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Kamla has given up—Verna
Published:
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Dr Sheila Rampersad
Former minister of Gender, Youth and Child Development Verna St Rose-Greaves.
Public Affairs Editor
There are elements within the Cabinet of the People’s Partnership Government that are trying to engineer a national crisis in order to sideline Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and “slip in and do what they want.” And what are perceived to be off-the-cuff statements from members of the coalition Government are in fact calculated to create division and unrest.
In a revelatory, exclusive interview with the T&T Guardian last Wednesday, former government minister Verna St Rose-Greaves expressed deep concern for Persad-Bissessar and her ability to perform her prime ministerial functions. “I listen to what is being said—and don’t be fooled: these are no off-the-cuff statements. They want the place to mash up.
“There is a quiet hunger strike and you bring in your people to create confusion. I’m seeing people pushing for fire. They want this place to explode and I hope the country smarter than that because there will be no winners. “I truly believe they think the Prime Minister cannot cope with a national crisis and that if a crisis should arise, it would provide them with the opportunity, and this is why I am pushing for her to stand up and step up.”
(This is the first in a two-part series.) St Rose-Greaves served as a United National Congress (UNC) Opposition Senator from March 2 to April 8, 2010, when Parliament was dissolved in preparation for the May 24 general election. She campaigned for the PP coalition in the run-up to the general election and on June 27, 2011, 13 months after the PP won the election and formed the Government, was appointed a government Senator.
She served as a member of Cabinet as Minister of Gender, Youth and Child Development until June 24, 2012, when she was dismissed from Cabinet in favour of former San Fernando mayor Marlene Coudray during a Cabinet reshuffle. No explanation was given for her removal.
Saying that the country cannot continue on its current path, the often outspoken women’s movement and children’s rights activist said she feels the time has come for her to speak up for the good of the country. “The Prime Minister is loved, she is loved. And I think if people understand the promise of what is possible, if she is allowed to function in the way that is required of a prime minister, I think there are sufficient people willing to help and support her.”
It might be too late for the Government as it is currently configured, she said, but she does not think it is too late for Persad-Bissessar to leave a better legacy. “I don’t want her to go down, our first woman leader, in this way. She can still salvage her legacy.
“I am suggesting that if she has to get rid of certain people, that she does that. If she has to reconfigure how things get done, do that. She has to assert her position and have a better handle on how and what her ministers are doing.”
Asked whether she feared for the Prime Minister, St Rose-Greaves said she had always been concerned.
“When you are dealing with people who are desperate, you don’t put anything past them. Things happen in this country now that we never thought could happen. There are desperate elements and a kind of callousness that is bothersome. When you have people who are functioning in fear and in anger, that is a deadly combination. I am concerned. I have always been concerned.”
Kamla needs her sister
Insisting she was not speaking from “a place of anger and bitterness and spite,” St Rose-Greaves said she was interested in finding a solution to the crisis of governance, a crisis which she analysed as emanating both from a tight wall of personalities around the Prime Minister and from flawed processes of governance.
“There is a wall around her who keep making interventions when people approach with good sense and who have her best interest at heart. You make interventions to individuals and they say, ‘Hush, don’t go there. If you raise those issues, you are out of here.’”
Asked whether she had attempted to penetrate that wall, she responded, “Yes, I have attempted to do this, and you are warned. There was a move for me not to be too close to her, and she, too, grew afraid of appearing to be close to me.”
Unlike the many who demanded the removal of Vidwatie Newton, Persad-Bissessar’s sister, as the Prime Minister’s informal personal assistant and travel companion, St Rose-Greaves said the presence of Newton was good for the Prime Minister, and her removal was orchestrated by members of the Cabinet who wanted uninterrupted access to the Prime Minister.
“I was very happy the Prime Minister’s sister had come to be with her. I had advised if there were two or three sisters, they should all come, because I saw very early she (the Prime Minister) needed protection. Everybody had access to her and would go to her and pressure her to get what they wanted.
“All the drama about the money spent on the sister—people around her fostered that for their own purposes. There were people who did not want her sister there. “But it was important for her sister to be there, someone she could trust who had her best interest at heart, and who would stand up with her, and they have undermined that. The Prime Minister’s family needs more support than they have been getting.”
