…Ignores Jack, keeps Mark in Senate
(Trinidad Express) Opposi-tion Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar on Monday appoin-ted six senators, acting independently of United National Congress (UNC) chairman, Jack Warner, who had opposed the decision to reappoint Wade Mark.
In the new line-up is Mervyn Assam, the man who ran for the Congress of the People (COP) in the key constituency of San Fernando East in the last general election in November 2007 and lost. Assam’s appointment, however, was made without reference to the COP leadership. In fact, Assam made it clear that he was no longer a member of the COP.
“I have life membership in the UNC, but if I have to reapply I will,”he said.
Assam, a former minister in the UNC administration and a former ambassador under the NAR, is considered an excellent speaker. In introducing him, Persad-Bissessar described him as “a solid, articulate politician whose penchant for research and hard work will add some depth to our work in the Senate”. Persad-Bissessar said she believed that a “wholesale change-up of the Senate may not be in our best interest at this time”. Therefore, former minister and former deputy political leader, Wade Mark, was retained as a senator.
“Wade is a powerful voice in the Senate and can still make a strong contribution there,” Persad-Bissessar stated. Warner did not agree, however, and told the Express: “I have said that all six should be changed. But the decision is the Political Leader’s. But if anybody asks me, I am saying all six should go. And I stand by that.” Asked what would be his relationship with Mark, given the fact that he feels he should not be in the Senate, Warner said: “The same relationship that we had in the past. Wade Mark does not speak to me and I have no problem with that… I am in one house and he is in another house.”
