(Trinidad Express) Jack Warner cannot continue to serve as a Minister of Government. He must be removed from the Cabinet. Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar must act.
So said Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley as he commented on the findings of the Concacaf Integrity Committee.
He said the Prime Minister can no longer pretend not to know the seriousness of the allegations made against her National Security Minister.
Rowley said from day one the People’s National Movement pointed to the potential damage underlying Warner’s presence in the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, the potential damage to the public image of the country. “We are at that juncture now,” he said.
He said the Prime Minister had been hiding from the facts and protecting Warner. He said the country’s image was being damaging by the allegations which were.
He added: “I am not here to pronounce on guilt or innocence. But the weight of the allegations are too heavy to be borne by a Minister of Government in Trinidad and Tobago. The Cabinet has no requirement to provide refuge for a person who is in that situation. Right now the way the world sees us is that we are a people who provide refuge for fraudsters and other kinds of persons in the Cabinet of Trinidad and Tobago,” he said.
Rowley said the PNM had accused the Prime Minister of being afraid to act as she is required under reasonable circumstances because she is afraid of what Mr Warner would do to her career.
“That is detrimental to the interest of Trinidad and Tobago. This is not a matter of the individual. It is a matter of protecting the institution of the Cabinet and the people of Trinidad and Tobago. The Prime Minister must now act, as she should have done a long time ago,” he said.
Rowley said by Warner’s own count, he (Rowley) had called for his (Warner’s) removal 18 times before. “This is time number 19 … The Prime Minister must act,” he said.
The Opposition Leader said the statement of Communications Minister Jamal Mohammed that the Ministers were “circling the wagon in protection of Warner” (all supported Warner)” was quite depressing. Because what that says is that there is nobody in the Cabinet who stands for the values that the people of Trinidad and Tobago expect from a functioning Cabinet”.
He said for the last three years this issue (of the various allegations being made against Warner’s by international bodies) has been going from bad to worse. “Our Minister of National Security is now been described out there as an international fraudster. This is too much for us to bear,” he said.
He said if Persad-Bissessar does not fire Warner, she would be saying to the people of Trinidad and Tobago. ‘you can all go to hell. I will protect Mr Warner regardless of circumstances’.
Rowley said a significant portion of this Government was Congress of the People which came to office on a platform of “new politics”.
“I cannot see how for the life of me, anybody purporting to be want to be advancing to the people of Trinidad and Tobago an improvement in our political circumstances, while you sit in the Cabinet and have the Minister of Communications telling the world that you support this”.
He said people were sitting in office protecting this wrongdoing while it damages the people of this country.
“If a person is deemed to have a certain kind of record, it is on that record he serves,” he said.
He said Warner recently boasted that no one has put a question to him. But Rowley said chairman of the Integrity Committee Sir David Simmons stated Warner did not cooperate with the investigation. “That is normal. He does not co-operate with investigations into his conduct,” Rowley said.
He described as “laughable” Warner’s previous comment that he is “incorruptible”.
Rowley said, however, he was no longer talking about Warner because he does not appoint himself. “Warner cannot be bombastic and say ‘I ain’t going nowhere’. It is to the Prime Minister that I direct my question: When are you (PM) going to act?’ “The problem is will the Prime Minister discharge her duty in keeping with her oath of office. That is what we are talking about here,” he said.
Rowley said the PNM will not sit on its hands on this issue. The motion which would be debated next Friday states: “Be it resolved that the House expresses its disapproval of the refusal of the Prime Minister to take appropriate action to protect the image and interest of the people of Trinidad and Tobago which is being consistently damaged by the actions and business of the Minister of National Security.”
