Senior Reporter
kay-marie.fletcher@guardian.co.tt
Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) Dr Rai Ragbir is being told only he can decide where he stands in the United National Congress (UNC).
This is the word from Opposition Chief Whip David Lee, who said yesterday that Ragbir’s decision to vote against the party on the whistleblower protection bill was completely unexpected and out of character.
However, even while Lee made the claim, Ragbir has been booted out of the party’s Parliament WhatsApp chat group.
Despite this, Ragbir remains grounded in his decisions, saying his primary reason for voting in favour of the bill was “the numerous concerns expressed by his constituents”.
Speaking via telephone yesterday, Lee stressed that Ragbir had ample time to express any concerns about the bill before voting but chose not to do so.
He said, “This whistleblower legislation has been around long time. MP Ragbir has all the information, all the legal research that we had done as a party on the whistleblower legislation. He had all of that. Even the week before, when the bill was being debated, MP Ragbir never informed me that he wanted to speak or had a view on the bill.
“There was ample opportunity if MP Ragbir wanted to speak on the bill because he had some issues with the bill or he wanted to lay out some sort of pathway of how he wanted to vote or what his views were on the bill. He could have gotten up at any point in time and debated the bill, so that is why I was even more surprised because this is not the characteristic of MP Rai... It is not to say that he was not aware of how the voting was going.”
Also responding to Ragbir’s claims no caucus was held in relation to the whistleblower legislation, Lee said, “No one needs to be invited” as it is customary and their parliamentary privilege to meet in the “caucus room” as he calls it for discussions prior to each sitting.
He added that Ragbir had also stopped coming into the caucus chamber since the party’s internal elections.
Caucus meeting aside, Lee said after he voted, the three MPs who voted after him all voted against the bill, so that in itself was a clear indication of the party’s view on the bill.
These included MPs Rodney Charles, Rushton Paray and Dinesh Rambally, all of whom made the choice to be united once more following the party’s internal elections.
While Ragbir has not been expelled from the party, he was kicked out of several UNC WhatsApp groups as a result of last Friday’s vote. Lee said after breaking ranks on Friday, he felt the need to remove him.
Lee said, “I, as the Chief Whip, have a WhatsApp group in parliament and I removed him from that WhatsApp group. I personally as the Chief Whip felt like he had broken ranks without any good reason, so it is my information group, my WhatsApp group where I communicate with parliamentary colleagues during the parliament sitting. That is what it is used for and I removed him.”
Although no one knows his next move, Ragbir will have his day before the party’s 12-member disciplinary team.
Opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has assured that Ragbir will be given due process. He will also be able to have legal representation when he appears before the disciplinary team.
However, in a release on Tuesday, Ragbir called out the committee, claiming it was “long defunct” before it sprung into action to deal with his vote on the bill.
Asked if he believed Ragbir will get a fair hearing from the committee, Lee replied, “I think so. I don’t see why not. The disciplinary committee is a sort of an independent committee that was chosen among the membership at the last congress so it is a disciplinary committee made up of his peers.”