Gail Alexan­der

Swift­ly as­sum­ing au­thor­i­ty, new UNC po­lit­i­cal leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar ap­point­ed new UNC chair­man Jack Warn­er as chief whip in Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day–over­turn­ing a de­ci­sion by for­mer leader Bas­deo Pan­day. Warn­er now sits at the head of the Op­po­si­tion row. The new arrange­ment fur­ther placed Pan­day, the Op­po­si­tion Leader, in the awk­ward po­si­tion of sit­ting be­tween Warn­er and Per­sad-Bisses­sar in the Low­er House. And Per­sad-Bisses­sar's move to re­place for­mer chief whip Dr Hamza Rafeeq, who was ap­point­ed by Pan­day, has met ad­verse re­ac­tion from UNC MP Dr Roodal Mooni­lal, who was to have act­ed as chief whip yes­ter­day. Mooni­lal, one of Per­sad-Bisses­sar's new deputy lead­ers, said he was not con­sult­ed on Warn­er's ap­point­ment or Rafeeq's re­moval. He and oth­er UNC MPs hint­ed that the de­vel­op­ment may af­fect their de­ci­sion in con­sid­er­ing whether to sup­port Per­sad-Bisses­sar's bid to ob­tain the post of Op­po­si­tion Leader.

The is­sue was part of yes­ter­day's high dra­ma as Per­sad-Bisses­sar, Warn­er and oth­er UNC MPs en­tered the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives for the first time since Per­sad-Bisses­sar be­came UNC leader in a his­toric par­ty elec­tion on Sun­day. Clad in a bur­gundy coloured jack­et–adorned with dia­mante lapel pin– and black skirt, Per­sad-Bisses­sar ar­rived in Par­lia­ment ear­ly yes­ter­day. Ar­riv­ing short­ly af­ter her was Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning. Dur­ing yes­ter­day's de­bate, Man­ning in­ter­vened briefly to con­grat­u­late Per­sad-Bisses­sar. She was al­so con­grat­u­lat­ed by Clerk of the Par­lia­ment Jacquie Samp­son. Be­fore Per­sad-Bisses­sar's ar­rival, how­ev­er, Par­lia­ment staff had changed the name­plates on the UNC's Op­po­si­tion side to ac­com­mo­date Per­sad-Bisses­sar's first edict. Warn­er's name­plate was moved from the back­bench to the first desk which for­mer chief whip Rafeeq usu­al­ly oc­cu­pied.

The Ch­agua­nas MP had been sit­ting on the UNC's back­bench since last year–along with MPs Ramesh Lawrence Ma­haraj and Win­ston Pe­ters–when Pan­day re­placed Ma­haraj as chief whip when the rift with the Ram­jack fac­tion opened up. Warn­er now sits at Pan­day's right hand while Per­sad-Bisses­sar's seat is to Pan­day's left. Rafeeq's name­plate was placed at Per­sad-Bisses­sar's left. All oth­er UNC MPs were moved down a seat to ac­com­mo­date the changes. Re­main­ing on the UNC back­bench­es were MPs Har­ry Par­tap and Nizam Baksh (who sup­port Per­sad-Bisses­sar) as well as Ma­haraj. MPs such as Mooni­lal, Vas­ant Bharath and Mick­ela Pan­day who had en­tered the Par­lia­ment by then, did not speak to Warn­er, but in­stead trad­ed pi­cong with PNM MPs. PNM In­for­ma­tion Min­is­ter Neil Parsan­lal came over to shake the hands of each of them and chat. He con­clud­ed with con­grat­u­lat­ing Warn­er al­so.

When pro­ceed­ings be­gan, Speak­er Baren­dra Sinanan list­ed for­mer chief whip Rafeeq among those MPs who were on leave. Sinanan said Rafeeq was on leave from yes­ter­day un­til Feb­ru­ary 12. Rafeeq is ill. For­mer UNC leader Pan­day who en­tered the Par­lia­ment soon af­ter, of­fered his chair to Per­sad-Bisses­sar who, in turn, rose to greet him. Pan­day asked if she would like to sit in the chair. How­ev­er, she stuck to her seat and he took his be­tween Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Warn­er. From there, Pan­day and PNM MPs, in­clud­ing Man­ning, Colm Im­bert and and Karen Tesheira, trad­ed pi­cong on the UNC's elec­tion out­come. PNM's Im­bert al­so trad­ed jokes with Warn­er. Dur­ing the ses­sion, Warn­er and Per­sad-Bisses­sar spoke sev­er­al times to each oth­er be­hind Pan­day's chair, and al­so passed each oth­er notes across him. Pan­day did not speak to Per­sad-Bisses­sar or Warn­er dur­ing the ses­sion. Pan­day lat­er said he was sur­prised at Warn­er's ap­point­ment as chief whip.