…the Parliamentary Train
Well, first of all, your Eyewitness wants you to know, dear reader, that he was very conflicted yesterday, since there were two spectacles competing for his attention – the CPL fixture and the inaugural 12th Parliamentary meet at the ACCC! He was expecting Lil Joe Harmon to show up for the latter show with the motley crowd he’d drummed up to support him when he and the Sanctimonious Gangster presented their elections petition to the High Courts on Monday. After all, he was scheduled to be officially anointed as “Opposition Leader” – after Granger had banished Volda and appointed him as such – and would want to make sure the PNC hoi polloi saw him ensconced in his newfound post!
Anyhow, your Eyewitness decided to have his cake and eat it too; he switched between the feeds from the ACCC and Trinidad, as the Knight Riders took on the Tallawahs and clobbered them all over the place to make the highest score for the season up to now! While the Knight Riders are the Warriors’ (and your Eyewitness’s) arch enemy, it’s in the Warriors’ interest for the Trinis to win, so they could still get into the playoffs!!
But the action over at the ACCC wasn’t too bad. To the surprise of most, veteran politician Manzoor Nadir was nominated by the PPP to be Speaker of the House – and of course was voted in, since the latter has the undisputed majority 33 votes in the Parliament! If your Eyewitness isn’t wrong, he’ll be the first non-lawyer to be chosen as Speaker after Independence. But he certainly has a wealth of experience, since he’s been in the House for 5 terms since 1992 – two of them with the PPP. Good thing the PPP didn’t apply Granger’s “two terms and you’re out” rule!!
But the real surprise was the election of the Deputy Speaker. Traditionally, this goes to the Opposition, so most persons figured the post would go to someone from the APNU/AFC ranks. But after Cathy Hughes from the AFC nominated fellow party executive Raphael Trotman for the position, up jumped Gail Teixeira and nominated another person from the Opposition – Lennox Shuman, who occupies the single OPPOSITION “Joiner Seat” formed by ANUG, LJP and TNM. And he was duly voted in with the 33 votes of the PPP, plus the one from Shuman himself!!
Shuman had earlier caused a stir when he showed up at Parliament in his tropical-appropriate, minimalist native attire – plus the Staff of the Amerindian Chieftain. But his election as Dep Speaker is sure to create an even bigger stir in the PNC ranks!!
Expect them to not only sulk like Granger, but throw tantrums!! Like the walkout!!
…for Amerindian Heritage Month
In case you missed Shuman’s sartorial statement, surely you didn’t miss all our other Amerindian brother and sister MPs showing up with their headdresses to the 12th Parliament?? It’s Amerindian Heritage Month, folks!! And most appropriately, this Parliament will have the most Amerindians EVER participating in the deliberations on our national destiny at this critical inflection point of our history. This is as it should be.
Never let it be forgotten that this land is their land…and we’re here because some Europeans decided to change the laws as they saw fit to make it THEIR land. They had the MIGHT to make whatever they wanted RIGHT! It’s a shameful part of our history that while the African and Indian descended coastlanders have been fighting like the proverbial elephants since independence, the Amerindians have unfortunately been the grass that inevitably gets trampled.
The new PPP Government received a majority of the Amerindian votes because they didn’t need anyone to tell them they’d made more progress under that government.
They EXPERIENCED it!!
…for local content??
Your Eyewitness hopes the PNC leadership won’t doom their supporters by leading them on pointless marches just when the O&G opportunities are coming on stream.
Are they just fodder for ambitious PNC leaders?