Flawed processes
On the matter of flawed processes of governance, St Rose-Greaves explained, “Collective responsibility suggests that we have shared decisions, we have discussions, collective decision-making, and then I am to be held responsible in that context.
“But there are no minutes of Cabinet in terms of who said what, who supported what decision. Those things are not in Cabinet minutes. So, for example, the decision about Clause 34, no one knows who would have objected to it, who were present at the discussion, whether it was discussed or not. When it was said there was a death threat against the Prime Minister, was that ever brought to the Cabinet?
“You don’t even know what is a majority position. So the Prime Minister or little groupings would say something and it comes out as a majority position, when you didn’t even know—but you are held responsible. We have to deal with that.” Saying the country has to decide on the question of leadership, she elaborated on a point she made in a CNC3 interview last week when she asked: Who is in charge?
“The Prime Minister has been in politics for many years, so we can’t say she doesn’t have strengths and skills. To have survived in that patriarchal political scenario, she must have had lots of strengths and lots of skills. She is now in leadership. “How then does it seem to the population that she has handed over, she has pulled back?”
Who’s really in charge?
Asked to answer her own question about who is in charge, St Rose-Greaves said it varied. “It depends on what is being discussed, whether we’re discussing a particular piece of legislation, buying over companies, or moving things out of Port-of-Spain beyond the Caroni River. At any time it’s a group of people who is in charge.
“I know it appears the Prime Minister is not in charge, and that much I think there is a general agreement on. She is not in charge. “She says she is not afraid but when I look at her, she is afraid, and I can’t say who or what she is afraid of, but I am picking up a lot of fear. Is she afraid of the people she is governing, of those around her?
“The Prime Minister has the capacity to make sound decisions, but whether she follows through on those decisions is another matter. Who are the people who, when the decision is not in their favour, go to her and use what they perceive to be her weakness to make her do what they want her to do?
“She does not appear to be in charge, and if that is in fact so, I am suggesting that she reasserts her authority, she step up and take back her power, and one of the ways to retake your power is to remove any secrecy and step up. She has to step back into her power. “She knows she must look after the women and children of this country. She was given a gift of a special opportunity to do something for this country.”
In 2010, she said, none of the senior male ministers currently in the Government could have won the election without Persad-Bissessar, yet she appears to have given up control of her office. “They could have had (no matter) what combination of parties—there was no way they were going to win that election without her. People voted for her.
“On this whole question of woman leadership and change, people bought into that, and that is because of the work the women’s movement has done over years in opening people’s minds and giving them the possibility of something better and something different.
“And it is painful to me that in such short shrift, they have squandered all that goodwill and the Prime Minister has just given up. If you watch all the things that have happened since, from Reshmi to Section 34, every time something happens, she goes silent and she allows these ministers to get up and make vicarious statements and say all kinds of things. And then, after people insist, she would talk, but she takes her cue from what these people are saying.
“We cannot go on like that. They will kill the goose that laid the golden egg.”
We have to help the PM
Published:
Monday, December 3, 2012
Flashback. Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar greets former minister of gender, youth and development Verna St Rose Greaves in June 2011 during a reception which the PM hosted in honour of the Caribbean Regional Women Leaders as Agents of Change. The event was held at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre.
In the first part of this exclusive interview, published in yesterday’s Sunday Guardian, former government minister and women’s and children’s rights activist Verna St Rose-Greaves said Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar is not in charge of her government. In this concluding installment, she talks to the T&T Guardian's Public Affairs Editor Sheila Rampersad about the true nature of the challenge facing the PM.
Verna St Rose-Greaves says the time has come to move beyond gossip and scandalous whispers about the physical and mental health of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and treat productively with whatever challenges the Prime Minister is experiencing. If the Prime Minister does have a problem, she insists, she is not the first and will not be the last.
“If in fact the Prime Minister has a problem which we are all talking about, whispering about and making scandal about, let us treat with it, if it impinging on her performance as Prime Minister. The problem can be contained, with a lot of support and help. We must not only treat with her diabetes and high blood pressure. “I remember when Tim [Gopeesingh] said peas fall on her foot. What is that about?
