Tuesday, May 13 2008

THE Privileges Committee of the House of Representatives has begun to discuss whether public statements made by Opposition MPs Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, Dr Roodal Moonilal and Subhas Panday against Speaker Barry Sinanan constitute “contempt of Parliament.”

The first meeting of the committee took place “in camera” in Committee Room Three of the Red House at 10 am last Friday, before the regular 1.30 pm sitting of the House.

While Sinanan chairs this committee, he has handed over the chairmanship temporarily to Deputy Speaker Pennelope Beckles because of his involvement in the matter currently before it. The other committee members are Tertiary Education Minister Christine Kangaloo, Tobago West MP Stanford Callender, Maharaj and Caroni East MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh.

The deliberations of all parliamentary committees are confidential and once completed, a report is submitted to Parliament for consideration and approval.

Beckles ruled on April 18 that a case of contempt had been made out against the three Opposition MPs and the matter would be referred to the Privileges Committee.

The House Committee, which is discussing the use of laptops by MPs in Parliament, continues its deliberations on Friday at the Red House at 12.30 pm.

Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday was suspended from Parliament on March 28 after defying Sinanan’s instructions to shut down his laptop if he was not speaking in the debate and for refusing to leave Parliament afterwards.

The statements by Maharaj, Moonilal and Subash Panday, against Sinanan, were related to Panday’s suspension.

Speaking from London yesterday where his wife Oma is recovering from heart surgery, Panday said he did not expect much to come out of the Privileges or House committee meetings because Parliament has become “irrelevant” under the PNM.

Panday also slammed Government and fired Trade and Industry Minister Dr Keith Rowley for sending mixed signals to the population about whether or not there should be an inquiry into the operations of the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (Udecott).