Panday loyalists upset over appointment of Whip

Panday loyalist Dr Roodal Moonilal is unhappy with the appointment of Jack Warner as UNC Chief Whip and has suggested that it could lead to negative fallout from MPs who might have considered appointing NC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar as Opposition Leader.

Moonilal told the Trinidad Guardian, "It is indeed the prerogative of the leader to appoint the chief whip. However, a lot of people have asked me why I, as deputy leader, was not consulted as to the appointment of Jack Warner as chief whip and other matters.

“We were in a process of having sensitive, delicate discussions that would have lead to the appointment of Mrs Bissessar as Opposition Leader over the very short term.

"It was our intention to talk with her and Mr Panday to resolve the matter. But the way in which she has moved to appoint Warner to replace Rafeeq...suggests that the process could be impaired."

Moonilal added that it seems discourteous to remove a Panday appointee "who has been harmless to her.”

UNC MP Vasant Bharath said: “I thought her action was calculated to demonstrate that she was in control. But it has come across as being very high handed and almost vindictive.

"It is one of the issues I will now have to consider if and when I’m called upon to make a decision on her serving as Opposition Leader.”

Panday's brother, MP Subhas Panday, was also displeased "It seems the blood of the campaign is still flowing. I’d thought that in Parliament today (Friday) all hatchets would have been buried, humility would have prevailed, things would have returned to normal and we’d have moved on."

The Chief Whip is a critical position in the organization of the opposition in the House of Representatives. That person determines the seating arrangements in the House and the order in which speaker make their constributions in the Parliament.

One Parliamentary expert disagrees with the views of the Panday loyalists, saying the party leader must have control of the front bench and also about how the party's agenda is enunciated in the legislature.

The expert said a Chief Whip loyal to Panday could have pushed both the new UNC leader and chairman to the back bench and tried to make them irrelevant while advancing Panday's personal political agenda.

"That amounts to a betrayal of the exericse the UNC just went through,which is to elect a new leadership," the expert said.