DAREECE POLO
Senior Reporter
Five days after People’s National Movement (PNM) Senator Janelle John-Bates tendered her resignation, Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles has yet to indicate whether she will accept it, while the Government remains silent on how it will respond if John-Bates or Senator Faris Al-Rawi appear in the Upper House, starting today.
Contacted for comment yesterday, Beckles offered a brief response: “I will let you know ASAP.”
On the Government’s next move, Leader of Government Business in the Senate, Darrel Allahar, declined to be drawn into the controversy surrounding John-Bates, replying only, “No Comment.”
And a former Senate president is recommending that parliamentary operational guidelines be revisited to ensure there is no repeat of what is now developing into a Senate stalemate.
The impasse comes as tensions rise within parliamentary proceedings.
During Friday’s debate on a motion to adopt the report of the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) on the conduct of John-Bates, Government minister Jearlean John signalled a hardline stance against engaging with the two senators in committee settings.
“I am beyond annoyed to sit with Senator John-Bates and Al-Rawi. As a matter of fact, I am going to do just what they did in the committee for national security, the joint select. Because Senator Al-Rawi is on the energy committee. And should he show up, we gonna show him the door. He gotta go, he has to go. We’re not going to sit with him. Because that is the brotherhood of wrongdoers,” she told the Lower House.
Despite the political fallout, the Senate is today set to continue its legislative agenda, including debate on the Victims’ Rights Bill, 2026, and the resumption of a motion calling for a comprehensive National Workforce and Manpower Strategic Plan within 12 months.
Some independent senators yesterday said the work should proceed, noting that both John-Bates and Al-Rawi have already been referred to the Privileges Committee.
“I have my role as an independent senator. I cannot be seen to be protesting any other senator’s presence. As far as I am aware, the Senate voted to have the two senators sent to the Privileges Committee. Until the Privileges Committee investigates and makes a determination of misconduct, they should be sitting,” Independent Senator Courtney McNish told Guardian Media.
Another Independent Senator, Francis Lewis, shared a similar view.
“I have no plans. They are fully appointed. Whether I am there or anybody else is there, there is business to be dealt with,” Lewis said.
Responding to how Government would treat with the continued presence of John-Bates and Al-Rawi in the Senate yesterday, Minister in the Housing Ministry, Phillip Alexander, said: “We’ll be guided by the actions of Government’s Senate leader and the AG.”
According to Parliament’s website, the Senate’s Privileges Committee is headed by Senate President Mark and includes Al-Rawi (who is the Opposition’s representative), Attorney General John Jeremie, UNC Senator Darrell Allahar (an attorney) and Independent Senator Michael De La Bastide.
The Parliament’s segment on Privileges Committee meetings stated yesterday that there were no “meetings available.”
Hamel-Smith:
Clearer rules needed
Meanwhile, former Senate president Timothy Hamel-Smith is calling for clearer parliamentary rules, arguing that the controversy exposes gaps in guidance around the PAAC’s conduct.
“You can issue guidelines which say if you sit on a committee, you can’t be meeting with the witnesses in private, as it were. I don’t think that it would be acceptable by anybody to think that a member who is reviewing the conduct of a person being called upon to appear before the committee should have a private meeting with the person. That offends all sorts of rules,” Hamel-Smith said.
“If people didn’t realise it, then perhaps there’s a good reason why you would want to issue guidelines so that in future, people know where the boundaries are.”
Hamel-Smith also warned that any Privileges Committee investigation could stretch beyond a single parliamentary term, delaying a final ruling.
The controversy centres on John-Bates and Al-Rawi’s role in editing a witness statement by former health minister Terrence Deyalsingh, which was later submitted to the PAAC. Their involvement was discovered after track changes remained enabled on the document.
Deyalsingh is a witness in the PAAC’s inquiry into the pharmaceutical sector.
John-Bates resigned on Friday, accepting responsibility for her role while denying wrongdoing or any attempt to commit contempt of Parliament.
John-Bates has been replaced by PNM senator Vishnu Dhanpaul on the PAAC and the National Security Joint Select Committee.
Al-Rawi was expected to submit a report to the Opposition Leader on the matter. He, however, has not resigned.
On Friday night, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar took to Facebook, describing Al-Rawi as “untouchable” and alleging he is shielded by the PNM’s “fake elite financiers” who, she claimed, have controlled the party since 2010.
Earlier that day, during the parliamentary debate, Government ministers Saddam Hosein, Jearlean John and Barry Padarath accused Beckles of weakness for not immediately accepting John-Bates’ resignation and of failing to act decisively against Al-Rawi, with Hosein suggesting she was “afraid” of the senior counsel.
Le Hunte:
Penny has party’s support
But former PNM vice chairman Robert Le Hunte yesterday pushed back at these suggestions, arguing that the issue is being overstated and politically leveraged.
“It is clear that the country holds the PNM to a different standard than they hold anyone else…This is not an issue as it relates to losing 50,000 jobs. This is not causing any loss of income, and there are a lot more serious issues facing this country with regard to unemployment, with regard to a lot of broken promises that the UNC would have made,” Le Hunte said.
“I agree this is an important issue, but it is up to the Government to use this as a diversion tactic as best as they can so that people will not focus on the other issues.”
Le Hunte also dismissed suggestions of internal instability, insisting Beckles retains strong backing within the party.
“The PNM has a political leader, in which I would say the majority, and I say not only a small majority, over 90 per cent of the people are very satisfied with her. And therefore, the PNM is also focused on doing the work to try to repair work done by others in the past that caused close to one-third of the membership of the PNM to move away,” he said.
“That’s a Herculean task and, therefore, there is no confusion within the PNM of who is our political leader and who is the person that is fit to lead the PNM at this point in time.”
Al-Rawi has declined to comment on the matter, citing his role as legal counsel for Deyalsingh.
—With reporting by Gail Alexander
