(Trinidad Guardian) Cumuto/Manzanilla Dr Rai Ragbir shocked the Parliament yesterday, after breaking United National Congress ranks and voting with the Government on the Whistleblower Protection Bill.
During the vote after the committee stage of the bill, Ragbir was the only Opposition member to support the Government in amending clauses within the act to combat corruption and other wrongdoings, by encouraging and facilitating disclosures of improper conduct in the public and private sector, to protect persons making those disclosures from detrimental action.
The surprise move triggered desk-thumping from Government members.
However, Ragbir’s support did not impact the passage of the bill because of the Government’s majority in the House.
Ragbir subsequently told Guardian Media that having studied the bill extensively, he felt compelled to support it, given its importance in tackling issues of corruption.
“There is a lot of illegal activities taking place in the world, immoral activities and moreso fraudulent activities and the people who have to come forward and report these things are always weary that they themselves will lose their jobs, demoted, may actually be threatened in terms of their lives. There is also the psycho social aspect of it as well, they themselves get depressed so in the bill it is important that you have to protect those people.”
In a response hours later, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who was not present in the chamber when the vote took place, said she was not surprised by Ragbir’s move, noting she had warned of such actions.
“For us in the UNC it’s business as usual because I told everyone during the internal campaign that some of the dissidents were working with the PNM and would go to the PNM after getting rejected by the membership in the internal elections. So said, so done. MP Ragbir just proved to the UNC membership that I was totally correct.”
Dr Ragbir, however, outrightly rejected any suggestions that he will be joining the PNM.
In a Facebook post, the Opposition MP said while his decision may cause disappointment among his colleagues, no caucus discussions were held in relation to the legislation and his views on it were not sought from the party’s chief whip or leader.
“This has unfortunately become the norm in the Opposition when important pieces of legislation are being considered and demonstrates, in my view, negligence on the part of the Opposition.”
Persad-Bissessar, however, explained that the UNC did not support the bill for several reasons, including its clauses that breached privacy rights.
“It breaches a fundamental constitutional right under the rule of law for aggrieved persons to have access to a court of law. Whilst the Government contorted themselves to remove the three-fifths majority, that does not cure the need for more than a three-fifths majority with respect to depriving persons’ access to a court of law. This bill will definitely end up in the courthouse.”
But Ragbir, who defended his decision to vote in favour of the bill, received commendations from his opponents, including Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales.
“I want to commend the action of my esteemed colleague from Cumuto/Manzanilla and to my colleague from Mayaro, when you wish to seek and lead and to lead a party, you must stand on your own, you must stand on your two feet, you must stand for integrity, you must stand for honour, you must lead by example and therefore from this evening Madame Speaker, the new leader of the Opposition is the honourable member for Cumuto/ Manzanilla.”
Ragbir’s action came less than a week after he and members of the United Patriots slate, headed by Mayaro MP Rushton Paray, were defeated in the UNC’s internal elections. Ragbir, and several other UNC members who agitated for the elections, were labelled dissidents as temperatures within the party boiled over during the campaign trail. Persad-Bissessar had previously threatened that if members voted against party lines in Parliament, they could face expulsion from the party.
