AKASH SAMA­ROO

Se­nior Re­porter

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

UNC po­lit­i­cal leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar be­lieves the na­tion­al awards be­stowed on for­mer act­ing com­mis­sion­ers of po­lice Stephen Williams and James Philbert were well de­served. 

This is in stark con­trast to what for­mer com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith said on Tues­day when he ar­gued that the Cha­co­nia Medal Siv­er award­ed to both men in the sphere of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty was un­de­serv­ing and could be a re­sult of po­lit­i­cal favouritism. 

How­ev­er, the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) has a dif­fer­ent per­spec­tive. 

Speak­ing yes­ter­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar was full of praise for the two for­mer heads of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS). 

“I do think that both of them are de­serv­ing of the awards. They gave many decades of their lives to pub­lic ser­vice through the TTPS. Mr Stephen Williams was al­ways a de­cent and very pro­fes­sion­al man who was a pro­duc­tive com­mis­sion­er of po­lice un­der my gov­ern­ment. Mr Philbert was al­so com­mit­ted to the coun­try. I wish them well,” she said via What­sApp mes­sage. 

Con­cern­ing the re­cip­i­ents of the Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go (ORTT). The UNC leader said while she may have, in the past, been crit­i­cal of Mark Lo­quan in a pro­fes­sion­al ca­pac­i­ty as the head of the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny (NGC), now all she wants is the best for him. 

“My views on Mark Lo­quan’s per­for­mance in a pro­fes­sion­al ca­pac­i­ty at NGC are well known. How­ev­er, Mr Lo­quan is now re­tired, he is now a pri­vate cit­i­zen and sim­ply a hu­man be­ing who’s fight­ing a hard bat­tle with a ter­ri­ble ill­ness. I wish him the best and hope he makes a full re­cov­ery. May God grant him and his fam­i­ly strength courage and com­fort as he fights to over­come his ill­ness,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said. 

How­ev­er, with re­spect to an­oth­er ORTT awardee, Se­nior Coun­sel Rus­sell Mar­tineau, the UNC leader was less gra­cious. 

She curt­ly mes­saged, “My views on Mar­tineau have not changed.” 

Those views are less than com­pli­men­ta­ry as in 2022, Per­sad-Bisses­sar claimed that Mar­tineau and oth­er at­tor­neys with the dis­tinc­tion of Se­nior Coun­sel sang for their sup­per from the PNM Gov­ern­ment. 

That po­si­tion pro­voked the ire of the head of the Crim­i­nal Bar As­so­ci­a­tion, Is­rael Ra­jah-Khan who in 2022 called for her to apol­o­gise and again dou­bled down on that call Tues­day af­ter it was an­nounced that Mar­tineau would re­ceive the ORTT. 

De­spite his calls, Per­sad-Bisses­sar did not is­sue any apol­o­gy. 

—AKASH SAMA­ROO