Kali­fa Clyne

The scene out­side Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day re­sem­bled a cir­cus, with gov­ern­ment min­is­ters at­tempt­ing dar­ing feats as they at­tempt­ed to weave through hordes of PNM sup­port­ers, mu­si­cians in yel­low T-shirts beat­ing out rhythms on tas­sa drums and sno cone and can­dy ven­dors sell­ing re­fresh­ments.Out­side the Par­lia­ment build­ing, po­lice placed met­al bar­ri­ers in a rec­tan­gle, keep­ing the hun­dreds of peo­ple, most wear­ing ei­ther red or yel­low cloth­ing, sev­er­al me­tres away from the en­trance.

Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion sup­port­ers spilled on­to Wright­son Road, hold­ing plac­ards, as dis­tract­ed dri­vers slowed down to watch, caus­ing traf­fic to move slow­ly on both sides of the road.The crowd was split down the mid­dle, with the colour of their cloth­ing and mes­sages on their plac­ards mark­ing the di­vid­ing line. At the point where yel­low clashed against red, peo­ple ig­nored each oth­er.The groups be­haved sim­i­lar­ly, cheer­ing when their par­ty of­fi­cials walked past and boo­ing when mem­bers of the oth­er po­lit­i­cal par­ty ap­peared.

The on­ly dif­fer­ence was that the PNM cheers and jeers were no­tice­ably loud­er.Al­though the PNM sup­port­ers tried to form a chain, around Tow­er D, as in­struct­ed by Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley, their ef­forts were dis­or­gan­ised.Chants of "We want elec­tion now" mixed with chants of "Kam­la!" Voic­es shout­ing "Anil must go," was fol­lowed by "We love Kam­la," as each group tried to get their voic­es heard.Union mem­bers who had gath­ered away from the par­ty sup­port­ers were sub­dued.

Colm gets a kiss

Op­po­si­tion mem­bers played it safe, walk­ing through the path cleared by po­lice be­fore en­gag­ing sup­port­ers, who chant­ed their names.For­mer PNM sen­a­tor Fitzger­ald Hinds hugged and kissed sup­port­ers be­fore walk­ing in.St Joseph MP Ter­rence Deyals­ingh, Arou­ca MP Ali­cia Hospedales, Point Fortin MP Paula Gopee-Scoon and Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral MP Dr Amery Browne mir­rored Hinds' ac­tions.

When Diego Mar­tin North/East MP Colm Im­bert walked past the crowd, a woman leaned for­ward and plant­ed a kiss on his cheek.

Govt mps ar­rive

Min­is­ters in the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship waved and shook hands with sup­port­ers in yel­low be­fore walk­ing quick­ly in­side to the jeer­ing from PNM sup­port­ers.Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, wear­ing gold African wear to mark Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist Lib­er­a­tion Day on Mon­day, was flanked by po­lice and Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Gary Grif­fith. She stopped to talk to sup­port­ers, be­fore walk­ing hur­ried­ly in­to the build­ing, ig­nor­ing the crowd in red.

But Sport Min­is­ter Anil Roberts chose a dif­fer­ent route, straight through the PNM sup­port­ers, de­spite the bar­ri­ers block­ing en­try to Par­lia­ment and the jeer­ing crowd.Po­lice stand­ing close to the build­ing looked sur­prised be­fore rush­ing to­ward the min­is­ter.Roberts, re­al­is­ing the fu­til­i­ty of his at­tempt, turned around and made his way around the crowd to en­ter the build­ing, stop­ping to talk to the me­dia and ac­cuse PNM sup­port­ers of be­ing hooli­gans.

His route was fol­lowed by Arts Min­is­ter Dr Lin­coln Dou­glas, who al­so tried to walk through the crowd as peo­ple shout­ed in­sults and ac­cused him of de­stroy­ing Car­ni­val.Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Tim Gopeesingh tried the same tac­tic, but chose to walk among UNC sup­port­ers. He too turned around af­ter reach­ing the bar­ri­er block­ing his way.

Why they went

Sev­er­al UNC sup­port­ers, asked why they de­cid­ed to go to Par­lia­ment, an­swered, "No com­ment."One woman, hold­ing a sign which read "We Love Our Gov­ern­ment," was asked why she came out, and gave the same an­swer.An­oth­er self-pro­claimed UNC sup­port­er said he was there to sup­port the gov­ern­ment."We came to­day to sup­port our Prime Min­is­ter. They on­ly want to mash up the part­ner­ship. We sup­port the PM in what­ev­er ac­tion she has tak­en for the Gov­ern­ment," he said.

"I'm here be­cause enough is enough. These peo­ple made promis­es and they did not de­liv­er. They promised to deal with crime and they have done noth­ing," said An­gel Lee, a PNM sup­port­er.Wilma Dun­can, a T&T cit­i­zen liv­ing in Cana­da, stood to the side of both groups wear­ing all white, with a red, white and black ban­dan­na around her neck."I came to see what was hap­pen­ing. I read the news­pa­pers and I am tired of this Gov­ern­ment. They aren't do­ing what they should do," Dun­can said.