SOME decency emerged within the ranks of the Opposition United National Congress (UNC), a party torn by the civil war that’s still being waged in the aftermath of the party’s election for a National Executive.

And it came to pass during the debate on crime, which occupied the House of Representatives for the latter half of last week.

For starters, the government gerrymandered the Order Paper in a bid to change the focus of the debate on crime.

They were originally taken off-guard when Point a Pierre MP, Gillian Lucky brought a motion to the House requesting live coverage of the debate.

But the crux of her motion was a call for the government to take note of the recommendations of the Keith Noel 136 Committee and other such organisations.

It should have been debated on Private Members’ Day, which is the last sitting of the Lower House for the month.

But there was no sitting on that day and parliamentary sources told TnT Mirror that Leader of Government Business, Ken Valley had given a commitment that the debate would come to pass when the House met the following week.

New look for the UNC front bench
in the Lower House.

JOHN RAHAEL did not need research.

“If it came to a vote they would have automatically won and the truth is whether I said yes or no, they would have done it. So, for me, it did not matter where the motion originated from because the country wanted the debate,” she explained.

“What I did was seek to amend the motion to include that aspect of my resolution.

“Which calls on the government to take note of the recommendations of the Keith Noel 136 Committee and other organisations,” the Point a Pierre MP ended.

With that out of the way and no fight on how the motion was worded, the UNC put all its rancor aside.

Given all the drama, the civil war definitely affected the level of debate from the Opposition benches in the last couple of months.

But this time around, decency crept in and they seemed to close ranks.

It was the first time since she declared herself an Independent UNC member that Lucky was allowed to lead off a debate from the back benches.

And the rest of the folks in the UNC seemed a lot more comfortable with each other.

Kamla Persad-Bissessar has been moved up in ranks and is now sitting next to her Political Leader, Winston Dookeran.

And she even greeted him with a nod when she took her new seat next to him.

Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday, even exchanged a word with Dookeran and it was all honky dory from there on.

Indeed, when Bas spoke on the second day of the debate, he was backed by comments across the floor from the usual renegades in his party who wanted him out.

The truth is, it mattered not who put the motion on the Order Paper, once there was a debate on crime, the government would not score any points.

National Security Minister Martin Joseph had nothing new to state and his opening presentation seemed like he was presenting a litany of woes, hoping that people would feel sorry when they realised the full extent of his job.

That is why, at the same time that they talk and talked and talked -- with neither side offering anything new on the plate -- Bakr was in jail on a charge of sedition and cops were raiding his Mucurapo Mosque.

Did someone say been there done that?