By Prior Beharry
PRIME Minister Dr Keith Rowley has dismissed as lies, the claim by Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar that members of her party have been persecuted by the People’s National Movement for years.
Making reference to the airport corruption case that was discontinued against a former United National Congress (UNC) prime minister, his wife, a former minister and businessman, Rowley said Persad-Bissessar lied on him.
Dr Rowley said while they do get information from the police, the government can neither tell the police release a person or tell a magistrate what sentence to give to a convicted person.
He said,”So I was quite galled when on Monday night a former prime minister, current Opposition Leader speaking from a public platform in this country could tell the world that people who pass through the judicial process and under due process, they were made to answer up to a point, allegations made to them and the law, the Constitution kicked in and the matter was discontinued.”
“And the former prime minister and the Opposition Leader went on a tirade to tell the world that all those matters in Piarco airport and those people who got into difficulty there it was the PNM that was going after people for political reasons and we suffer people and la la la…”
He said he had a duty as leader of the country to set the record straight so that all and sundry would know that the behaviour of the opposition leader was nothing more than a lie.
Dr Rowley said he would made no comment on that Piarco case as an office holder in Trinidad and Tobago.
The Piarco International Airport corruption case against Panday, his wife Oma, former government minister Carlos John and businessman Ishwar Galbaransingh was discontinued following advice from Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard, SC on Monday.
On Monday, Persad-Bissessar said, “The case was never meant to succeed in court. Instead, all it was meant to do was drag out as long as possible to have the UNC seem as corrupt people,” she said.
She said, “They (PNM) will come again. The Emailgate fabrications exposed today. When Panday was there they came with the Airport corruption scandal, case collapsed today. And more to come. The Piarco cases from the Panday era, it has played out year after year, decade after decade on PNM political platform to smear and scandalise and slander the UNC.”
On Thursday, Dr Rowley said T&T was on the verge of not getting valuable assistance from the US.
He said when he was opposition leader a foreign mission officer asked to see him after a murder had the nation traumatized.
Dr Rowley said the diplomatic told him this was not the first time that they had reason to be concerned about an individual. He did not elaborate.
He said more recently, in a meeting at the request of the US Government he was told about a law that stated that if in a country the police were carrying out extra-judicial killings, then that country will be forbidden from receiving assistance from the US on matters of national security.
Dr Rowley said, “And something happened in T&T for the (US) government to want to see me to tell me that as a result of certain developments in the public domain in T&T, and known to them in the private domain, T&T is now on the verge of not getting assistance, very valuable assistance from the US.”
He said, “So when a former government minister of the UNC comes out and tells the world on what was going on in the UNC on the matter of human trafficking, giving personal experience backed up by another one and the leader of that party is so panicked by that disgrace, she being a woman leading that party, no wonder she gone berzerk.
Quoting a Tobago saying, the prime minister said, “If alligator come out a river and tell you water dirty, no doubt am.”
Dr Rowley, “So when the leader is faced in front the whole country, with members of your Cabinet pointing to members of your selection who you put inside the Parliament – and that now stains the country, because the Americans have put in a report for the whole world to read that T&T there are people in the Parliament who either have been or are engaged in human trafficking, the shame would make you say and talk anything. If I was leading that party, nobody like that could be a dogcatcher, far less to be a parliamentarian.
“We in the PNM can tell you without fear of contradiction that we are different. That can’t happen in the PNM.”
