Lopinot/Bon Air West MP and Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Util­i­ties Mar­vin Gon­za­les says that UNC leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has once again de­stroyed T&T’s im­age in the eyes of the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty by em­brac­ing an al­leged felon Jack Warn­er.

Gon­za­les al­so warned that the UNC’s ac­com­mo­da­tion will go down in po­lit­i­cal flames.

And for­mer UNC min­is­ter and ac­tivist Dr De­vant Ma­haraj has ques­tioned Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s will­ing­ness to raise “the po­lit­i­cal­ly dead” to strength­en her par­ty, de­scrib­ing it as a des­per­ate grab for pow­er.

Both men spoke with Guardian Me­dia by tele­phone yes­ter­day fol­low­ing the UNC’s ac­com­mo­da­tion meet­ing on Mon­day with NTA leader Gary Grif­fith and ILP founder Jack Warn­er. Gon­za­les was chid­ed by Warn­er.

Warn­er re­spond­ed to Gon­za­les’ state­ment last week­end rub­bish­ing his re-emer­gence with the UNC. Warn­er on Mon­day night lashed back, al­so tak­ing a dig at En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young, call­ing him out di­rect­ly and speak­ing about his rel­a­tives.

Young has not re­spond­ed. But Gon­za­les did.

He said Warn­er’s re­turn showed a de­cay in the coun­try’s moral fab­ric.

“Jack Austin Warn­er rep­re­sents the worse of Trinidad and To­ba­go. A ma­lig­nan­cy that threat­ens our moral and spir­i­tu­al val­ues.

“Aid­ed and abet­ted by a dan­ger­ous and des­per­ate Op­po­si­tion Leader and a hap­less leader of a ‘fam­i­ly plan­ning as­so­ci­a­tion’ call­ing it­self the NTA.

“In typ­i­cal style, he (Warn­er) re­sort­ed to per­son­al at­tacks against me and my col­leagues be­cause it is be­yond his in­tel­lec­tu­al ca­pac­i­ty to chal­lenge us and the PNM on sub­stance,” Gon­za­les said.

“The UNC now re­sem­bles a rogue’s gallery. A group­ing of some des­per­ate in­di­vid­u­als seek­ing shel­ter from the courts in a naked grab for pow­er and of­fice . They will go down in po­lit­i­cal flames and nev­er—find po­lit­i­cal rest for their weary souls in T&T.”

Tak­ing back what UNC ‘throw ‘way’ - De­vant

The UNC’s ac­com­mo­da­tion with Warn­er al­so came in for blows from Cana­da-based Ma­haraj.

In a state­ment to Guardian Me­dia, Ma­haraj said the de­vel­op­ment was con­cern­ing.

“The re­cent shift in the al­le­giance of for­mer min­is­ters Warn­er, Grif­fith, and Fuad Khan from op­pos­ing to full sup­port of Mrs Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s lead­er­ship has to raise con­cerns about the prin­ci­ples and val­ues that guide politi­cians and po­lit­i­cal par­ties,” Ma­haraj said.

“These are the same politi­cians she threw away in the 2015 and 2020 gen­er­al elec­tions, and their re­turn to the fold al­so rais­es ques­tions about her com­mit­ment to prin­ci­ples and val­ues.

“Her ap­proach to build­ing a broad-based coali­tion based on res­ur­rect­ing politi­cians she pre­vi­ous­ly dis­card­ed can be seen as a des­per­ate grab for pow­er. Her ac­tions raise ques­tions about com­mit­ment to prin­ci­ples and val­ues and sug­gest she’s will­ing to com­pro­mise on prin­ci­ples to gain pow­er,” he added.

Ma­haraj said the shift ap­pears to be mo­ti­vat­ed sole­ly by the de­sire to de­feat the PNM.

“Warn­er was dis­card­ed and pil­lo­ried by the UNC lead­ing him to form his own par­ty. Grif­fith was re­ject­ed by the UNC when they didn’t sup­port his nom­i­na­tion as Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er.

“Khan along with Fazal Karim, Bhoe Tewarie, Su­ru­jrat­tan Ram­bachan et al were all cast aside like used toi­let pa­per for the 2020 gen­er­al elec­tion.

“Will Jack, Gary and Fuad now be sit­ting around the ta­ble with Rati­ram, Ram, Ameen, Mark, and oth­ers who on­ly hours ago they were com­plain­ing about?” Ma­haraj asked.