Trin | Surviving life in Trinidad and Tobago

‘Blatant abuse of power’ -illegal PNM rally

On Friday the Indo-Trinbago Equality Council (ITEC) faxed a written a letter of complaint to the Integrity Commission, claiming there was an abuse of power by acting Commissioner of Police (CoP) James Philbert, during a People’s National Movement (PNM) political rally while a no-confidence motion in Prime Minister Patrick Manning was being debated in Parliament on September 12th, 2008.

The letter stated "It is clear that the present acting Commissioner of Police did not exercise his powers in a fair and impartial manner and demonstrated and afforded preferential treatment to the supporters of the ruling party,"  and that CoP Philbert  "revealed a clear political bias in favour of the ruling party and failed to uphold the rule of law," .

It is public knowledge that no permission was granted by the CoP for this rally.

"The acting Commissioner of Police has thus far not charged anyone for the several violations and criminal offences committed," Maharaj wrote.

 Maharaj said no attempts were made by Philbert to disperse the crowd, in compliance with Section 3 of the Summary Offences Act, which deals with illegal meetings held without the CoP’s permission.

 Maharaj, in his letter, said the inaction and glaring omission on Philbert’s part was conspicuous because there was   much controversy over the manner in which he was appointed to act as Commissioner of Police.

 Contacted yesterday, Maharaj said he hoped that the commission would “unshackle itself from its political master and call a spade a spade.”

 “If the commission claims they are fair then this is one way of testing it. And I ask that my complaint be dealt with expeditiously,” he said.

 Maharaj added that he hoped the commission would launch an investigation to determine if Philbert abused his powers. He also threatened that if the Commission failed to take the necessary action, “we would have no choice but to sue.”

Trinidad Guardian, Sunday 5th October, 2008

Editorial on parliament: "Parliament must enlighten"

"As in the instance of the Woodford Square fiasco over the no-confidence motion, Prime Minister Manning is demonstrating his extreme irritation with criticism and his preparedness to do whatever it takes to get even with his enemies, both real and perceived. "

"It is too often the case that what should be an engaging, enlightening and uplifting debate in the House of Representatives on fundamental issues, such as the national budget, degenerates into personal attacks.
These attacks are sometimes against people not able to defend themselves with such freedom as the parliamentarians enjoy against mauvais langue and partisan party politics. 
The end result is blissful ignorance of the issues involved in the debate by the national community and the continuing slide in the credibility of the Parliament."

It is clear that both sides in the verbal duel between the Prime Minister and his former colleague, Dr Keith Rowley, must share some of the blame for the fact that much of the debate got side-tracked.

On Tuesday night, what Prime Minister Patrick Manning had to “reveal,” using what he described as documentary evidence, amounted in the instance of his contentions against his former colleague of 20 years, no more than weak circumstantial evidence of alleged corruption.

If the Prime Minister really thinks he has evidence of one of his ministers feeding at the public trough, why did he not place the matter in the hands of the investigating authorities to pursue?

Why engage the Parliament in such an unsubstantiated allegation and, more than that, why trade on a privileged position in the chamber to insinuate in such a manner—surely no one was fooled by his pretence of not making an allegation—without presenting the evidence?

Moreover, it stretches credibility for the Prime Minister to come months, perhaps even years, after an event involving, as he claims, $10 million of public funds gone missing, to “discover” it in a document that one has to assume was always available to him. This discovery is also an indictment of the scrutiny by Cabinet before approval is granted for the expenditure of large sums of taxpayers’ dollars.

How could Cabinet have allowed such a simple arithmetical error, as indicated by the Prime Minister, to get by it?

Is it that the Cabinet gives the green light to any document that comes before it without the appropriate scrutiny?

The Prime Minister is therefore demonstrating the shortcomings of his own administration more than supporting the possibility of alleged corruption by a former member of the Cabinet.

How many other instances of discrepancy and possible outright corruption have got past the Cabinet? That is a question that requires an answer from Mr Manning.

In the instance of the Prime Minister’s allegations against UNC MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar and her alleged links to a member of the Integrity Commission, here again is an instance of the potential commission of a crime as it is illegal for a member of the commission to engage in the business of the institution with others outside.

Armed with such information, as he claims he has, why has the Prime Minister not put the information in the hands of the police for further investigation? Why has he kept it to use as political ammunition against his opponents? 

