Just over a week ago, the notes soured. For over three years and up to three weeks ago, Charandass Persaud, the former parliamentarian sang the praises of the APNU+AFC government whom, he said, had done much for his home area, Region Six.
He sat with them, dined with them, travelled with them. One the night of December 21, he defected from the government benches and voted for the opposition PPP/C-sponsored no-confidence motion against the David Granger-led government, triggering upheaval as his stunned colleagues and the country grappled with the implications of the passage of the no-confidence motion. Persaud soared into infamy and by the next day was in Canada, where he is a citizen.
Based on their reaction, his APNU+AFC parliamentary colleagues never saw it coming. Just two weeks earlier, during his Budget 2019 presentation on December 4, while acknowledging that sugar estates including the Rose Hall estate was closed by the coalition government, Persaud argued that the workers were paid a severance which is “more money than (they) received during their working years.”