The Christmas spirit in the House of Representatives yesterday was evident only because some people wore red. Predominantly, female MPs on the Opposition PNM side and Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar on the Government bench. For the PNM, it might indeed have been a red-letter day since Government MP Anil Roberts was referred to Parliament's Privileges Committee on the basis of a
request by PNM MP Amery Browne.
Even after that announcement, Roberts' cockiness was still intact and on the ready when he had to reply to an Opposition question on the agenda. (Roberts earned the wrath of PNM MP Colm Imbert who lost his cool, pointed out with loud emphasis that the question "was in ENGLISH!"and wondered if Roberts was ducking the query.) Imbert also sparred briefly with Foreign Affairs Minister Suruj Rambachan who sought to spin the reply to a question on the cost of his boss' overseas trips into a promotion of her overseas endeavours. "...She also held meetings with (US Secretary of State ) Hillary Clinton,"Rambachan insisted proudly.
"What-passin' in a corridor?!" quipped former Prime Minister Patrick Manning. It was that kind of day. Though weightier debate would take place later in the session as the bail bill was discussed. Persad-Bissessar had entered the chamber along with Works Minister Jack Warner,who held out her chair for her and made sure she was settled into her seat- something that Warner does each session. Despite the fact that her office this week seemed at odds with itself on issues pertaining to the Security Intelligence Agency (SIA), Persad-Bissessar was in a chatty mood yesterday, seeking out conversation with Warner.
The Works Minister however was in a pensive mood early in the
session. Quietly leafing through magazines,Warner was short on
his usual picong. (Even the sight of PNM's Imbert animatedly enjoying his stint in the Opposition Leader's chair-in the absence of a recuperating Keith Rowley-didn't elicit any shots from him.) It could hardly have been the news that Warner's son,Daryan, has become active with PNM's Party Group Number Eight in Port-of-Spain North. Or the Chaguanas West MP could simply have been saving his energy for the Christmas party which the House Speaker was scheduled to host after yesterday's final House sitting for this year.
(After next Tuesday's final sitting of the Senate,Parliament is expected to resume in the second week of January, Government confirmed.) But weighed down by continuing conflict with the Caribbean Airlines board,Warner's Christmas spirit might have had a difficult time becoming airborne since the issue carries its own threatening matters, in-house of the six-month-old administration. Indeed, a few hours earlier before the House yesterday, Warner had said that the day he had a difference with his boss, "I will walk, because that is the correct thing to do..." While the salvoes continued between the CAL board and the now clearly estranged line minister, Warner's most recent statements on the issue were timed for after Thursday's Cabinet meeting where the CAL issue was discussed.
CAL decision ahead Warner outlined his case and other members spoke on the issue during Cabinet, it is understood. Warner says there was no resolution since Persad-Bissessar asked for a few days before making a final decision, because certain issues were "still unclear." In the simmering issue,Warner's public cryptic remark Tuesday-that the CAL board does not report to him-would have raised more than a few red flags. Chief of which is: if the board doesn't report to him,who does it report to considering that Warner has confirmed CAL indeed falls under his Works portfolio. Up to recently, as state boards continued to be appointed,PP Caroni constituency officials who had submitted their names for consideration confirmed they had been told that some of the party's financiers were being given first pick for boards and their appointments would "come later."
(They didn't have a problem with that.) But the CAL board's modus operandi is a problem for Warner, who yesterday raised the comparison spectre of former Udecott chairman Calder Hart's alleged unilateral operations. "...I'm seeing history repeating itself and I will not recreate another Calder Hart in any form or fashion," he said. Warner,who fears the CAL example of bypassing of the minister could be copied by other boards, has not hidden how deeply his concerns on the matter run, where he stands firmly on it and what he expects should transpire. "The rift with the board widens daily and the board fails to do the honourable thing...stepping down is the ethical thing to do...we can't see eye to eye.
"No board is a law unto itself- you can't be a runaway horse,"
Warner said, echoing a term former UNC leader Basdeo Panday
once used in 1998 about certain state boards which Panday had to rein in during his tenure. As far as Warner stands, the door is closed for further talks with the board. He says he will not be "further insulted by (CAL heads) Mr (George) Nicholas or Mr (Allan) Clovis." Warner,who said CAL chairman Nicholas was not imposed on him by the PM, said he went to her with the nomination, having been asked by Nicholas to serve.He said he met Nicholas through a third party and knows his father as a hotelier.
