Kali­fa Clyne

In­de­pen­dent Lib­er­al Par­ty (ILP) leader Jack Warn­er has filed the same mo­tion in Par­lia­ment twice, call­ing on the House to re­scind the sus­pen­sion of Op­po­si­tion Leader and MP for Diego Mar­tin West Dr Kei­th Row­ley.

Dur­ing a press con­fer­ence at the ILP's Ed­ward Street, Port-of-Spain of­fice yes­ter­day, Warn­er said he filed the mo­tion for de­bate at the next avail­able sit­ting of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, sched­uled for to­day.

He said he an­tic­i­pat­ed that the Speak­er would re­ject the mo­tion and would again file the mo­tion to be de­bat­ed on Pri­vate Mem­bers Day, which is held on the fourth Fri­day of every month. This would mean de­bate on Warn­er's mo­tion could take place on May 29 if it is re­ject­ed to­day.

Warn­er, who said he had filed the mo­tions with­out the knowl­edge of the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment, said Row­ley's sus­pen­sion was un­just.

He said the state­ment is­sued by Deputy Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP) Joan Hon­ore-Paul, which said the po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tion was still open, was proof that the Gov­ern­ment had mis­led the pub­lic. He said Gov­ern­ment had led the pub­lic to be­lieve that the in­ves­ti­ga­tion was closed and called it the clear­est case of po­lit­i­cal des­per­a­tion by a gov­ern­ment.

"This has to be re­solved in the Par­lia­ment and the on­ly peo­ple to do it is the ILP," Warn­er said, adding that the ILP would rep­re­sent the peo­ple while the Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion con­tin­ued to fight.

"If ever there was any doubt of the need for a third par­ty, that doubt should not ex­ist. A third par­ty, like the ILP, is need­ed to bring to the at­ten­tion of the cit­i­zens mat­ters of this na­ture.

"In this sit­u­a­tion, when the Gov­ern­ment and the Op­po­si­tion PNM are at war, the voice and con­cerns of the peo­ple are be­ing rep­re­sent­ed in and out of the Par­lia­ment by the third par­ty, the ILP." He said the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion, where the Op­po­si­tion Leader was sus­pend­ed from Par­lia­ment, showed that the third par­ty was need­ed so the Gov­ern­ment would not re­main unchecked.

"With a three-par­ty sys­tem, where no one has the ma­jor­i­ty, gov­er­nance and ac­count­abil­i­ty can reign."

Warn­er said there was now no doubt the Gov­ern­ment de­lib­er­ate­ly mis­led the Par­lia­ment and the pub­lic."What they have done can eas­i­ly be de­scribed as the most barefaced pre­var­i­ca­tion known in our democ­ra­cy and de­serv­ing of the high­est con­dem­na­tion from the peo­ple of this coun­try," he said.

He said peo­ple were still de­mand­ing bet­ter and hon­est lead­er­ship from the Gov­ern­ment, "even in its last days." He said, how­ev­er, that hon­esty in the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship Gov­ern­ment was the best kept se­cret. The ILP, he said, had an oblig­a­tion to re­ject the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship Gov­ern­ment even be­fore the elec­tion date was an­nounced.

"We re­ject what they stand for. Every com­mu­ni­ty, school, work­place, cit­i­zens must use this op­por­tu­ni­ty by elect­ing a gov­ern­ment to set new stan­dards be­tween the Gov­ern­ment and the gov­erned."