Proper Laptop Use In Trinidad and Tobago Parliament?

The soap opera of Trinidad and Tobago now uses electronic props! From BOOT FOR BAS: Suspended from Parliament for using laptop:

Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday has been suspended from Parliament for the remainder of the session, which can extend until December 16, 2008, House Speaker Barry Sinanan confirmed yesterday...

...Explaining the ruling, Speaker asked rhetorically, "what would prevent 41 members from using laptops during the sitting? One doesn't know if they are looking at pornography or chatting on-line". He said May's Parliamentary Practice very explicitly stated that MPs could not use electronic equipment as an aide-memoire when addressing the House.

"The Oropouche East MP Roodal Moonilal, who loves to use laptops and this palm recorder thing (Ipod) and other electronic gadgets, has sought my permission on many occasions and obtained it for the purpose of participating in a debate on the same day. He has always acted correctly," Sinanan said.

Sinanan said the member who he observed using the computer and whom he had planned "to teach a lesson yesterday" was (Sport Minister) "Gary Hunt, not Mr Panday". Sinanan said yesterday Hunt was the first one to whom he addressed his statements about the use of the laptop. Hunt promptly closed his computer but Sinanan noted, "Mr Panday decided to defy the Chair"...

Now - first off - I can see how laptops could be abused, as the Speaker pointed out. But there has to be a level of maturity in the use of such equipment during a session. One would hope that there would be some level of restraint when the focus is on discussion. Was Mr. Basdeo Panday out of line? Maybe not at first, but he definitely did when he defied the Speaker. The Speaker has a point.

This, friends, seems more of a 'I can urinate further than you' contest and is probably the best example of how Trinidad and Tobago government simply doesn't work. Where the focus should be on actual issues, though, this has suddenly become about Panday's laptop. Technology, while useful, has its place - and while the Speaker does seem a little too much of a Luddite by what is printed in the Trinidad Express, the grandstanding of Panday doesn't make Panday's case much better. What was he doing that was so important on the laptop? Was he working on the crime problem? Digging in on the local elections issue? And was this policy even discussed with the Speaker?

There is a place and use for technology. Panday can't play the suffragist card unless he actually had a reason to be using the laptop at the time. Going against the speaker was foolish. For all we know, he was playing solitaire...

Silly government. Technology is for grown-ups, not wrinkled adolescents. Me? Based on what I read, I think Roodal Moonilal should be leading the Opposition. At least he seems to understand how the House works.

Now, if you folks are done screwing around and playing with Panday's laptop, can you actually try addressing important issues in the country?