Manning: UNC walkout was a set plan

Prime Minister Patrick Manning said that the UNC came to the Parliament with a “set plan” to walk out. “It is quite clear that they are seeking to up the ante in relation to the Caroni issue and they sought to dramatise it by walking out of Parliament this afternoon,” Manning told reporters after the adjournment of the sitting.

He said the walkout was fuelled by Local Government elections and the desire to make the Caroni restructuring an issue. Asked whether Kelvin Ramnath, who led the walkout, was angling for the UNC leadership, Manning said: “I have no doubt about that. That has always been the case. What we see week after week in this House suggests that”. He said the PNM had learnt over the years that walking out of the Parliament is never the answer. “The people who elect you, elect you to serve their interests in the Parliament and when you take the unilateral decision without consulting them of absenting yourself from the Parliament, what in fact you are doing is prejudicing their interests. And therefore the Opposition was entirely out of order,” he said. Manning said the PNM Government would not allow the Opposition to disrupt the work of the Parliament and it therefore continued with the people’s business. “And in fact we have cleared the agenda of all the legislation,” he said.

Manning added that the check and balance (on Government) would still exist because all bills also have to go to the Senate. He said if the Opposition senators did not want to discharge their duties, the Independent Senators, “whose responsibility it is to bring that balance into the system”, would discharge their responsibilities and the national  interest would be served. Manning said that under the Standing Orders debate on a motion of urgent national importance was only invoked under special circumstances. “In particular, you must not have no other opportunity to raise a matter you want to raise under that agenda item,” he said. Manning said the Opposition had all the time to raise the issue. He said the Deputy Speaker acted quite properly. Health Minister Colm Imbert noted that the Caroni VSEP went out since February 17 and therefore the Opposition had three weeks in which a substantiate a private motion or a motion on the adjournment could have been tabled.

Imbert said it was “gallery and grandcharge,” which motivated the walkout. The acting Leader of Government Business added that when the PNM was in Opposition its members sought to have hundreds of motions raised as definite matters of urgent public importance and none was ever debated. He noted that the first such motion to be debated was brought by UNC’s Hamza Hafeeq a month ago on the health sector. “So I don’t know what they are fussing about, “ Imbert stated. Imbert said it was a very productive afternoon. “We passed seven pieces of legislation in about two hours,” he said, adding that the bills which were not dealt with were those which required a special majority such as the Police Bills and the Rent Restriction bill. On the apparent reluctance of Gerald Yetming and Winston Dookeran to participate in the walkout, Manning said this  suggested their “maturity”. On the question of Local Government election, Manning hinted that the date of the local polls might be announced at the PNM meeting in Hilo Carpark tonight.