Pub­lic at­ten­tion has now shift­ed to Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les fol­low­ing the April 16 sack­ing of Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) Sen­a­tor Janelle John-Bates from the Pub­lic Ac­counts and Ad­min­is­tra­tion Com­mit­tee (PAAC) of the Up­per House over an em­bar­rass­ing po­lit­i­cal mis­step.

It is now left to be seen if Beck­les will fol­low suit and fire John-Bates, or whether she will keep her in the Up­per House—a de­ci­sion that will set the stan­dard by which the Op­po­si­tion Leader in­tends to treat with proven mis­con­duct in par­lia­men­tary of­fice by par­ty rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

In any case, his­to­ry will now re­mem­ber John-Bates as the Op­po­si­tion leg­is­la­tor who was caught in the act while as­sist­ing for­mer health min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh with his prepa­ra­tion of a state­ment he was due to de­liv­er to the PAAC, of which Sen­a­tor John-Bates was a mem­ber.

Like­wise, Beck­les, who took over lead­er­ship reins of the PNM af­ter its elec­tion de­feat a year ago, will be re­mem­bered for the de­ci­sion she takes in this sem­i­nal case, which will al­so set the tone for her po­lit­i­cal tenure and the sort of be­hav­iour she will tol­er­ate un­der her watch.

It must be not­ed that in the past, there have been in­stances of politi­cians, who, when ac­cused of se­ri­ous of­fences in pub­lic life, have gone in­to the po­lit­i­cal wilder­ness vol­un­tar­i­ly. Oth­ers have had to be pushed there by their lead­ers or have left the stage with the spe­cif­ic pur­pose of prov­ing their in­no­cence of the al­le­ga­tions made against them.

In­deed, in the cur­rent Par­lia­ment, there is a Gov­ern­ment min­is­ter who is be­fore the courts for an al­leged se­ri­ous crime for which he was once charged and freed. How­ev­er, the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions has re-com­mit­ted him for the said crime. In this in­stance, his Prime Min­is­ter has re­sist­ed sev­er­al calls for her min­is­ter’s re­moval from her Cab­i­net.

In her first term as Prime Min­is­ter, Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar sent her se­nior min­is­ter and al­leged bene­fac­tor, Jack Warn­er, out of of­fice to “go and clear your name.” An­oth­er min­is­ter, Anil Roberts, was sum­mar­i­ly re­lieved of his min­is­te­r­i­al of­fice for al­le­ga­tions which were not proven in a na­tion­al pro­gramme. In the case of the PNM, min­is­ters Er­ic Williams and Franklin Khan both left of­fice on their own steam to clear their names from se­ri­ous al­le­ga­tions. How­ev­er, that was not how for­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley treat­ed his for­mer min­is­ter, Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald. He once re­moved her, then kept her in place in a kind of re­volv­ing door de­ci­sion-mak­ing man­ner.

The point is that there has been no prin­ci­pled de­ter­mi­na­tion on the mat­ter of se­nior gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials, par­lia­men­tar­i­ans and oth­ers fac­ing se­ri­ous al­le­ga­tions be­ing kept in of­fice and/or put out of their of­fi­cial po­si­tions on the ba­sis of stat­ed and ac­cept­ed prin­ci­pled po­si­tions.

The op­por­tu­ni­ty in this John-Bates mat­ter, there­fore, is for Beck­les to take a prin­ci­pled de­ci­sion one way or the oth­er in the con­text of the grav­i­ty of the ac­tions of her Sen­a­tor, know­ing full well that she will be judged by her ac­tions.