(Trinidad Express) Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s statement that former prime minister Arthur NR Robinson used to take his son, David, as his travel assistant on overseas trips has been vigorously challenged by a number of persons in the know.
Persad-Bissessar in defending her decision to take her sister, Vidwatie Newton, at taxpayers’ expense on official trips with her, told reporters on Saturday: “It has been done before my time…Indeed, I am advised that former prime minister Robinson would take his son as his travel assistant”.
She dismissed queries relating to her sister’s travel costs, first raised by the Opposition in Parliament last Friday, as mischief. Newton has accompanied the Prime Minister to several trips including Brazil, Australia, London and Hong Kong. Former permanent secretary to the Prime Minister, Reginald Dumas, said on Monday he had “absolutely no recollection whatsoever of Robinson’s son ever being on any Trinidad and Tobago delegation (travelling overseas)“.
“In my experience working with him as prime minister, David was never on any Trinidad and Tobago delegation,” he said during a telephone interview.
“Mr Robinson would not do that. He is not that kind of person to have his child or sibling travel with him and say it is his travel assistant. That is not the kind of person he is,” Dumas said.
He added that Robinson did not even have a personal assistant.
“And as for anyone travelling with him as he travel assistant, forget it!” Dumas said. Former attorney general in National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) administration (1986-1991), Anthony Smart, also said yesterday he was unaware of Robinson’s son travelling with him as an assistant.
In fact, Smart recalled that the opportunity came up during the NAR tenure to have personal assistants to help in the respective constituency offices, he (Smart) considered hiring a relative who was familiar with his constituents but when he discussed the matter with Robinson, Robinson told him that he didn’t think it was a good idea. And former prime minister Basdeo Panday said yesterday he could not understand what was going on. “This is a peculiar and unusual case. It is not a hired person. The Prime Minister has said she (Newton) is not an employee of the Government. If you are employed and paid by the State to do anything, one can understand that.