“If somebody is not well, they’re not well, and we have to put things in place to help her so she can perform at optimum, so that she cannot have people use those challenges to control her, to make decisions on her behalf, to advise in ways that are not productive and not in the best interest of the country.”
St Rose-Greaves spoke exclusively with the T&T Guardian last Wednesday. She served as a United National Congress (UNC) opposition Senator from March 2 to April 8, 2010 and campaigned for the People’s Partnership coalition in the runup to the general election.
On June 27, 2011, 13 months after the PP formed the Government, she was appointed a government Senator. She served as a member of Cabinet as Minister of Gender, Youth and Child Development until June 24, 2012 when she was dismissed cabinet in favour of former San Fernando mayor Marlene Coudray during a June 23 cabinet reshuffle.
St Rose-Greaves agreed that Persad-Bissessar’s life is more closely scrutinised than former prime ministers’. “When the Prime Minister says that her life is the most scrutinised, it is true, because people spend time whispering about it.
“I am saying the way to take her power back is to take away the secrecy, take away the ransom they want to hold her under. Come with it, face up to it. There are people willing to stand with her and to help her.
“Female leadership is not easy. I think the time has come for us to say something and do something about it.” A qualified social worker trained in counselling, child development, mental health, and community work, St Rose-Greaves was adamant that public disclosure is “the way we must go” and that the society must stop “beating up” on people who have challenges that affect their overall wellbeing.
“We cannot beat up on people because of their weaknesses. We have a responsibility to help and one way of doing that is to remove the cloak of secrecy, stigma, discrimination and ugliness that we associate with these issues. This is not about a person alone; it is about a country.”
Responding to whether she felt the society is sufficiently mature to react respectfully to a public disclosure, she said, “As a whole the society may not be mature enough—but it is an opportunity to help the society grow up. There are sufficient people who will help her. People love the woman; there are sufficient people who can stand up and help the society mature.
“There are people in leadership all over the world who are bipolar, who suffer depression, all kinds of things, and if that interferes with how they perform in public office, I think we have a responsibility, and the people around them have a responsibility, to ensure that they take their medication and that they function at an optimum.
“It’s the same thing with diet; some people are gorging themselves, not looking after themselves. Some think it is a good thing to boast that they’re not sleeping. You need to sleep, and some of the irrational statements and decisions are perhaps hinged to that.
Your mental wellness is not up to mark when you don’t sleep. You’re angry and frustrated. You just have to look at the public outbursts, the arrogance and vexation, as if we cannot solve anything peacefully. It’s a level of illness that we have to be prepared to treat with in this society.”
She identified a broad problem with current governance in T&T where greed, viciousness and hate characterise reactions to emergent national issues. “When you function with hate, you turn into what you hate. I think this Government started off with so much hate for the PNM that they don’t even recognise they have become the PNM and worse than the PNM.
The very things they were complaining about—arrogance, lack of empathy, neglect of certain communities—are what we are seeing. They have to move away from that hate. They have to distance themselves from that bile. When you listen to the ranting of Government, those are not things people should be saying.”
The public continues to hope for something better, she said, and Persad-Bissessar must speak to the population from a deeper place.
“One major strength the Prime Minister has is her people skills. But when she talks about her people, it must not only be her constituents, it must be all of T&T. She must be brave and she must stand up and speak to people from a deeper place than from where she is speaking from now. She seems to be only able to reach people in big rallies, with lakouray and drama.
“There is a gap, and either Mr Warner or Mr Moonilal would get up and say something and just cause confusion, and when people make noise, she comes forward and uses their words, takes her lead from what they say, rather than asserting herself as the authority figure, as the one who is in charge. People continue to hope for something better, but people no longer trust, and they are getting no real reassurance from her.
“We cannot continue like this. It’s as if power is an aphrodisiac to many of these men. We voted for something different. I entered a campaign for something different, to support her, because I thought supporting her gave this country an opportunity to turn a corner.” But can people who are handicapped because of health challenges be expected to help themselves, given that they are already handicapped?
St Rose-Greaves said her experience in counselling proved to her that: “Anyone can be helped with care and treatment, and if there are people around you who understand your challenges and know how to manage them.”
