Former Justice Minister Herbert Volney and calypsonian Crazy (Edwin Ayoung) have teamed up on the eccentric bard's new song, The Fall Guy, based on the Section 34 controversy. The calypso will be launched at street parang fiesta, entitled Section 34, at 7 pm today, outside Volney's Mt Lambert constituency office.
Volney is hoping the composition will take Crazy all the way to the Calypso Monarch finals. "I have a part in the tune," he said, "In fact, we collaborated. He did the lyrics and I just spoke in the tune. His chorus is 'I proclaim it, Aye Aye, I proclaim it.' "The theme of the calypso is that I have nothing to be ashamed of over Section 34, its enactment and its proclamation. Who vex, 'lorse'. That is exactly how I feel, of course," said Volney.
The former minister has been working on today's event for the past few weeks. Since his dismissal in September, he said, he has been busy in his constituency office. "Well, I am a full Member of Parliament. My time is currently being spent on the ground in my constituency like never before, and I am seeing first-hand what it is like to be a true Member of Parliament," he said.
With the loss of his monthly income as a member of the cabinet, Volney said an MP's salary cannot really sustain his livelihood. Luckily for him, he receives a monthly allowance from his judicial pension plan after serving as a judge for 16 years, to add to the $15,000 salary he is paid as MP for St Joseph.
Volney was dismissed by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar for allegedly misleading the Parliament into believing that all consultations on the controversial Section 34 of the Adminstration of Justice (Indictable Proceedings) Act had been completed before it was proclaimed. When asked in an interview yesterday if his MP's salary was sufficient to support his needs, he said: "No! It is not, but fortunately I have a judge's pension.
I earned my judge's pension after working for 16 and a half years, and I don't maintain an affluent lifestyle. I live very humbly and I am able to get by." Although he is not ashamed, Volney said he was hard-hit by his dismissal, as the Legal Profession Act 1986 prohibits a former permanent judge from practising for ten years after retirement.
However, he boasted that he is a resourceful man and has other options. "I am unemployable as an attorney but I can give legal advice. As far as I know, I can be legal adviser or legal consultant. I am still a lawyer by training but at this time I am fully employed in the service of the people of my St Joseph constituency. I could leave the country, but I don't think I can leave at this age when I have so much to offer.
"I am a very resourceful man and I am useful, not just locally. I offer services for criminal-justice transformation and creating strategic alliances, and it is available, but of course, at a price." But as Volney now calls on Persad-Bissessar to reinstate him to his ministerial portfolio, he said the person who erred in the passing of Section 34 was Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard, who he said was guilty of malfeasance.
Volney said disciplinary action should be taken against Gaspard, starting with his being censured in Parliament.
"Any inaction you see, when you have a duty to act, and you don't, that to me is malfeasance. It is in that context that word is used, especially when you have a constitutional duty to safeguard public interest prosecutions, and in this particular case he knew the Piarco Airport public-interest prosecution would have been in jeopardy, unknown to me and the Attorney General.
"Rather than raise the red flag before it was late, he kept silent and opened his mouth after actions were filed or it was proclaimed. "I think first he should be censured in Parliament and then I'll think of it, as a Member of Parliament, and then see how it could be done constitutionally," said Volney.