(Trinidad Express) Thousands of citizens on Friday took to the streets of the capital city, calling for Attorney General Anand Ramlogan and National Security Minister Jack Warner to hit the road.
The march, which began at Woodford Square, Port of Spain, around 1.20 pm yesterday, lasted just over two hours and ended with a public meeting on the Brian Lara Promenade.
At the promenade, a vote was held parliamentary-style where the crowd was asked whether Warner and Ramlogan should be fired.
The “ayes” had it.
A senior police officer at the march estimated the crowd to be around 25,000.
Several leaders who addressed the public meeting after the march estimated the crowd to be as much as 40,000.
Warner would however say the size of the crowd was 500, Ancel Roget, president general of the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU), said yesterday.
At noon yesterday, a coalition of political parties, among them the People’s National Movement (PNM), led by Dr Keith Rowley; Movement for Social Justice (MSJ), led by David Abdulah; and the Democratic National Assembly (DNA), led by Dr Kirk Meighoo, trade unions and civic groups gathered at Woodford Square, calling for Ramlogan and Warner to be fired.
When the march reached in front of the Attorney General’s office at Cabildo Chambers on St Vincent Street, the crowd stopped.
“Anand have to go right now!” they chanted as armed officers of the Guard and Emergency Branch blocked the entrance.
During the march, Warner was labelled as a “runaway horse”.
The march took place under surveillance of a National Security Ministry helicopter which flew overhead.
Members of the Guard and Emergency Branch, known as the riot squad, Mounted Branch officers and other uniformed and plain-clothes police were also present.
Three photographers and two cameramen from the police, who were in plain clothes, also took footage of the march.
The march was a continuation of the PNM’s initial mobilisation last month against the Section 34 fiasco.
On September 18, Rowley led a march to the President’s House to deliver a letter to demand a written explanation from Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar as to why the controversial Section 34 was prematurely selected to become law.
Meighoo estimated that “this march was much larger than the last one”.
“I have served in the Parliament for 20-odd years. In this country, we had PNM governments, we had a NAR (National Alliance for Reconstruction) government, we had a UNC (United National Congress) government under Basdeo Panday, and we had differences with those governments; nobody more than the unions on this (head) table,” Rowley said.
“They had issues with the government, but every occasion, it was a difference of opinion over policies and programmes, and that is okay,” he said.
“But what has happened under the Kamla Persad-Bissessar Government never happened under any other government,” Rowley said, in reference to the Section 34 debacle.
“You walked today because you saw a threat to democracy and an abuse by office-holders. For the first time, and the only time known to me, a Cabinet decided to use its authority of Cabinet to undermine the rule of law in the country to create a loophole for financiers of the party to get away,” Rowley said, referring to Ish Galbaransingh and Steve Ferguson.
Abdulah was the last of the leaders to address the meeting.
Abdulah said although a motion of censure against Ramlogan was defeated in the Lower House, he wanted to conduct a similar vote on the promenade.
“Is Anand Ramlogan culpable in the Section 34 fiasco? All those in favour, say ‘aye’ ,” Abdulah said.
“Aye!” the crowd said in response.
“All those against?” Abdulah said.
There was no response.
“The ayes have it,” he said to loud applause.
Abdulah then conducted a similar vote for Warner, who he said has abused his power as National Security minister.
“So I put it to you now; notice of censure to remove Jack Warner as minister of National Security for his abuse of executive power. All those in favour, say ‘aye’.”
“Aye!” the crowd responded.
“Any against?” Abdulah said.
“No!” the crowd said.
“They ayes have it,” Abdulah said.
Roget called on citizens to prepare themselves for the next move if Ramlogan and Warner are not fired.
Roget said the country may have to be shut down in order to save it.
Former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj said the entire Cabinet is guilty in relation to the Section 34 fiasco.
Lawrence Maharaj said when the People’s Partnership won elections, he was interviewed by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar for the office of attorney general.
Lawrence Maharaj said Persad-Bissessar asked him if he would raise alarms if issues of corruption were present in the Government.
Ramlogan was named Attorney General.
Ramesh said several Cabinet members have become millionaires and billionaires since entering the Government.
“Our country is in crisis; they have brought our country to its knees. They have, in effect, made us try to forget our moral values,” he said.
“Some of them, in the short space of time, I would not call names today, but some of them, they remain nameless for the time being, some of them are millionaires already, some are even billionaires,” Lawrence Maharaj said.
Lawrence Maharaj said he has information that a Cabinet minister tried to buy a house for TT$38 million in cash.
He said another Cabinet member has bought over 13 properties since being named a minister.
The properties are listed under a third-party’s name, he said.
