Richard Lord

While for­mer prime min­is­ter Bas­deo Pan­day cel­e­brates his 78th birth­day to­day, an­oth­er for­mer prime min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning be­gins an his­toric "March for Democ­ra­cy" to­day from the steps of the Red House to his San Fer­nan­do East con­stituen­cy.His sev­en-day march is in­tend­ed to protest his one-month sus­pen­sion from the ser­vice of the Par­lia­ment.He was sus­pend­ed for al­le­ga­tions he made in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives last No­vem­ber about the con­struc­tion cost of Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar's pri­vate house in south Trinidad.

Man­ning, in a state­ment is­sued by his con­stituen­cy of­fice in San Fer­nan­do, said: "This walk is in protest of the con­duct of the Gov­ern­ment."He said more than 5,000 con­tract of­fi­cers have lost their jobs, Cepep con­trac­tors were dis­missed, lec­tur­ers and stu­dents at the Uni­ver­si­ty of T&T were un­der threat and the uni­ver­si­ty was be­ing un­der­mined and sab­o­taged as if it was be­ing pre­pared for clo­sure. He al­so said Cli­co pol­i­cy­hold­ers and de­pos­i­tors were "be­ing tak­en, un­fair­ly and un­just­ly, for a ride to nowhere."

The state­ment said Man­ning's protest was "a clar­i­on call for all cit­i­zens, who are fed up with lies, un­truths and cor­rup­tion in one year, to take a stand."Mean­while, on his face­book page, Man­ning said yes­ter­day "the thing (protest) now start."He said his march was against al­leged threats to the na­tion's de­mo­c­ra­t­ic tra­di­tions by the rul­ing Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship (PP) Gov­ern­ment.

And Man­ning has been get­ting sup­port on his face­book page.Many peo­ple said they would sup­port Man­ning in his protest ac­tion. Oth­ers said they were pre­pared to step up with him. Oth­ers said cit­i­zens should not sit idly by while the coun­try's de­mo­c­ra­t­ic prin­ci­ples were un­der threat.

An­oth­er face­book fan said she felt like her prime min­is­ter was back.Two oth­ers said they would in­vite their friends to join Man­ning on the march.Two fans were crit­i­cal of Man­ning. One told the San Fer­nan­do East MP he was no longer in­vin­ci­ble and the oth­er ad­vised Man­ning to go on a hunger strike in­stead.Man­ning is ex­pect­ed to re­turn to his home af­ter each leg of the march.

The march

• To­day: The march be­gins at 3 pm at the Red House on Knox Street, via the East­ern Main Road, and end hours lat­er at the Croisee, San Juan.

• To­mor­row: It re­sumes at 3 pm and ends at the Grand Bazaar in­ter­sec­tion of the Uri­ah But­ler/Churchill-Roo­sevelt High­ways.

• Fri­day: The march re­sumes at 3 pm at the UB/CR in­ter­sec­tion and ends at En­deav­our Fly­over, Ch­agua­nas.

• Sat­ur­day: It re­sumes at 3 pm from En­deav­our, Ch­agua­nas, to Freeport Fly­over.

• Sun­day: 3 pm from Freeport to Clax­ton Bay .

• Mon­day: The march will pro­ceed at 3 pm from Clax­ton Bay to Tarou­ba.

• Tues­day: Man­ning will re­sume his march at 3 pm from Tarou­ba to Har­ris Prom­e­nade, where he will ad­dress the pub­lic at 7 pm.