Sacrifice of debating skills

THE EDITOR: I have always supported the view that the pen and the word are mightier than the sword. There is no substitute for the good old fashioned debate in which arguments are based on well-researched evidence, proper presentation, characterised by skilful debate and repartee over the years 1956-2003. The traditional Opposition, whether it was the PDP, DLP, ULF or UNC, has never been short of talented, skilful parliamentarians. In fact, they have had more than their fair share of talented debaters from Ashford and Mitra Sinannan, Simbhoonath Capildeo, Lionel Frank Seukeran, Balgobin Cassandra Ramdeen, Dr Monty Forrester, Peter Farquahar, Lilias Wight, Nazim Muradali, Hans Hanoomansingh, Shaffie Shah, Raffique Shah, Stephen Maharaj, Taj Hosein and more recently Basdeo Panday, Trevor Sudama, Ramesh Maharaj, Winston Dookeran, Bhoe Tewarie, Kelvin Ramnath, Nizam Mohammed, Kamla Persad Bissessar, etc, all capable of making valuable and constructive contributions to our national parliament on the numerous issues that confront the national community, and God knows that there is no shortage of issues, from crime, the environment, unemployment, energy, education, Caricom, national unity to global trading, all issues requiring the maximum effort of our elected and nominated members. Yet for some unexplained reason, our traditional Opposition has, over the years, preferred to indulge in Speaker bashing, allegations of discrimination, alienation, and character assassination.

A careful examination of Hansard over this period will clearly support these allegations. Unfortunately Speakers over the years have been targetted and/or reserved for their most destructive pieces of political artillery, from E Mortimer Duke, Arnold “the Tiger” Thomasos, “Poor” Matthew Ramcharan, their own colleague, Nizam Mohammed, Madame Occah Seepaul, even Hector Mc Lean got his taste of the Speaker’s medicine and new Mr Barry Sinannan. The only one that has escaped their wrath was Mr Rupert Griffith. Their most powerful and dangerous pieces of political missiles have always been reserved and directed to Indo-Trinidadian Speakers whom they assume had betrayed their cause, whatever that is supposed to be. Matthew Ramcharan, a decent, respectable citizen was humiliated. Occah Seepaul got the full works deservedly or not and now with Barry Sinanan, their venom knows no limit. Over the years, it has not been confined or directed exclusively to the Government benches. They have attacked each other with full force, washing a lot of their dirty linen in public, fighting and destroying each other. The worst period that I recall was 1961-1966 and 1966-1971. As a regular visitor to our parliament, I vividly recall some of the utterances of Simbhoo Capildeo who called Stephen Maharaj a murderer, accusing him of giving Bhadase Maraj the drug, Petadeen, which he said was killing Bhadase. Simbhoo told Stephen, quote “When Bhadase dies, I will come to the funeral and say you kill him, you kill him, you kill him.”

Even the intervention of Speaker Thomasos could not stop the onslaught. Their struggles for power and leadership of a party, characterised by the absentee leadership of Dr Rudranath Capildeo and an ailing Bhadase, on the one hand, and the ambition of Jamadar, Lequay, Maraj, etc on the other. Talent and debating skills gave way to antagonism and character assassination, Friday after Friday, the Speaker had to be equipped with a political breast plate. The no vote Parliament of 1971 reduced our Parliamentary Opposition to a comical level with Roy Richardson and Dr Horace Charles bringing comic relief to the Speaker. Come 1976 and the ULF, the battle lines were drawn again. I don’t know who left the artillery in the will for Panday and the ULF, but before it was probated and fully effected, Panday and Shah were at each other’s throat. The rest is well known to us, over the years, the traditional Opposition has continued to sacrifice their knowledge and debating skills and considerable experience on the altar of what they seem to consider as effective political artillery, blackmail and disrespect for the Speaker’s chair. The Senate President has had to face allegations of discrimination, alienation and suffer total disrespect for her authority, while they continue to indulge in these outdated practices. The Government, with more than their fair share of non-performers, many lacking in effective debating skills, invariably gets off free as they continue to enjoy the comical behaviour with the likes of Kelvin Ramnath, Robin Montano and Wade Mark etc. All members, especially the experienced Ramnath, can do much better and are completely unconscious of the fact that the most destructive weapon outside of the nuclear family known to mankind is television. As I said before there is no shortage of issues for constructive debate: national security, education, the environment, energy, drugs, money laundering, crime, BWIA and other state enterprises, sport and constitution reform. I will give my own views on this matter in my next article. Come on Bas, stop the kite flying and get on with the people’s business. You will not only gain respect, you may even gain support.

FERDIE FERREIRA
Diego Martin