Interview- Paray: Internal Elections a Chance to Hit Reset Button

Caption: Rushton Paray. AZP News/Azlan Mohammed

By Prior Beharry

THE deputy political leader hopeful in the upcoming national executive elections for the United National Congress (UNC) Rushton Paray sits in the head office of his slate called the United Patriots along the Southern Main Road in Couva on Tuesday.

It is opposite to the former headquarters of his party, “above a Chinese restaurant” he quipped. And a stone’s throw away from Rienzi Complex, the original headquarters of the UNC. Paray said he chose the building because it was good location and affordable price.

He sat down with AZP News to tell me why he has decided to throw his hat in the ring for the June 15 internal elections of the UNC.

At 53 years old, Paray is a successful businessman, running four businesses and educating his three daughters – one is a pharmacist, another qualified in actuarial sciences and the other in university in Canada. Paray’s wife Nelisha is in the office as well helping staff. She was also his driver bringing him all the way from Mayaro in their Prado.

He grew up in the Mayaro area, Guayaguayare Main Road to be exact. His paternal grandfather, a contractor, had left Fyzabad in the 1950s and went to live in Guayaguayare to build roads.

Paray described his grandfather as “a little road contractor” who used the $100 he moved from Fyzabad with to open a small parlour in the house he rented.

He said, “And while he went to build roads, his four children ran this little business and we grew up in this business.”

Paray added, “So I grew up in a home with strong powerful women who instilled… a good work ethic in terms of who you become today.”

In terns of religion, he said his father, Homer, a retired police officer, had a Presbyterian background and his mother Basdaye was staunch Hindu.

But there were no temples in Guayaguayare and his mother wanted her children to have strong religious moorings.

Paray said, “In Guayaguayare where we grew up there were no temples so my mother understanding the importance of a strong spiritual mooring dressed up Vashti (his eldest sister) and I, put a Bible in we hand and we walk up the road to the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

“So for three or four years, we went to the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, you know, we went to Sunday school and then eventually you go to a Catholic primary school and went on Anglican secondary school.”

He attended St Thomas RC Primary School and St Stephen’s College in Princes Town.

His family’s parlour was at the 94 Mille Mark along main road in Guayaguayare not far from Galeota Point where Amaco, before it was taken over by BP, was leading the oil boom with its flagship Teak, Samaan and Poui fields development.

In the 1970s and mid-1980s, Amoco was in full swing at Galeota Point. Amoco workers and many people in the village visited the parlour which was a focal meeting place.

Paray said, “The shop was about five minutes walk from Galeota so it was the height of all that activity of the boom.”

He completed A Levels and wanted to matriculate in law, but didn’t have the straight As that was needed in those days.

He then did some computer courses in CATV Design, Wireless Network Design and Fibre Optical CATV Design and Installation and Paray had established his company Computer Technologies and Services Limited and was doing mainly training.

He had his eye on the Information Technology (IT) industry and at the age of 19 he joined the Lions Club and met people working in computers at Amoco including a manager called Mel Tretheart.

Paray told Tretheart that he had some training in IT, he was living in Mayaro and as a young businessman wanted the opportunity to do something.

He said he sent a handwritten letter to Threatheart and three months later he was invited to a meeting at Amoco’s head office in Port of Spain.

Paray borrowed a pager and cellphone “to look professional” and went to the Tatil building where he was asked to write a proposal to clean, service and maintain 400 computers that were coming off warranty.

He said, “I was disappointed. I came back home and weeks later I did not write the proposal until one morning my mother asked me what happened to the meeting in Port of Spain. I said Ma, these people want me to take a piece of cloth and Mr Sheen and wipe down computer.”

He was about 23 years old and his mother “cracked me a lash across my back and told me, ‘if people want you to sweep the floor go. Get your feet in the door.'”

Paray then wrote the proposal and secured a $14,000 a month contract but while fulfilling the terms he and team would assist with issues that people were having with their computers.

He said, “Because of the management of the five boys who were there with me we instilled the confidence in the staff and we were given new work and extension with larger scopes.

“I am still there after 30 years.”

