The Trinidad Express today has a story about Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday being suspended from Parliament for possibly the remainder of the session for unauthorized use of a laptop.

The 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”.

The fight against laptops in the Parliament based on the Speaker’s rhetoric may be a battle in the war for attentiveness. With some members occasionally drifting off to sleep only to be revived during a desk pounding session, this war may already be lost.

Embracing technology within the confines of the parliamentary sitting may be more useful to the 41 members. They surely would be more productive if digitization and availability of parliamentary records with the ability to search for various clarifications, previous meeting notes, and inter-party communication via IM that can add to the parliamentary discussions.

In contrast to this two weeks ago, Laptops were to the rescue as the Senate adopted the suggestion of a House committee that senators should be provided with laptop computers and wireless Internet connections.

Nothing is said of the source or usage of the laptops or the internet services provider for the Senate’s suggestion but by all estimates they will either be on the Blink or 3G.

What would be your ideal political technology setup, laptop and internet access for all or a continued ban? Maybe with Senators having the same challenges as the general population for access this may lead to an improvement in service delivery.