Gail Alexan­der

?Gail Alexan­der

For­mer Op­po­si­tion Leader Bas­deo Pan­day yes­ter­day de­fied the or­der of UNC chief whip Jack Warn­er and stuck to his word to oc­cu­py a back­bench seat in the Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day.

The PNM Gov­ern­ment bench­es salut­ed Pan­day yes­ter­day with desk-thump­ing when he en­tered the Par­lia­ment for the first time since be­ing re­placed by new Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

The UNC MPs present did not join in.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so ar­rived in Par­lia­ment right af­ter Pan­day, tak­ing up the Op­po­si­tion Leader's chair while PN­Mites were salut­ing with desk-thump­ing, Pan­day's de­but on the Op­po­si­tion back­bench.

"I'll be look­ing down at you from here," Pan­day re­spond­ed to the PNM MPs with a grin.

Warn­er had arranged new seat­ing for UNC MPs as Per­sad-Bisses­sar took up the po­si­tion. He had placed Pan­day to Per­sad- Bisses­sar's left.

How­ev­er, Pan­day in­stead took up a seat as the last per­son on the Op­po­si­tion back­bench, next to UNC MP Ramesh Lawrence Ma­haraj–and four seats away from PNM back­bencher Kei­th Row­ley.

Pan­day was the on­ly oth­er MP who had not sup­port­ed Per­sad-Biss­esar for the Op­po­si­tion Leader's post, who went to the back­bench. Ma­haraj has been there since last year.

Oth­er MPs such as Vas­ant Bharath and Sub­has Pan­day and Mick­ela Pan­day re­mained on UNC's front bench.

The Op­po­si­tion's new front bench now stands as–Warn­er, Per­sad-Bisses­sar, UNC MP Dr Roodal Mooni­lal (who filled the chair Pan­day re­fused to ac­cept), Dr Tim Gopeesingh, Chan­dresh Shar­ma, Bharath, Kelvin Ram­nath (ab­sent), Hamza Rafeeq (ab­sent), Sub­has Pan­day and Mikela Pan­day.

The Op­po­si­tion's back­bench com­pris­es Har­ry Par­tap, Nizam Baksh, Win­ston Pe­ters, Ma­haraj and Pan­day.

House Speak­er Baren­dra Sinanan, dur­ing the ses­sion, said he had re­ceived cor­re­spon­dence from Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards, in­di­cat­ing that Pan­day's ap­point­ment as Op­po­si­tion Leader had been re­voked. At that point, the PNM bench­es desk-thumped again.

When Sinanan ann­nounced that Per­sad- Bisses­sar was new Op­po­si­tion Leader, the UNC MPs thumped their desks in ap­proval, save for Pan­day and Ma­haraj.

Sinanan not­ed Pan­day's ser­vice and al­so con­grat­u­lat­ed Per­sad-Bisses­sar on her ap­point­ment.

Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning al­so con­grat­u­lat­ed Per­sad-Bisses­sar, say­ing: "It's the first time we've had a fe­male Op­po­si­tion Leader and I think she ought to be round­ly con­grat­u­lat­ed.

"There is a ma­jor re­spon­si­bil­i­ty on her shoul­ders as we seek to have a Par­lia­ment do­ing the peo­ple's busi­ness with­out fear or favour or mal­ice or ill will," he added.

Man­ning said a spe­cial thanks to Pan­day, whom he said was now oc­cu­py­ing a seat which Man­ning had oc­cu­pied in 1990 when Pan­day be­came Op­po­si­tion Leader.

Man­ning added: "He's had a long and dis­tin­guished ca­reer, and is just mov­ing on to a new phase. When I sat on those bench­es, I thought about Gov­ern­ment. I don't know what is on his mind, but what­ev­er it is, I wish him well."

Be­fore the ses­sion, PNM MPs had ex­changed pi­cong with UNC MPs on the de­vel­op­ments in the Op­po­si­tion.

Warn­er told PNM MPs present that he was putting Pan­day on the front bench though Pan­day want­ed to sit be­hind.

"Put him in Fyz­abad," PNM's Mustapha Ab­dul-Hamid told Warn­er.

"What goes around comes around," Warn­er added.

"Your days are num­bered," UNC's Mooni­lal said to the PNM MPs.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar's first act in the House was to raise Pe­nal res­i­dents' calls for wa­ter as a mat­ter for ur­gent pub­lic de­bate. (See Page A14)