Parliamentary Digest

Last Friday was Private Members day in the Lower House, and the topic presented by Tabaquite MP Adesh Nanan called on “the Government” to strengthen its environmental regulations. Nanan presumably meant the country’s environmental regulations, not the Government’s, but, when Point Fortin MP Larry Achong got up to speak, it turned out that, given the effluvium that emanated from his mouth, Nanan’s wording was entirely appropriate.

Arima MP Pennelope Beckles had spoken first, finishing off the contribution which she had started on the last Private Members’ Day. She assured the House that the Government was committed to the “environmental integrity of Trinidad and Tobago” and that Nanan was wrong to say that, just because there weren’t any finalised rules on environmental pollution, that the Environmental Management Agency couldn’t take action against companies which transgressed international standards. She also noted that many multinationals applied these standards voluntarily. Most of Beckles’ contribution dealt with the method by which the EMA went about granting a Certificate of Environmental Clearance (CEC). But, unlike most of her fellow MPs, Beckles at least had the grace to apologise for being boring.

“Whilst I know this is very detailed and may not be as exciting as people would want to listen to, it is important for us to at least let the population know that the procedure in relation to application for a smelter is not only a complex one, but one that involves consultation with the public,” she explained.

She also pointed out that the UNC in 1997 had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for a smelter plant, when there hadn’t been any environmental regulations at all. She added that that proposed project had been even bigger than the Alcoa and Alutrint ones.

Couva South MP Kelvin Ramnath, who as UNC Energy Minister had signed that MOU, rose to reply. “I want to be very gracious to my friend from Arima,” he said, “since what is very clear is that she has tried to defend the indefensible.”

This graciousness did not extend to Diego Martin Central MP Ken Valley, however, who Ramnath said suffered from an illness caused by aluminium smelters called dementia. Ramnath pronounced this “demen-tee-a” and, when he asked Caroni Central MP Dr Hamza Rafeek if this was correct, Rafeek nodded.

This may not have been deliberately misleading, although before the session started Rafeek had been talking seriously to UNC Political Leader-till-August Winston Dookeran.

Ramnath spoke for his full 75 minutes, arguing that the EMA was only good at monitoring decibels at Carnival fetes when a minority, “who don’t know that Carnival is an institution in Trinidad and Tobago,” complained. However, he said, the EMA paid no attention to air and water pollution. He also asserted that, contrary to Beckles’ argument, when the EMA did take action against a company, it would have to be based on law, not international standards.

Achong spoke after. He started by saying that he had decided to respond “mainly because a lot of what has been said concerns the constituency of Point Fortin.”

This, to use parliamentary language, was a case of terminological inexactitude. Achong’s main motive, it turned out, was to respond to a newspaper article in which he had been accused of forcing URP and CEPEP workers to take part in a pro-Alcoa rally he had organised. But Achong wasn’t content to respond by citing facts and figures – indeed, he cited none. The closest he came to a fact was when he stated that people from the Chatham community and members of the local media had gone to a smelter plant in Brazil to observe first-hand the effects.

“Who paid for that?” asked Fyzabad MP Chandesh Sharma; and Achong’s response demonstrated the level of sincerity he was bringing to this debate: “I don’t know,” he said.

Achong then proceeded to make a scurrilous attack on one of the persons quoted in the newspaper article.

Calling the person’s name, Achong said that the individual was not really concerned about environmental pollution. Instead, he was the largest land-owner in the region, “paying the workers of Cedros four dollars an hour. Below the minimum wage.”

Achong did not say why, since he knew this, he hadn’t sicced the Labour Ministry on the person.

Sharma asked why Achong was attacking private citizens. “But he attacking me in de papers,” Achong responded; and Speaker Barry Sinanan stayed silent.

That individual, Achong continued, was worried that Alcoa would take away his coconut estate workers by paying them $30 and $40 an hour. “So we have self-interest,” said Achong, without a trace of irony.

He then went even further and married improper motives to bigotry. The individual was not concerned about the families in the area because he was 59 years old and had no children. “He cares simply about the boys on his estate,” said Achong.

It was left to Dookeran, who spoke in the last 10 minutes, to take Achong to task for this abuse of Parliamentary privilege. But the allegations are now in the Hansard, and will be there long after Achong is removed as Point Fortin’s MP.