He said in the early days they were directly employed by Amoco/BpTT, but due to Globalisation, partnering is now the key business model and over the years they have partnered with Infosys,Magnaquest and today with Hindustan Computers Limited (HCL).

Paray said they also began to work with other energy companies.

He said his company was now working for BP through HCL and does first and second-level programing, application development and what he describes as “mundane stuff” such as changing a mouse and keyboard. Paray said his contract of $14,000 a month was the foundation for his current business of $15 million to $20 million annually.

By 2014, Paray, was the head of the Mayaro Chamber of Business and Development, but he said he always had an interest in politics.

He acquired an interest in politics on the night of December 15, 1986, at the age of 16, when for the first time the Peoples National Movement (PNM) was defeated in a general elections in Trinidad and Tobago. The National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) created history by the largest margin of victory ever 33 seats to the PNM’s three.

Paray said he was listening to the radio playing Bruce Hornsy and the Range’s The Way It Is with the lyrics “Some things’ll never change/That’s just the way it is/Ah, but don’t you believe them.” The song was interrupted to announce that PNM had lost.

He said that night there was celebration at his home because his mother always supported the opposition no matter its incarnation. Since then, Paray said he has been involved in local government assisting in whatever way he can.

But was he ever a member of the PNM?

“Never, Never, Never,” he said.

He was asked about it at the UNC screening committee for the 2015 general elections.

Paray became the candidate and successfully took over as the MP for Mayaro from Winston “Gypsy” Peters who had fallen out with UNC political leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar and who became a member of the PNM and was now National Carnival Commission chairman. Paray has won two consecutive terms as Mayaro MP for the UNC in 2015 and 2020.

He said the government benches also alluded to him being a party member until he asked former PNM Mayaro MP the late Franklin Khan to provide any document that showed he was as PNM. He said that talked stopped immediately.

Paray said members of his party raised the issue again this year when he began to make queries and raise different views and “the UNC made PNM propaganda its propaganda.”

And of the allegation made by Persad-Bissessar that he was a financier of the PNM, Paray said, “Well I don’t know if supplying five cases of water and 25 box lunches if that is what financing is, I don’t know.” He said he has supplied these things for anyone who came to him in support of any social service.

Paray said, “I will have a hundred NGOs (ask for help), up to today a school reached out to me and say Paray we have sports day coming we looking for some medals and trophies.”

He said through his MP’s office he has made presentations to every SEA student for the past nine years and that has been funded by his company. Paray said he gives out 700 trophies each year.

What has happened from 2020 to now to make him want to doubt the leadership of the UNC?

He said, “So over a year ago, I was called to some very small meetings amongst activists that I know (who) said, ‘Paray, we can’t keep going like this. We are not going to beat PNM. There’s a number of issues in the party. That needs to be addressed. So I would ask if you have spoken to your regional coordinators because every constituency have regional coordinators. Nobody knows. I said have you spoken to your MPs. They say yeah, we talking but nobody listening.”

Paray said this happened at various places in Trinidad and they were “very friendly conversations.”

He said he kept getting invited to more meetings because people told him that he seemed to be the only man listening.

Paray said people came to his constituency office from all over the country asking for assistance to get houses and access to social services.

He said these people told him that he was well known and that’s why they came and he doesn’t refuse anyone.

Paray said, “For months, I started to send messages to the political leader, on WhatsApp casual conversation… And we’re responding back and forth and say boss, I call her boss, and I say we in trouble.”

He said he told Persad-Bissessar, “The membership of the party is having concerns and I believe that if the leadership of the party don’t address these things we are not going to have the kind of support that you want to win an election.”

Paray said the concerns included that the party was not listening, convulsions about the selections of candidates at local government level and constituency executives not working.

But would this happen in any organisation where all people would never be happy with the choices leaders make?

He said, “I can’t be inside the people’s mind. I could just report what they’ve said it is up to the leadership of the party to meet with them and quell those concerns. That’s not my job at that time. My job is that a number of things have come to me and I have been asked to bring it to the leader’s attention.” He said he raised the concerns about November last year and he started to receive “cryptic” responses like “okay”, “k”, “yes”, and “no”.