Kamla: I don’t have a substance abuse problem
By Keino Swamber keino.swamber@trinidadexpress.com
Story Created: Dec 6, 2012 at 2:07 AM ECT
Story Updated: Dec 6, 2012 at 11:30 AM ECT
PRIME Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar is categorically denying that she has a problem with substance abuse.
Persad-Bissessar was asked to respond to suggestions by former minister of gender, youth and child development Verna St Rose Greaves that she (Persad-Bissessar) has an issue which must be addressed frontally. On CNC3’s morning show last week, St Rose Greaves questioned the Prime Minister’s ability to function and also alleged that ministers had files against her.
Asked yesterday if she was aware that there is a former Government minister who has been “going around making some suggestions with regard to substance abuse”, Persad-Bissessar said everyone is entitled to their opinion.
She was speaking with reporters following the opening ceremony of the Third High-Level Dialogue of the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI) at the Hyatt Regency in Port of Spain.
“I have no such problem and I have nothing further to say with respect to that,” Persad-Bissessar said.
“It would be most interesting if with every allegation that is made I need to defend myself personally. I serve my country well, I have nothing to be afraid of, I have nothing to be ashamed of and absolutely no substance abuse whatsoever.”
Persad-Bissessar also steered clear of any questions surrounding the hunger strike of Dr Wayne Kublalsingh to protest the proposed construction of the Debe to Mon Desir segment of the Solomon Hochoy Highway extension from Golconda, San Fernando to Point Fortin.
Asked if she planned to accede to Kublalsingh’s request for her to have an audience with him, Persad-Bissessar replied: “I have already spoken on that matter and I have no further comment on it.” Persad-Bissessar was also asked for her opinion of the request made by Kublalsingh for an independent study to be done on the proposed route and the alternatives
“I have spoken on the matter and I have no further comment on that matter.”
Asked whether she endorsed the comments of some of her ministers who described Kublalsingh as a fraudster and trickster, Persad-Bissessar said: “I have already spoken about this matter. I have no further comment to make.”
Persad-Bissessar responded in similar fashion to two other questions posed to her on the issue.
In relation to her assertion, on Saturday at a UNC meeting at Rienzi Complex, Couva, that she was sometimes made to bear “pains of insults, the stress of threats and sometimes what amounts to blackmail of my leadership”, Persad-Bissessar was asked to whom was she referring.
Her response was: “No one in specific and everyone in general.”
She responded in the negative when asked if it was anyone within the People’s Partnership.
“We have challenges and we have to balance those challenges as parties in a coalition. I think in every coalition Government there will be issues. I think we are doing fine so far.
“I remember an expression by David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, when I visited him last. I asked ‘How is your coalition going ?’. He said ‘We are like ducks. On the surface we are swimming along very smoothly and under the water we are paddling.’ That is what its like. There are always differences of views and opinions. We try to find a consensus of those views and continue to do our best to take our nation forward.”
Anil: Verna fired for gay/abortion rights
By Anna Ramdass anna.ramdass@trinidadexpress.com
Story Created: Dec 6, 2012 at 11:02 PM ECT
Story Updated: Dec 7, 2012 at 5:33 AM ECT
Former government minister Verna St Rose Greaves was fired because she tried to force the Cabinet into accepting her own position of pro-gay rights and pro-abortion with respect to the national gender policy, says Sport Minister Anil Roberts.
"She wanted her own way or the highway. Hell hath no fury like a woman fired!"
Roberts held a news conference yesterday outside the Office of the Prime Minister, St Clair, where he launched a scathing attack on St Rose Greaves, former minister of Gender, Child and Youth Development, for the comments she made on national television against the Prime Minister.
St Rose Greaves alleged Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar had a substance abuse problem and questioned her capability in running the country.
Persad-Bissessar on Wednesday refuted the allegations made by her former minister.
The PM sacked St Rose Greaves in June and replaced her with former San Fernando mayor, Marlene Coudray.
"If you remember when she (St Rose Greaves) was a minister before the consultation occurred (on the gender policy) she gave her opinion on two sensitive matters, on abortion and on gay marriage. You cannot put the cart before the horse if we are going for consultation," said Roberts.
"You cannot first of all state your opinion and then pretend to go and consult, that's what Verna St Rose Greaves, former minister, attempted to do and attempted to railroad the entire Cabinet and the Government and for her comment out now, because she's been fired and to attack a prime minister in such a vile, personal, untrue, dishonest manner is cowardly for an independent strong woman as Verna and I withdraw my respect from her totally and completely.