Questions might also be raised about how the Prime Minister came upon the information about the alleged link between Mrs Persad-Bissessar and someone associated with the Integrity Commission. Is it that the country’s intelligence services were instructed to monitor the private activities of an Opposition MP and her association with the Integrity Commission, an institution that is supposed to be free of the taint of partisan politics?

Would it not have been the preferred course of action for the Prime Minister to pass on his suspicions to the chairman of the Integrity Commission for him to order the investigations required?

As in the instance of the Woodford Square fiasco over the no-confidence motion, Prime Minister Manning is demonstrating his extreme irritation with criticism and his preparedness to do whatever it takes to get even with his enemies, both real and perceived.
Editorial, Thur Oct 2nd, 2008

Rowley: Manning's boasting is not the PNM"s way!

Prime Minister Patrick Manning found himself at the receiving end, yesterday, of the political wrath of the minister he fired in April, Keith Rowley.

In fact, Rowley condemned the statement made by Manning, two weeks ago, in Woodford Square that "if the leader falls, all fall down." Manning made the statement while addressing scores of PNMites who journeyed from various constituencies to show support for Manning while the Opposition's no-confidence motion against him was being debated. But Rowley was not impressed.

"I took careful note of a comment by our Prime Minister last week Friday in Woodford Square, where he told the people gathered there among them the least fortunate of the country, Cepep and similar types all took careful note of the statement that "If the leader falls, all fall."

"That is not the PNM way, and it should never be like that!"

Rowley reflected on when his grandfather became a PNM supporter "because of the policies and programmes that Dr Eric Williams put in place , that converted me from a barefoot schoolboy in Mason Hall, creating the opportunity for mobility from the backwaters of a village to where I am in the Parliament of T&T."

"So PNM must not tell people that your future, your meal depends on me being in office. It can''t be that."

On the issue of inflation, "which has ballooned to 13.5 per cent," Rowley said it "bothered" him that government officials were discounting the issue as trivial.

"Approaching 10 per cent inflation and you get a comment from the top of the Government that the sky is not going to fall, it doesn't do anything for the confidence of those who hire you to do their jobs and it causes concern with people like me who are about to enter retirement.

"Because 15 per cent inflation is the biggest enemy to my quality of life and for the thousands of people in this country who live on fixed income," Rowley said.

Guardian, Tuesday 30th September, 2008

Privileges Committee to probe harassment of Opposition MPs

Parliament’s Privileges Committee will investigate alleged harassment of Opposition MPs by PNM supporters in Woodford Square, Port-of-Spain, on September 12, House Speaker Barendra Sinanan ruled yesterday.
Sinanan ruled in the Opposition’s favour on the matter during yesterday’s Lower House sitting. 

Two weeks ago, Opposition chief whip Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj wrote for the alleged harassment issue to be referred to the Privileges Committee. 

Sinanan said a prima facie case of breach of privilege had been made out by Maharaj on the issue and referred the matter to the Privileges Committee. 

Maharaj sought to make the case that one of the most basic privileges of MPs was infringed that day: the right to freely go to and come unhindered from the precincts of the Parliament. 

Sinanan said the House of Representatives Act prescribes a penalty of summary conviction for “any person who assaults, obstructs, molests or insults any member coming to, being within or going from the precincts of the House, or endeavours to compel any member by force, insult or menace to declare himself in favour of or against any proposition or matter pending or expected to be brought before the Hour or committee.” 

He noted that Maharaj claimed Opposition MPs were verbally abused, molested, insulted and even blocked by persons in Woodford Square. 

Sinanan said: “Although the Tabaquite MP did not provide any specific examples in raising this matter of privilege, if indeed MPs were in any way harassed, on their way to the precincts of this Parliament, then undeniably a breach of parliamentary privilege may have occurred.” (GA)

Guardian, Tuesday 30th September, 2008

A letter from a legendary writer - Merle Hodge on the PNM's rally

Every Trinbagonian child has had an encounter with the work of Merle Hodge. Her notorious book Crick, Crack Monkey is a permanent fixture in the childhood memories of people throughout our country. We were extremely happy to find a letter from Merle in the recent newspapers. Her letter brought tears of relief to our eyes. We no longer needed to write our commentary about the ridiculous behaviour of the PNM leaders on September 12th 2008 during the Motion of No Confidence against Prime Minister Patrick Manning, or our grief at the way the PNM continues to use and abuse those poor destitute Cepep and URP workers for their demented political whims. She eloquently said everything we wanted to convey, and so here is the letter by our legendary writer Merle Hodge. She truly is one of Trinidad's great thinkers, one of our great leaders.

