SPEAKER Barry Sinanan was obviously caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.

On the one hand, United National Congress (UNC) Chief Whip Ganga Singh and Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar were clearly at loggerheads, unable to let good sense prevail and hoping that he would intervene to save the day.

On the other, the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) was ready to take advantage of the virtual civil war to turn upside down a motion calling for a Commission of Inquiry into the allegations made by Vernon Paul that high ranking members of the ruling party were behind a plot to plant cocaine and missiles in Sadiq Baksh’s water tank, almost four years ago.

They had already circulated an amendment which called on the House to commend the police.

It was really in poor taste especially since the police investigations into the sordid affair have been inconclusive.

Nevertheless, even that was not high on the agenda of the UNC MPs as they subsequently explained at a news conference -- after the Kamla-led faction walked out of the House -- that they had planned to use the opportunity to highlight the jailing of their chairman and founder, Basdeo Panday.

It seemed even that indiscretion would have passed, given their inattention to the business of the House.

Thankfully, in a move that preserved the independence of the Speaker’s Chair, Barry Sinanan, acting on advice from Clerk of the House, Jackie Sampson-Jacent refused the PNM’s amendment.

From the moment he entered the Chair last week Friday afternoon, Sinanan was thrown into the spotlight by the challenges that lay ahead that afternoon.

But it was nothing like the last constitutional crisis which had played out in the lower house back in 2001, when the country remained in an 18-18 deadlock, after the December 2000 General Election and was unable to appoint a Speaker.

An obviously concerned KEN VALLEY tries
to get his way.

Speaker is advised by Clerk of the House, as a
concerned CAMILLE- ROBINSON- REGIS
looks on.

CAMILLE ROBINSON-REGIS gets ready to
examine the relevant law.

This time around, it was a straight case of juvenile delinquency, as the Chief Whip and the newly-appointed Opposition Leader played out their differences and aired their dirty laundry for all to see.

They alternated turns on the Speaker’s platform, each behaving like errant schoolchildren trying to get the headmaster’s attention.

And while this was happening, Leader of the House, Ken Valley tried, unsuccessfully, to railroad the Speaker into allowing the amendment.

You can just see by the expression on his face, in the photo, how upset Valley was that he could not draw blood out of the situation.

In time, Arouca South MP, Camille Robinson-Regis tried to help out and even asked for reference to see whether the advice given to the Speaker by Sampson-Jacent was indeed good.

And when she found that it held, Camille advised Valley and he had to chill out.

In the end, the motion was not passed because of the PNM majority in the House, which was made even more convincing by the walkout staged by the Siparia MP and her seven followers.

The sitting was then adjourned.

Still, at the end of it Persad- Bissessar launched a scathing attack on Sinanan, at a news conference in Committee Room No. 3 a short while afterwards, in which she insisted that the Speaker had a right to overrule the Chief Whip, to allow her to speak on the motion.

But well-placed parliamentary sources are insisting that Kamla should have taken a few lessons from Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj and know that he set precedent on the occasions that he was Chief Whip and Leader of the House.

“As Chief Whip or House leader, Ramesh denied many of them the opportunity to participate in debates, even when people came prepared.

“He used what is called the guillotine when they know that a debate has to come to an end at a certain time.

“Regardless of who is speaking, they drop the blade.

“Kamla was just trying to prove that she was in charge and wanted the Speaker to help her prove that,” an experienced legislator told TnT Mirror last week.

“Surely every member has a right to speak, but that is exercised alongside a lot of other rules and practices that make the system workable.

“The Standing Orders do not exist in a vacuum; they are interpreted alongside established practice carried out over years.

“Sinanan was placed in a situation where he had a choice to make; but he followed the practice which allows both sides, through the Whip and the Leader of the House, to decide on how long the debate will continue,” the source observed.

“There should have been an agreement by Kamla and Ganga.

“It was obvious that Sinanan did not think that it was his place to get involved in UNC politics.

“He had to assume there was civility on the Opposition benches, as well.

“Just recently, when the Police Reform legislative package was brought to the Lower House, both the PNM and the UNC agreed -- even in their discussion at Whitehall -- that there would be a very limited number of speakers.

“And when dissident UNC MP Gillian Lucky made some salient points, they could not have accommodated her, because of the agreement that was sealed in the Prime Minister’s Office.

“In this case, the only person who was trying to defy the Chief Whip was the Opposition Leader and this has obviously forced all of them to recognise the importance of the Whip,” the source ended.

Still to add the icing on that cake, it should be pointed out that Persad-Bissessar is well noted for giving bad advice.

Most recently, she was the one saying aloud for everyone to hear that Basdeo Panday could not be removed as Opposition Leader while he’s incarcerated.

Even before that, the Siparia MP was ridiculed by PNM MPs after she gave Fyzabad MP, Chandresh Sharma bad advice causing him to lose a constitutional motion!