of Man­ning's in­di­ca­tion that he was not about to take his one month's sus­pen­sion with­out le­gal or oth­er chal­lenges.Man­ning in­di­cat­ed to a wel­com­ing re­cep­tion at the Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port on Fri­day that he will an­nounce his next move af­ter con­sul­ta­tion with con­stituents and po­lit­i­cal leader of the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) Dr Row­ley.

He has al­ready ini­ti­at­ed le­gal pro­ceed­ings against the Gov­ern­ment over the sus­pen­sion.He was sus­pend­ed for al­le­ga­tions with re­spect to the cost and fund­ing of Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar's pri­vate dwelling in south Trinidad.Mooni­lal, in a tele­phone in­ter­view yes­ter­day, said: "As far as the Par­lia­ment is con­cerned Mr Man­ning, in a par­lia­men­tary sense, is in jail. He can make nois­es of course, but he is out."If he is not tak­ing it (sus­pen­sion) he can re­turn it."He said the Par­lia­ment had de­cid­ed on the mat­ter of his sus­pen­sion.

He then added: "It is bit­ter med­i­cine. It tastes aw­ful, but it works and he would be ad­vised to ac­cept the de­ci­sion of the House."Mooni­lal said Man­ning's sus­pen­sion from the ser­vice of the House "runs for the du­ra­tion of the ses­sion and Mr Man­ning will be out­side of the ser­vice of the House for the rest of the ses­sion."The ses­sion is ex­pect­ed to come to an end at June 17.