Monkeying around with privilege

I’m not for one moment suggesting there was any monkey business involved in last week’s ceasefire between Canadian/ Jamaican businessman Michael Lee Chin and UNC MP for St Joseph, Gerald Yetming. However, I must confess it did not escape my notice that the saccharine armistice occurred on the eve of the Year of the Monkey, a year Chinese astrologers predict will be tumultuous and tricky.

Why am I linking the two events? Because only a mischievous simian (or perhaps a Silver Fox) could have predicted that one Friday, Mr Yetming would be playing dragon in the Lower House, breathing fire about possible PNM corruption and the next, he’d be squeaking like a mouse, claiming he never said any Minister had taken a bribe from Mr Lee Chin. Why have I connected a Chinese New Year’s Eve and the political Auld Lang Syne of last week? Because only a monkey could have devised the sort of nonsense that took place between the two men for nearly a month, a muddle that began with a statement by Mr Yetming in the Lower House about a possible payment by Mr Lee Chin’s company to a Government Minister, which could have been a bribe.

The chaos continued with a denial from Mr Lee Chin and a demand for an apology, Mr Yetming’s refusal to apologise and a threat of retaliatory action from the UNC MP. In return a defamation suit against Mr Yetming was filed in Jamaica and Canada by the businessman. Then all of a sudden what began with a bang, fizzled into a kiss and make up. What primate insanity! And what disappointment! It is my opinion that no matter where he filed his suit, Mr Lee Chin would have lost his case. Indeed, precisely because this world is now so “global”, so connected, it is more than reasonable to expect foreign investors’ names to pop up in parliamentary tussles. Which court would deny an MP his right to ask questions or make observations such as Mr Yetming did, when he said money was purportedly paid to a PNM Minister by Mr Lee Chin’s company and there was speculation it was a bribe. Who can forget the allegations pelted every week by the PNM during the UNC reign? The very Patrick Manning who was preaching a week ago to the Opposition about “proper parliamentary conduct” should remember what he had to say about a certain “short pants man” from New York.

Indeed, as recently as last October, Mr Manning continued his assault on the man, by publicly pledging that “no short pants man shall sip scotch and soda at the Prime Minister’s residence, pretending to bring in four manufacturing plants.” In his response to the UNC 2000 Budget in 1999, Mr Manning waxed warm about alleged UNC corruption. “Permit me to now turn to the mother of all corruption, the Desalination Plant,” the then Opposition Leader declared. “Not content with the scandalous InnCogen deal which has tied this country to pay the short pants man and his friends millions of dollars for electricity we may never need over the next 30 years, the Minister of Public Utilities has foisted yet another scam on the population, this time in the form of a totally unnecessary Desalination Plant. Incidentally Mr Speaker, some time ago I indicated that information coming to my attention suggested that Severn Trent was not awarded a long term arrangement in WASA because it refused to pay $1 million to be solicited by a Minister.

The Minister of Public Utilities the Honourable Ganga Singh promised to sue me for libel since, as he put it, I had falsely accused him of soliciting a bribe. The National Community should know that as of now I have been served with nosummons.” Ganga Singh did not sue for he could not. Mr Manning made his worst declarations under the cloak of parliamentary privilege and they were allegations he could not make outside the Parliament, for he had no supporting evidence. Furthermore, to this day, Mr Singh has not been charged with any act of impropriety in public office. So, why should the UNC now not be able to voice its concerns about PNM transactions with foreign businessmen without fear of reprisal in the courts or of lectures from the PM on minding their Ps and Qs in the House? It might be Carnival time but instead of backing back, the UNC and Mr Yetming should have hauled Mr Lee Chin before Parliament’s Privileges Committee for breaching Mr Yetming’s right to privilege. By suing one of its  MPs, by trying to impede this MP’s ability to function freely, Mr Lee Chin showed only contempt for the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago, ironically, the very country in whose State owned bank he admits he has interest.

The UNC MP should have sent Mr Lee Chin and his attorneys to the devil. Mr Yetming should have stood his ground and fought for this most substantial privilege of the House, the right to speak freely without fear of being sued for defamation. But what of Mr Lee Chin’s right to defend his reputation, the right of the individual as opposed to that of TT society’s, you might well ask. Well, first of all, the gentleman had a chance to deny the facts in the media. This is not enough, you might say. The damage was done. Perhaps. Maybe, we need to examine methods of redress, such as deleting from Hansard, any and all erroneous statements made by MPs, but this can only be done by Parliament enacting the necessary alterations to its own privileges. Whatever the potential future remedies, the one remedy Mr Lee Chin does not enjoy is to sue any MP for slander. Such action by the foreign businessman, given the importance of this fundamental privilege, can only be seen as an attack on our legislature. But it is not with Mr Lee Chin that I have my beef, but with Mr Yetming. The MP was too quick to back away from a battle as worthy as this one. By not fighting, back he failed to fight for the citizens of this country. Parliamentary privilege, as constitutional academics regularly observe, does not exist for the personal benefit of Members of Parliament, but for the conduct of Parliament’s business and to allow MPs to fulfil their duty to the citizens they represent. Mr Yetming, by monkeying around with his right to free speech in Parliament, has shown no duty to TT’s citizens. Instead, he has made asses of us all.

Suzanne Mills is the editor of Newsday.