UNC AS USUAL

Perhaps it’s the UNC’s strategy to woo their “independent” MPs —Gillian Lucky and Fuad Khan — back. But the Opposition yesterday behaved in the House of Representatives as though nothing had changed. They gave table-thumping support to every word uttered by Khan. And they left Lucky’s and Khan’s two seats — No 28 (Khan) and No 36 (Lucky) conspicuously vacant in the middle of the UNC row. Khan and Lucky sat apart, separated from Dr Roodal Moonilal, the last UNC MP in the back row, by two chairs, in keeping with their new status. Their seats, now number 43 and 44 were located at the end of the Opposition backbench.

Normally the change in the seating order would have resulted in all the other UNC MPs who once sat after Khan and Lucky being moved up sequentially. But Chief Whip Ganga Singh specifically requested that no one occupy those seats, leaving two gaping blank seats in the UNC line up. Singh shook Lucky’s and Khan’s hands as they came into the chamber. Colleague Nizam Baksh stopped to chat with them. And as the session began and Khan complained that Health Minister John Rahael was running from a question, he said: “I heard the Prime Minister talking about integrity in the PNM. I wonder why are they running from this question.”

Khan had barely finished his sentence when Singh began desk-thumping slowly and deliberately and was quickly joined by Manohar Ramsaran and Hamza Rafeeq. At that stage, Speaker Barry Sinanan announced that there was a request for a deferral of a number of questions, including those put by Khan. “No!” Singh shouted. “Answer the question!” Moonilal chimed in. The Speaker said while the Opposition benches did not agree, it was academic to put the matter to the House (since Government had the majority and would win). Persad-Bissessar did not agree. She wanted the Opposition MPs to “register their disgust.” But the Speaker disagreed with her.

Khan had another  question on the order paper — whether Government planned to replace the paved area of the Queen’s Park Savannah with grass. Junior Minister in the Ministry of Community Development Eddie Hart said there were no such plans. Khan was confused, he said, because this was the same Government which attacked the former UNC government when the Savannah was paved. Sinanan stopped the San Juan/Barataria MP, ruling that his statements did not qualify as a supplemental question. Once again, Khan found support from his UNC colleagues.

“That, is not an improper supplemental!” Kelvin Ramnath countered. During all this time, Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday was absent. He entered later on in the sitting. Lucky, for her part, was businesslike and spent most of the time either listening or chatting with Khan. The PNM, for its part, engaged in a little heckling — not with Lucky and Khan — but with Gerald Yetming. Panday was fairly quiet during the sitting. Lucky and Khan broke ranks earlier this week, annoucing their decision to serve as “independent UNC MPs.”