"The Prime Minister has been under attack from so many people and she stays quiet, calm and classy that I decided this time that one went too far," he added.
Roberts said the Prime Minister and the Cabinet did not attack St Rose Greaves when an employee from her former ministry, Cheryl Miller, was sent to St Ann's Hospital against her will.
"When a female comes and attacks another one about mental stability and all sorts of rubbish, ridiculous nature, I cannot stand by and see that, especially when the person making the accusation has a lot of questions about her actions when she sent a sane woman to St Ann's ... maybe she should have made a visit herself," said Roberts.
St Rose Greaves, in her television interview, also claimed the Prime Minister was not in charge and was being blackmailed.
Said Roberts: "If she suggests that the Prime Minister is not in charge, then who fired her?"
...AG slams her too
By Irene Medina
Story Created: Dec 6, 2012 at 11:02 PM ECT
Story Updated: Dec 7, 2012 at 5:33 AM ECT
Attorney General Anand Ramlogan has condemned what he calls the "vindictive, vicious and vile attack" against Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar by former social development minister Verna St Rose Greaves.
Ramlogan is the latest member of the People's Partnership Government to endorse the leadership of Persad-Bissessar, saying: "I have no doubt her leadership will emerge stronger and better in the face of this unwarranted and unjustified malicious personal attack."
In a statement yesterday, the AG, who is currently in China with a Trinidad and Tobago parliamentary delegation, described St Rose Greaves' public claims that the PM was not in charge of the Government, and suggestions that she may have a substance abuse problem, as "spiteful".
"That this assault on the character of the Prime Minister was launched months after she (St. Rose Greaves) was fired from the Cabinet underscores the revengeful and spiteful nature of it.
"Why did Verna remain silent about these imaginary problems when she was comfortably ensconced as a member of the Cabinet at the behest of the Prime Minister?" asked Ramlogan.
"Why did she not resign and go public then? Could it be because the Prime Minister stood beside her in the face of intense criticism over her handling of the disastrous Cheryl Miller affair?"
He said there was no truth to the defamatory allegations about the Prime Minister's personal life and "she is certainly not the subject of blackmail by any Government Minister".
According to Ramlogan, Persad-Bissessar leads with a firm hand but compassionate heart without fear or favour to anyone in the Cabinet, adding that she had the courage to fire several ministers for reasons that may include non-performance and under-performance.
The AG pointed to the fact that he has worked with the PM both in opposition and government in several capacities, and also in cases where she provided excellent legal advice as an attorney.
He pointed to her 25 years of dedicated public service and 16-hour work days, describing her as "a strong, competent and visionary leader, with a deep commitment to the betterment of Trinidad and Tobago".
Claiming that similar attacks were made against Persad-Bissessar by male politicians during the internal elections of the United National Congress, Ramlogan said: "It is a sad day when a woman who once championed the cause of women in politics can join the bandwagon of men who took cheap potshots at the first female PM.
"This kind of gutter politics that relies on personal vilification is a strategy that failed then and it shall fail now because it is based on rumour and lies."
He said unlike other national male leaders, the country's first female Prime Minister has been subjected to extraordinary scrutiny and her personal life has been under intense scrutiny as many search for faults.
"The public microscope has focused on the cost of her private residence, her relationship with her sister, her clothes and even her shoes. None of the male national leaders who preceded her were subjected to this kind of rigorous scrutiny. Indeed, the media and activists kept a respectful distance away from their personal lives," said Ramlogan.
And the UNC youth arm also dismissed St Rose Greaves' claims as "false, malicious and of no value" and exemplifying "a prime example of political mischief and propaganda".
In response, St Rose Greaves said: "It is unfortunate that they chose to take what I said as an attack on the Prime Minister. I pray and hope that the Prime Minister, her sister and her husband take the message how it was intended to be."