He said, “So my conversation was that there was a national executive election that was going to come and all of you have a right to use the electoral process to determine whether you want them yes or no.”

In about February, Paray said, “And all of a sudden there’s a conversation in the party that were not having no election because a general election was coming.”

Where did that narrative come from?

He said, “Well, it’s been fueling from inside the party, whoever saying it.”

Told that Persad-Bissessar, as political leader had called national executive elections six times all within the stipulated time of the party’s constitution, Paray said, “Well, there have been several, several conversations on political platforms where the focus is on general elections. There was even a recording circulated by one of my colleagues where he says it won’t have no election”

He refused to give the name of his colleague. “There’s a recording asks Victor Roberts.”

Paray said, “Remember the membership is hearing these things.”

So because of that he and his four colleagues – Dinesh Rambally, Anita Haynes-Alleyne, Rodney Charles and Dr Rai Ragbir – began to call internal elections?

He said, “Yes, well, obviously, what do I tell the membership. I said, well look you need to call it out. If the membership election is what is there to give you the members, the shareholders of the party, a chance to hit reset and if this group of people not working for you, put a new team.”

Asked if by doing that he was on a collision course with the leadership of the UNC?

Paray said, “I don’t understand what (is) the collision course, we have an election before us. Nothing that I asked for… eventually happened so I don’t see where there’s no collision course. An election was called and the due process is happening. So I don’t see there was a collision course.

“But you see, culturally in political parties more so probably in the UNC, there’s an expectation of an air war that we must be arguing with one another. I haven’t done that. I made that statement. I have some colleagues of mine who are willing to support, a few of them came out and said yes, we in the right and I have not created a space where the vehicle called the UNC has been damaged because I haven’t responded because I will not respond to foolishness because I’m not going to give life to foolishness. I say the people of Mayaro know me.

“The constituency of Mayaro knows the work, you have been privy, every Monday morning  I send out news releases of the work that we’re doing in Mayaro.”

Did he know that in this UNC national executive elections, the position of political leader was not up for grabs?

Paray replied, “No. From the first day I made the statement, the only window I know was open was the Natex. The day I made the call, I never called for leadership. I never called for Mrs Persad-Bissessar to hand over anybody anything. There was a national executive election that was due and all we ask is that the membership be given the right to cast their vote to make a decision on who they want to take them to 2025.”

So was it a faux pas to call for a Natex election when the leadership position was not up for grabs?

He said, “No, no, the framers of the Constitution created a difference in the time gap between your Natex and your leadership because your leader is accountable to your executive. So they never wanted the leadership and the Natex election to be the same.

“But Mrs Persad-Bissessar has allowed it to happen via congresses in the last two elections to superimpose one over the other.

“Now whether that was going to happen this time or not was irrelevant to me because the issue here is that complaints were made. I raised the matters. It went so far that I wrote her a nine-page document when she didn’t have the time to talk to me on a particular evening, we had some clashes with time and I said boss, let me write it for you. I will document all the concerns and you have time to digest it and we will talk about it after. She said no problem MP. After I submitted that all communications, ended.”

That was about the middle of March.

Asked if he was eyeing the political leadership of the UNC, Paray said, “Political leadership is not a job you apply for like a work. It’s not a resume that you submit whenever a vacancy comes. Right now, there’s no vacancy.

“Whenever a vacancy comes up very member of the party has the right, the fundamental constitutional right to offer themselves for service.

“It is up to you to tell the membership why I must be considered. And it is the membership that makes that decision and I’ve maintained that. Paray could want anything in the world and unless the membership doesn’t want it Paray will have nothing. And that’s the fact and I’ve maintained that from day one.”

DPL contender and Oropouche MP, Dr Roodal Moonilal has said that one of the roles of the three deputies is to support the political leader and that Paray was not doing that.

The Mayaro MP responded, “He’s fundamentally wrong. That is foolishness. The role of your Natex is to keep your leaders accountable. So for instance, we on a submarine or you’re on a boat, you have a captain of the boat, but you have what you call an EO (executive office). What is the function of the EO, not to support the captain. But the XO has the right to tell the captain stand down, you’re doing foolishness.

