PM to Panday: Demonstrate enlightened leadership

Turning Basdeo Panday’s words (uttered in 2001), back on him, Prime Minister Patrick Manning  yesterday called on the Opposition Leader to “demonstrate a singular act of enlightened leadership” by voting for the Police Reform bills. Manning, piloting the bills in the House of Representatives yesterday, quoted the compliment paid by the then PM Panday to him (Manning) in July 2001. Panday then told the House that Manning  “in a singular act of enlightened leadership,” had called for a bipartisan approach “in tackling the urgent need  for reform in the Police Service.” “And I call on him today, Mr Deputy Speaker, to demonstrate in similar fashion, a singular act of enlightened leadership,” Manning said, to thunderous table-thumping.

The Prime Minister said it was not true to say that the passage of the bills would not help the crime situation. “When someone calls a Police Station and they are told ‘we don’t have any vehicles,’ that is a manifestation of a management problem. And when operation Anaconda is started and not sustained, that is a manifestation of a management problem. And when police officers are called upon to operate in conditions that are substandard, that too is a management problem,” he said. He said what the bills sought to do was deal with the root causes of the problem. The passage of these bills would therefore have a significant impact on the levels of security enjoyed by the people of Trinidad and Tobago, he said. Detailing the history of the bills, Manning said after Panday lost office in 2001, his support for the initiative evaporated. And, he started “moving the goal post” at every stage, the PM said.

“For the first time we heard a pre-condition (for support) was reform of the Constitution...We don’t know where it came from. It never formed part of the talks. But out of a clear blue sky...we heard it,” Manning said. Then “somewhere along the line” another pre-condition was added — the eradication of all forms of discrimination, he said. However, the Prime Minister said Government felt it had procrastinated enough, and it was time to bring the bills to the Parliament. Manning said no piece of legislation in his time had been the subject of more consultation - with the exception of the Republican Constitution- than the Police Service Reform Bills. To those who said that he wanted these bills passed so that he could have the power to appoint a new Police Commissioner when Everald Snaggs retires next month, Manning said he had no such power now and would not after the new bills are passed. “I have no horse in the race,” he said, eliciting this comment from Chief Whip Ganga Singh: “Yuh have donkey!”

Manning charged that saying one thing in Government and something else in Opposition was a feature of the operations of the UNC. He cited the Crown Plaza Accord and the CCJ Bill as examples. After the UNC initiated the process for establishing a Caribbean Court of Justice, Manning stated he now had to hang his head in shame at Caricom meetings. Trinidad and Tobago, the headquarters of the CCJ, is unable to pass legislation because of the “duplicity” of the Opposition, he claimed. Manning then made a personal appeal to  UNC MPs. He said he knew St Augustine MP, Winston Dookeran to be a  “a man of substance,” a former Central Bank Governor.” The Prime Minister then targetted St Joseph MP Gerald Yetming, who “once held a senior position in a bank.” As for the MP for Naparima, who recently had “an unfortunate incident in his family.” Manning said:  “In his hour of need the people of Barrackpore came out in support of him and his family. I wonder if  today in their hour he would come out for them.”