Panday wants opposition bench to loook 'nice' for TV cameras

Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday is returning to the Trinidad and Tobago Parliament Friday after more than nine months and is promising to shake things up. But the first changes would affect his own people - Chief Whip Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj and UNC deputy political leader Jack Warner who sit on the front bench with Panday.

Panday told reporters Wednesday that he is disappointed with the look of the opposition front bench because Maharaj and Warner are often absent due to international commitments.

With both men away and Panday suspended television cameras often captured empty seats and that bothers Panday. So he has asked the Clerk of the House for the parliamentary attendance record of all Opposition MPs, which would enable the caucus to make decisions on the seating arrangements for the House of Representatives.

"It's not a question of booting anybody, it is a question of presenting a respectable, disciplined team of the Opposition in the Parliament. That means when people have seats on the front row they should be there because it looks very bad when the TV camera is showing on the Opposition and the seats are empty," Panday explained when asked if he was kicking out the two men from the front seats.

Panday, who has often criticized Parliament as a useless talk shop, told reporters: "I recalled Parliament was going very very well for a while and then it took a dip and we are going to restore the Opposition in Parliament to is pristine glory." He said he wants to have greater discipline, which would include regular attendance.

The change, according to Panday, is also for show. He said he is not happy when he looks at television and sees empty seats so "I am making the recommendation that the front row be available only for members who attend Parliament regularly."

Panday's move appears to be directed mainly at Warner whose responsibility as Vice-President of FIFA caused him to miss the most sittings of the House during the first session, which ended in December.

Warner responded immediately by providing Panday with a record of attendance for all opposition MPs which showed that, with the Speaker's approval, he missed 18 of the 48 sittings of the legislature.

The Changuanas West MP said based on the evidence of his attendance "the Political Leader and Chairman of the Party need not wait longer than is necessary to make his front bench 'look nice for television'."

However he added that the issue is not just attendance "but how effectively you take care of your constituents." Warner challenged other members to demonstrate that "they are doing a better job than me."

The record shows that the members of the House who missed the most sessions were: Panday himself, who was absent for more than nine months due to his suspension from the House, Warner, Couva South MP Kelvin Ramnath (missed 14 of 48), Maharaj and Panday's daughter, Mickela. Both Maharaj and the younger Panday missed 10 of the 48 sittings. None of the UNC-A MPs attended all the sittings during the first session of the Parliament.

In a related development, the UNC will resume its Monday Night Forum, beginning on Monday Jan. 12 at the Macaulay Community Centre. The theme for 2009 is: Working in Unity to Rescue the Nation".

A tentative agenda from the party shows a lineup of seven speakers including the political leader, deputy political leader Wade Mark and MPs Kelvin Ramnath and Dr Hamza Rafeeq.

The MP for the constiutuency is Ramesh L. Maharaj. Neither Maharaj nor Warner are listed to speak. The party did not say whether the men are unavailable or whether they are being deliberately left out of the list of speakers.