Panday: I don’t care where Parliament goes

OPPOSITION LEADER Basdeo Panday declared it was irrelevant where Parliament is located and the only thing that matters is what happens in Parliament.

Speaking with reporters shortly after he arrived at Piarco International Airport yesterday, Panday said: “Where Parliament is situated is irrevelant. what happens in Parliament, that is relevant. Mr Manning could sit down in Woodford Square, in a Parliament, in a tower, he’ll still do the same stupidness. It is of no relevance at all where the Parliament sits. Parliament is there. It has historical significance. To move it is just to draw a red herring. That should not be talked about.”

On the subject of Caroni (1975) Limited, Panday said he fully supported the UNC’s refusal to support parliamentary bills that require a special majority for passage, until the Caroni issue is fully ventilated. “I intend to internationalise this struggle in Trinidad and Tobago against discrimination. What is happening in Caroni is only symptomatic of what is happening in Trinidad and Tobago,” the UNC leader declared. Panday and several other Opposition Mps are carded to speak today at a rally in Couva being held by the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers Trade Union (ATSGWTU). Asked about the health of his wife Oma following her recent surgery, Panday replied that while some initial complications delayed their return home, she was recuperating well. The UNC leader also said war in Iraq was now a fact of life and there was nothing Trinidad and Tobago could do about it. Panday supported President Max Richards’ call for the nation’s leaders to work together, adding this was why he was advocating constitutional reform.