However,Warner says he is "kicking myself twice" for Nicholas'
and Clovis' appointments. He said Tobago members protested
loudly when Clovis was proposed. "So if ever any minister displayed errors of judgment, I did and I must take the blame and pay the price for it,"Warner added. If there is one lesson he's learned however-and is passing on to his colleagues-is: "...Do not put a chairman on a board with whom you're not familiar." Warner said if he's made a mistake he would apologise to the PM and "...I gone, no office is too big for me to demit, but I'll always try to do what is right." Warner however said he did not intend to place any undue pressure on Persad-Bissessar. He added, "Let's see what happens, things may look different tomorrow-but it's getting worse daily."
My PNM ties will affect Dad-Daryan Warner Warner's son Daryan,who began reconnecting with the PNM on Monday, acknowledges that his PNM ties will cause repercussions for his father. "I think there will be repercussions for him anyhow, some people will find any avenue to vilify and victimise him. But he's a survivor and always will be,"Warner Jr said. On perceptions that young Warner is avenging or defending his father on CAL,Warner said: "My father doesn't require anybody to fight his battles for him. If anything, I'm open to suggestions from other parties because of the things I've learned from him. He wanted change in the UNC for instance so he stood up to Mr (Basdeo)Panday whom, incidentally, I adore."
Daryan Warner said the CAL issue doesn't auger well for T&T. While young Warner yesterday voiced concerns about lack of consultation in the PP, his father is having his own consultation issues with the CAL board. However, both father and son yesterday-speaking separately on their own respective matters- voiced a view in common: that "not everything the PNM did was bad although the PNM did some bad things." PNM convention in March Warner Jr is expected to be more visible with PNM activities in coming months. PNM leader Rowley again, absent from yesterday's House, will be back when proceedings resume in 2011.Rowley is expected to be well in shape for PNM's convention which has finally been set for March since the Chaguaramas Convention Centre-venue for the gathering-was not available in January when the party initially planned to have the event.
Today's PNM's general council will be informed of the date of the convention, for which lobbying is already heating up for executive posts. Party insiders who acknowledge chairman hopeful Franklin Khan's pluses in the personality department, however believe he may hardly win in a race with PNM Senator Penny Beckles, reportedly contesting that post also. The ruling PP moved swiftly in the Senate on Tuesday to detract from Khan's political stocks with allegations about an EMBD contract. However, it gave Khan a platform for launching his new political profile, in defending his wife's company in the issue. Khan has been on the receiving end of well-wishes from PNM old guard members such as former chairman Conrad Enill, Joan Yuille-Williams and others including younger PNMites.
But PNM sources believe he has a better chance at the post of vice chairman However, officials also tip PNM MP Imbert to contest the post of vice chairman and the party election may therefore see two former Works Ministers contesting posts. Khan, in his government days, had been perceived as a Manning stalwart.His reappearance on the scene had set some PNMites wondering where he fits in with the resurgence of Manning recently - and if there was any complementary movement. This, especially in view of rumours that surreptitious moves were afoot for Khan to challenge Rowley for the leadership at PNM's convention. On Wednesday Khan said that challenging Rowley-who has a five-year term-was never on the cards. PNMites expect to see more of Khan's smiling visage in weeks the ahead as campaigning for PNM posts heats up ahead of the March convention.
Flying high (or not)
• PP ministers have made a point of re-plying to House agenda questions on time and showing up the PNM for its habit of postponing the reply to questions when the PNM was in Government.
• Indeed, up to yesterday, Foreign Affairs Minister Suruj Rambachan, in the House, boasted that the Government "takes seri-ously its responsibility to answer questions as quickly as possible."
• However, Rambachan seemed blissfully unaware that PP Minister Stephen Cadiz had broken the PP's so-far successful trend, in the Senate on Tuesday.
• This, when Cadiz asked for the reply on the Senate agenda's Question Four (on metrology) to be deferred for two weeks.
• As the Senate take its Christmas break after Tuesday's sitting, Cadiz's answer will run into January when Parliament resumes.
• Dressed in Christmas red, PNM MP Marlene McDonald threw her considerable weight (verbally) against PM Persad- Bissessar yesterday in querying the where-abouts of Government's crime plan.
• PNM Senator Lester Henry may have had the recent Clico issues in mind when he teased Finance Minister Winston Dookeran about the "junior Finance Minister" at Dookeran's right.
• The statement caused Planning Minis-ter Mary King (at Dookeran's left) to swivel a look to the right...where Agriculture Minis-ter Vasant Bharath sits.
• Henry however may have simply been noticing that Bharath had helped Dookeran in reminding him that the Senate President was "Mr President" and not "Mr Speaker..." as Dookeran had mistakenly said (and con-tinued to say even after being "assisted").
• ...And even as former Works Minister Franklin Khan was bashing PP Minister Subhas Panday on Wednesday for recent remarks on his wife's company, Khan wore the usual jovial look he'd worn for years as a PNM minister.