Move­ment for So­cial Jus­tice leader David Ab­du­lah says that nei­ther Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, nor her Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress, can ex­tri­cate them­selves from the po­lit­i­cal reper­cus­sions caused by the charges brought against for­mer at­tor­ney gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan, SC and UNC sen­a­tor Ger­ald Ramdeen.

Speak­ing at the MSJ’s head of­fice in St Joseph Vil­lage, San Fer­nan­do on Sun­day, Ab­du­lah said it was not a mat­ter of Ram­lo­gan and Ramdeen’s in­no­cence or guilt, but that Per­sad-Biss­esar at­tempt­ed to dis­tance her­self from the predica­ment.

Fol­low­ing the ar­rests of Ram­lo­gan and Ramdeen on Wednes­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar was asked if they rep­re­sent­ed an in­dict­ment of her gov­ern­ment. Her re­sponse was: “Not at all. I al­ways re­mem­ber some­thing that my for­mer leader told me. He said Je­sus Christ had 12 dis­ci­ples and at the end of the day, al­most all of them be­trayed him."

But Ab­du­lah re­called that dur­ing a po­lit­i­cal ral­ly of the Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship on the eve of the gen­er­al elec­tion in 2010, he warned Per­sad-Bisses­sar against ap­point­ing Ram­lo­gan as the at­tor­ney gen­er­al, but she de­fend­ed him. Again in 2012 with the pass­ing of the con­tro­ver­sial Ad­min­is­tra­tion of Jus­tice Act (In­dictable Pro­ceed­ings), known fa­mous­ly as Sec­tion 34, he said Per­sad-Bisses­sar fired then jus­tice min­is­ter Her­bert Vol­ney for mis­lead­ing the Par­lia­ment. He said Ram­lo­gan was equal­ly cul­pa­ble and a co­gent case was made for his dis­missal. Ram­lo­gan was even­tu­al­ly fired from the Cab­i­net in 2015 af­ter charges of wit­ness tam­per­ing were brought against him.

“We are not now pass­ing judge­ment on Mr Ram­lo­gan. What we are say­ing is that Mr Ram­lo­gan was the choice of Mrs Per­sad-Bisses­sar for at­tor­ney gen­er­al, even against the par­tic­u­lar ad­vice I gave her. She will de­ny it, I’m sure. That is her right…She stood by her at­tor­ney gen­er­al through thick and thin over Sec­tion 34 and all the al­le­ga­tions and 'town say' talk that was go­ing around dur­ing his pe­ri­od as at­tor­ney gen­er­al.

"There­fore, she can­not, to­day, ex­tri­cate her­self from Mr Ram­lo­gan and what­ev­er may hap­pen to him lat­er on. I’m not sug­gest­ing that he is guilty of any­thing…I am speak­ing in po­lit­i­cal terms,” Ab­du­lah said.

He said that Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so had no clear po­si­tion on how she deals with MPs and Sen­a­tors who are ac­cused of crimes. She has not re­moved Ramdeen as an Op­po­si­tion sen­a­tor. Ab­du­lah re­called that when for­mer ju­nior na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter Col­in Par­tap was charged for re­fus­ing a breath­a­lyz­er test, she dis­missed him from that po­si­tion even be­fore that mat­ter was brought to the court. How­ev­er, he said she was re­luc­tant to re­move Ram­lo­gan when a wit­ness tam­per­ing ac­cu­sa­tion was made against him.

He said this con­tra­dict­ed the po­si­tion tak­en by the UNC in 2017 when gov­ern­ment sen­a­tor Dr Lester Hen­ry was charged with dri­ving un­der the in­flu­ence of al­co­hol. The UNC called for Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley to re­move Hen­ry from the Up­per House.

He said that tra­di­tion­al UNC sup­port­ers are con­cerned with the ar­rests of two promi­nent mem­bers, while there are PNM sup­port­ers who are un­hap­py with Row­ley. Say­ing that both par­ties were not suit­ed to gov­ern the coun­try, he said the MSJ is the on­ly op­tion.