By Sue-Ann Wayow
THE Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) and the Director of the Public Prosecutions (DPP) are being called upon to thoroughly investigate all allegations of bribery involving political parties.
The call comes from political leader of the United National Congress (UNC) Kamla Persad-Bissessar who said she felt “shocking and chilling” when she read a newspaper report that a former UNC member had a cheque with his name on it for $.5 million to join the People’s National Movement (PNM).
Speaking at the UNC Monday night forum in Couva, Persad-Bissessar referred to an article in the Sunday Express which reported that Kaveesh Siewdal, former head of the UNC youth arm, received a cheque of $550,000 from a private company, a cheque that was rescinded.
She said, “Tonight I call upon the police, I call upon the DPP to launch an immediate investigation into what appears to be a criminal conspiracy, bribery and corruption scandal.”
Persad-Bissessar said the PNM was now a laughing stock for the population, having insulted its own supporters by allegedly being involved in the bribe.
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and political leader of the PNM had warmly welcomed Siewdal to the party along with Minister of Agriculture Kazim Hosein and Energy Minister Stuart Young. The photograph with the men were also shown in the Express.
Persad-Bissessar said, “This is where the PNM have taken our politics. They have taken politics from policy to bribery.”
She added, “They could run but they cannot hide.”
Referring to the biblical person who betrayed Jesus, Judas, one of his disciples, Persad-Bissessar said nobody wants to name their child Judas but “once a Judas, always a Judas,” and “Judases” do not end well.
Pictured with Hosein at what she said seemed to be a private meeting, she also called on Hosein to reveal the contents of a purported meeting with Siewdal.
Persad-Bissessar told supporters, “This must send a chill up your spine, all of us in this country when a party which boasts of being the oldest political party in T&T, they have collapsed into paying bribes to get support… It still cannot help him (Dr Rowley).”
She asked, “What was Rowley thinking to pay half a million dollars to a defector? Why are they humiliating their own supporters with this type of behaviour?”
Loyal PNM supporters received a “ten days” job while taking away laptops, received funding for tertiary education but could find $.5 million to “pay a bribe to a Judas,” the Opposition Leader said.
She said, “The entire PNM hierarchy is in total chaos. The loyal PNM supporters are enraged by this act by paying this low-level functionary over half a million dollars when the small requests of their own supporters you turn a blind eye.”
Persad-Bissessar also said that a PNM Member of Parliament told her they along with other MPS were now ashamed.
“They were even more ashamed of the pathetic nature of PNM’s response to the scandal.”
She mentioned another cheque being circulating on social media with her name on it.
Persad-Bissessar said she got no such cheque and it was a fake one, written by some-one trying to tarnish her name.
“They can’t buy me. I don’t have any cheque from anybody,” she stated.
Persad-Bissessar also claimed, “Money for bribes are also being facilitated through contractors working on Government projects and some of those contractors are fed up of the extortion by the government to get money and they are desperate because they want to get paid.”
She claimed that the contractors have been going to the UNC asking the party to expose what the PNM was doing
“We shall expose you, not one shall escape,” Persad-Bissessar vowed.