“So when you have the framers of the constitution took a different life cycle for both; there was a reason for that. They didn’t want a leader of the political party to have undue influence over a Natex.

“And when you go and you stand and you endorse a slate what you really telling the people is that this is the crew I am working with and they now become subservient to the leader. That can’t be right for democracy.”

Is he in cahoots with Mickela Panday and the PNM to help bring down the UNC?

Paray said, “The only people I am in cahoots with are my wife and my three children when I have to tell them why I am doing this.

“We selected a name that had nothing to do with Ms Panday, has nothing to do with the PNM and it is really wishful thinking and I don’t know, I like to use the word foolish. Because that’s all I mean, it is the gentlest warmest word that I can use to determine how some of these people think and talk… because  nobody owns the word ‘patriot’.

“Mr Panday used the word Patriot in his slate in 2010. We deliberately chose to use the symbol of the clasp hands because we felt that we’ve lost the moorings of the party.”

Is he going to help the UNC campaign for the two local government bye elections to be held on June 17, a couple of days after the Natex one, Paray said, “Right now everybody is assisting.”

And how? “Well, I ain’t telling nobody not to vote.” He said it was “a fundamental flaw” to have the Natex elections two days before the bye elections.

Paray said, “And we raised it and somehow they realise there is a problem because I raised the matter first… when you come to vote Saturday in the national executive election and you put your fingers in ink and Monday morning you go to vote and a little bit of ink end up under your finger nail… and when the EBC man tell you, you can’t vote, what happens then?”

He said the Natex election would now involve a stamp on the hand of the voter and described that as foolish thinking.

Does he have confidence in the UNC Elections Management Committee headed by attorney Darrell Allahar? Paray said he had no reason to doubt that it wouldn’t be fair.

He said, “I have no reason as of today, to doubt the work that Mr Allahar and what they are doing. I don’t know Mr Allah personally, I know he was my attorney during the elections in 2015, he would have signed up all our papers and so on.

Was Paray one of the three MPs who spoilt their ballot when the electoral college voted for a new president last year?

He said, “Absolutely not… another foolish thought as well. So they say I think was three ballots. Six (UNC) senators voted, so on what grounds was it fundamentally to say well three MPs spoilt their vote. Six senators voted where is the evidence of that? So again foolishness.”

What is the strategy of the United Patriots campaign? Would it be meetings, walkabouts etc?

Paray said, “Whatever it takes to bring out the voters on the morning. This is an internal election is not about an air war, it’s not about a Facebook war, it is not about a media headline war. It is about going to the membership and telling them what it is that you’re going to bring so I not going to the membership and telling them what you going to bring.

“So I am not going to the membership at a meeting and arguing my colleagues’ foolishness last night,  that is wasting them time, it is wasting my time.”

He said his campaign had five fundamental issues including dealing with the flaws in the constitution of the party; strengthening of the institution; bringing the membership closer to the bosom of the leadership; increasing the gravitational pull of the party to improve attractiveness; and finding a home to transform the UNC into a political institution.

Paray said some of the membership were claiming that councillors were being asked to spend $4,000 to bring out supporters for Monday night meetings of the party.

Asked if this wasn’t part of the cut and thrust of politics, he said, “Well, I don’t know. Even if it is the cut and trust, is people money you spending. Are these people feeling empowered when we do that or not? “

Has he carried people in maxis to the Monday night meetings, Paray said, “Absolutely not. Because I telling you (we) have meetings, I go and I encourage as much people to go.

“I spend money behind constituency projects. And Prior, you are part, you are part of my notifications. Every Monday morning twice for the weekend you get a notification of the work we doing inside here and we can’t go and beg people for money.

“Thankfully, I run four businesses and I use the resources of my businesses. I use the resource of my business at the end of the day…

“I respect my membership in Mayaro. I respect them. I do a lot of social programmes with them and a lot of social events because I can’t tell them (Prime Minister Dr Keith) Rowley wicked. They know that.

“I can’t I tell them Rowley bad and the country collapsing they know that so what do we do? We do family days, we do sports days, we had a wonderful recognition programme in December where we recognise about nine stalwarts of the party, some of them have linkages to the DLP, the ULF.”

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