When asked to clarify how that statement was intended, she did not elaborate.
kurpal_v2 wrote:In life I've learnt to never trust the word of a baldhead lesbian unless her name is amber
kurpal_v2 wrote:In life I've learnt to never trust the word of a baldhead lesbian unless her name is amber
Conrad wrote:kurpal_v2 wrote:In life I've learnt to never trust the word of a baldhead lesbian unless her name is amber
Bareback wrote:She does have a problem. Her house in south is not strategically located to any rum shops or vat parlours. The closest ones also do not allow for any decent parking of PM1 (aka Pour Me anuddah1). So her problem is that there is no easy acces to Rum!
kurpal_v2 wrote:Conrad wrote:kurpal_v2 wrote:In life I've learnt to never trust the word of a baldhead lesbian unless her name is amber
PANDAY LASHES OUT AT KAMLA, JACK
By Richardson Dhalai Sunday, January 10 2010
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Incumbent UNC political leader, Basdeo Panday tore into two of his political opponents at his first public meeting of the internal elections campaign saying Kamla Persad-Bissessar first had to deal with a serious personal problem which could seriously compromise the party should she be elected as political leader while Jack Warner was yet to account for monies collected during the 2007 General Elections campaign.
In a no-holds barred address to hundreds of supporters at Penal junction on Friday evening, (a stone’s throw from the constituency office of Siparia MP, Kamla Persad- Bissessar who is vying for the position of political leader), Panday said Persad-Bissessar’s time to lead the party would come but she first had to overcome her problem.
“When I appointed her as Minister of Education, Leader of the Opposition, Attorney General and so on, I was doing so to train her to lead. Her time will come. She is not yet ready. She has to get rid of that serious problem she has. I empathise with her. But the leadership of your party at this time is of over-riding concern,” Panday said.
And while he did not identify the “personal” problem, he said Chaguanas West MP, Jack Warner, who is vying for the post of UNC chairman and who has thrown his support behind Persad-Bissessar for political leader, was in possession of files which revealed the extent of Persad-Bissessar’s problem and called on Warner to make the files public.
“Jack Warner came to the National Executive with a file and threatened to expose her; he then went into her constituency and he and Ramesh launched the most vitriolic attack on her. You remember that meeting, don’t you? Jack Warner must tell you what is in that file against Kamla. Does he have photographs and other evidence of the things he said against her at his public meeting in Penal? Jack, if – which I know is impossible – you are honest, are you prepared to let the public know what you have in that file?” he said.
“Because if you have that kind of evidence do you not think the PNM also have it? Are you going to wait until Kamla is elected Political Leader of this party and then use it to control her and the UNC, or let the PNM use it to destroy Kamla and the UNC with her?” Panday asked. His supporters, some waving placards which read, “Panday – our leader, our future” and “Panday, all the way any day”, fell silent. In an immediate response yesterday, Persad-Bissessar, during a walkabout at the Chaguanas market, used a line made famous by Panday himself saying, “bring the evidence.”
“Oh please...I deny categorically what was said on the platform. I have been in the public light for the past 20 something years....,” she said.
Meanwhile, Warner denied being in possession of files on Kamla pertaining to an alleged incident in India but noted that he had files on Panday himself which were obtained from bankers in London. Panday said Persad-Bissessar must now publicly dissociate herself from Warner.
“And before Kamla can ever become Political Leader of this party she must totally dissociate herself from Jack Warner. We know they are on the same slate, whether they admit it or not. Jack is openly supporting her. She is not openly supporting Jack but she is not saying anything bad about him either,” he said.
He said Persad-Bissessar should also identify her personal achievements and not those which were handed to her by the party.
“Kamla, I ask you to ask yourself and answer sincerely: What have you really done for this party since we gave you a seat in Parliament in 1991? I gave you a seat in Parliament which you could not get otherwise; you now boast that your qualifications include being the first Indian woman to act as Prime Minister? Who bestowed that upon you? Another of your claim to fame is that you acted as Attorney General. Who made you that? You also honour yourself that you have been Leader of the Opposition. Who made you that? Can you name a single thing that you have achieved on your own? And what did you achieve during that period of almost one year when you were Leader of the Opposition?,” he asked.
Panday then went into attack mode against Warner, who is contesting the position of chairman in the January 24 internal elections, saying he, Warner, had received some $30 million during the 2007 General Elections and had refused to account for the funds.
