The Manicou Report

Kenneth Valley. You know people, we have mango season, dry season, rainy season, carnival season and Christmas season, but it have no season for dotish. Dotish is one of those things that is all-year, all-season, all-weather and all-terrain. Exhibit A: Ken Valley. Some of you may be opposed to me calling the Leader of Government Business “dotish”, but after the Prime Minister refers to us as dotish, foolish, lazy and stupid, I’m sorry but the cup is in and the gloves are off.

Now, my boy Boysieringo warn meh, eh. He really try to tell meh I shouldn’t take on Ken Valley. He ask meh why I wasting space on my blog to talk about Ken Valley (his MP). Honestly I try to take the warning, but this time I just can’t help it.

Obviously, these people think that we are stupid. What else could have Leader of Government Business Ken Valley shout out across the floor that High Court Judge Amrika Tewarie-Reddy was a “UNC functionary” and and that the People’s National Movement regarded her as a “politician”?

Couva South MP Kelvin Ramnath retorted, “She’s a judge, have some respect. You worse than Umbala”.

Let’s not be hasty to dethrone Umbala just yet. George Umbala Joseph is in a class all his own and has quite a few good years yet ahead of him. And if anyone is to be named heir of Umbala’s throne, it should be Wade Mark.

When questioned about the incident, Mr. Valley said his remarks were not recorded in the Hansard (as banter isn’t usually recorded) and he can only comment on what was in the Hansard. “Check the Hansard,” he says.

Dad: Son, I found this 9mm pistol along with this crack cocaine under your mattress last night. Do you want to explain?

Son: You going into my room is an invasion of my privacy. (Sticking nose into the air and turning head to the side) I’m sorry but I won’t comment.

He did apologise some time after however, but took a shot at “strangers regardless of office” who criticise MPs without referring to the Hansard record and described the journalist who reported the crosstalk as a politically-motivated columnist who made his statement without recourse to Hansard.

“Mr Speaker, neither commentator cited the official Hansard record as his source of information.”

“Indeed, Mr Speaker, for strangers regardless of office, to criticize a Member of this Honourable House as occurred without recourse to the official report is unfortunate at the very least.”

Is anyone else a little tired of this “Hansard” talk?

Instead of Valley owning up to what he says and taking the flak like a man, he decides to hide behind a piece of political machinery called the “Hansard” Report.

Speaker of the House Barry Sinnan has stated that the media should not have reported the statement. From the Guardian:

House Speaker Barendra Sinanan says while there are no prohibitions against reporting crosstalk in the Parliament, with a topic as sensitive as the one involving Leader of Government Business Kenneth Valley, “one has to be careful.”

“I have seen crosstalk reported, but something as sensitive as this should not be reported,” the Speaker said during a telephone interview, yesterday.

What is amazing to me is the cavalier and frivolous manner in which something so serious was being thrown around. What Mr. Sinanan fails to realize is that this incident did not occur in Mr. Valley’s rum shop or his own living room, this was in the Parliament no less. Our Parliament, not Mr. Valley’s. So with what audacity does Mr. Sinanan say it should not have been reported?

What is especially worrying to me is how easily the judiciary is attacked nowadays. There are UNC and PNM judges. It will be interesting to find out Kelvin Ramnath’s views on the Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls who without a doubt may have opened himself up for criticism.

I believe that the judiciary is indeed under attack and the participants don’t really care as long as they get the political mileage out of it that they want. If only they could take a lesson from Pakistan where the politicizing of the Chief Justice issue in that country led to dozens of deaths over the weekend. But that not we man, that eh go happen here. Trinidad too nice for that. Well everything must start somewhere and who knows where Pakistan’s problem began? Some call it a creeping dictatorship, and I find it increasingly hard to disagree.