Govt cannot be trusted after Friday’s PNM rally

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How can we ever again trust anything that comes out of the mouths of those who govern us? What confidence can we now place in their utterances? 

For days we had government ministers and high public officials looking us in the eye and denying that there was a mass event planned for Woodford Square, Port-of-Spain, on September 12. 

One minister swore blind that it was a “spontaneous” response from PNM supporters, angry that their leader was under attack. It was the same minister who swore blind for weeks that there was no dengue outbreak. 

How edifying this has been for our young people, especially the members of the PNM Youth League who might have been directly involved in the mobilisation taking place for three weeks before the event—the printing and distribution of jerseys, flags and banners; the expensive structures going up in Woodford Square; then on the day, the Prime Minister stepping out of the Parliament, wearing a Bible, to hype up the non-existent rally.

 How inspired our children must be when they match up all of this with the bare-faced denials of significant public figures.

 Officials in charge of giving permission for mass public demonstrations, and for the use of Woodford Square, could not remember any application for a PNM rally to be held in the square that day.

 So now any group can spontaneously do its thing in the square, on any day of the year, including Fridays when Parliament is sitting, without asking anybody’s permission. If the ruling party could break the law, who is we?

 Then the Cepep and URP workers who, innocently, in front of television cameras, spoke the truth—that they had been ordered to come to the square, and would be paid for the day.

 No wonder the Government is not interested in any ideas about developing sustainable employment.

Unstable, off-and-on employment, doled out as patronage, allows you to keep people on a short tether, beholden to you for their precarious livelihood.

Then you can call them up whenever you need a show of force to deal with those who don’t agree with you. This is the way to build a private army of potential Tonton (and Tantan) Macoutes.

 Nobody won in that vote of confidence exercise.

 The opposition lost, as it fully expected to, inside the Parliament.

 Across the road, with the spectacle in the square after days of strong denial, the ruling party lost the respect of even more citizens, including some PNM supporters.

 But the biggest loser is the country. The “little rivers” spoken of by ANR Robinson have become a mighty dirty flood, and we are drowning in it, sinking lower and lower.

 Merle Hodge, St Augustine

Manning on Motion of No Confidence - "Tell them leave me alone"

"Referring to the Opposition in a fighting mood (The Prime Minister didn't care to give any truthful contribution to the debate, instead choosing to assemble an army in the Square, deflect any questions aimed at his performance by instead referring to the UNC administration from almost 7 years ago and generally carrying on like a circus clown while perform his war speech) in Woodford Square in Port-of-Spain yesterday afternoon, Prime Minister Patrick Manning told hundreds of his supporters, “Tell them leave me alone.”

Answering the accusation of nepotism  on the basis of appointing his wife to the Cabinet, the Prime Minister pointed to the presence on the opposition side of the House of three Pandays. Incredibly, and unbecomingly, he failed to note that, unlike Mrs Hazel Manning, all three Pandays had individually contested and won election to Parliament."  - The Trinidad Guardian - September 13th, 2008.

Patrick Manning appointed his wife Hazel as Minister of Education after the 2001 election (and during the debate justified this by tallying up the last names of the opposition members, all of whom were fairly elected in a democratic manner). Nepotism in politics occurs when the relative of a powerful figure ascends to similar power seemingly without appropriate qualifications.

When Manning says "Tell them leave me alone" is he implying that we ordinary citizens have no right whatsoever to dare ask him for some accountability? Is our government turning into a dictatorship? Wait a minute, is he (or his army of supporters).... threatening us? 

 The people of Trinidad and Tobago desperately want some answers, Mr. Prime Minister, answers to a few questions about corruption in your administration, to "charges of failure to perform, maladministration, lack of transparency and questionable dealings" and maybe some information on how you plan to fix our country's inflation, crime and education problems. We are not a nation of idiots and we would like some truthful and intelligent answers.

We were aware that the motion of no confidence was not guaranteed to remove the Prime Minister because of the obvious reason that his ruling PNM party has 26 of the 41 seats in the House of Representatives (won with 299,813 votes) while the UNC-A only has 15 seats (won with 194,425 votes, while the COP won not a single seat but received 148,041 votes).