“Jack Warner wants to be chairman of our great party. Can you believe such brass-facedness. I ask you: What has Jack Warner ever done for this party? The answer is nothing. He is telling people that he financed the party. Whatever money he has spent and is spending is your money. Kamla was there at the National Executive meeting when Jack Warner admitted that as Deputy Political Leader of the UNC he received $30 million as donations to this party, the UNC,” he said.
“The internal problems in this party began when Jack Warner was asked to account for that money. Up to this day, despite several requests and letters, he has refused to account for this large sum of money he owes the party,” Panday said. He said the election was about whether the party would “fall into the hands of international conmen, ambitious power seekers or inebriated egotists, or whether it will disintegrate altogether by being swallowed up in another party”.
“When the UNC is destroyed, who or what will protect you? Who will fight for you? Who will defend you? Jack Warner? Besides the fact that he is never in the country, what is his record? What has Jack ever done for you? Given you a football, a cricket bat, a trip for a Chowtal group, a fete and a donation for a festival? That was your money. He still owes you millions more. You must demand it. You must demand an account of the millions he has received on your behalf,” Panday said.
Panday reminded supporters of his promise to demit office only if they wanted him to go.
“I have solemnly promised you on many occasions that the day you do not want me as your leader I shall never be a yoke on your neck. I shall go with dignity,” he said, adding, “on January 24 you will determine that question. Whichever way you decide I shall honour your decision.”
He also described the 16,000 new membership application forms as “fake” saying this was a way of attempting to “pad the list and take over the leadership of the party and then sell it to the highest bidder”.
He concluded by offering an olive branch to both Persad-Bissessar and Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj saying there was room in the party for both of them, but not at as political leader.
Warner: Ramesh misled me
Published:
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Kevon Felmine
Jack Warner
Suggestions by former Gender Affairs minister Verna St Rose-Greaves on a morning talk show that Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar had a drink problem have raised the ire of National Security Minister Jack Warner. Warner, who had cast similar aspersions on a political platform during the United National Congress’ (UNC) internal election campaign, came to the defence of the PM in Point Fortin yesterday.
“I have never seen the Prime Minister drunk in my life. In the past two years I have been in government, I have no evidence whatsoever of that,” Warner said.
Speaking to reporters at a luncheon to reward Point Fortin police officers who had seized a large cache of arms and ammunition, Warner claimed he was misled by former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj into stating on a public political platform that the PM had fallen on a statue of Gandhi while on a trip in India because she was drunk.
He charged that detractors had no evidence of wrongdoing against Persad-Bissessar and so had decided to attack her character instead. He spoke candidly about the political feuding during the UNC internal elections and before when Warner, Maharaj and Community Development Minister Winston “Gypsy” Peters had embarked on a caravan for change while Basdeo Panday was the party’s leader.
Warner said he made the error of repeating the rumour on a political platform without investigating, but when he realised it was an untruth, he apologised to the PM. Responding to critics who have openly wondered what secret he was holding for the PM, to cause her not to remove him from her Cabinet and Government, Warner declared, “I have no files on the PM.”
Chastising St Rose-Greaves, with whom he was at odds over her anti-capital-punishment stance, Warner said she had taken her tirade too far. He said she and several other politicians were using environmental activist Dr Wayne Kublalsingh’s hunger strike in an attempt to revive their political careers. “What I will tell you, though, is that this Government will not budge and those has-been politicians who want to eat of his carcass, let them go ahead.”
Warner said Kublalsingh had been playing the fool over the past eight days. “If I were Kublalsingh, I would allow people to see what I am doing between 6 pm and 6 am. Ask him, also, why his wife is not with him.” United Voice bloggers have been questioning the absence of Kublalsingh’s wife Dr Sylvia Moodie-Kublalsingh and their son, who is studying law at UWI in Barbados.
Until Friday, neither his wife, whose ethnicity has also been drawn into the controversy, nor son has been visible at Kublalsingh’s side, during his nine-day hunger strike.
Warner declared that the hunger strike was a farce. “If he is actually fasting, then my name is Barack Obama.” He announced that tomorrow he will hold a public meeting at the Debe High School to deal with several issues relating to the controversial highway.
Les Bain wrote:That is a rachel accusation.
sliderz1 wrote:Les Bain wrote:That is a rachel accusation.
pics of Rachel?
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