Akash Sama­roo

Even as she ex­pressed dis­ap­proval at Prime Min­is­ter D Kei­th Row­ley se­lec­tion Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo due to her fa­mil­iar­i­ty with the rul­ing par­ty, Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar yes­ter­day re­fused to di­vulge the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­fer­ence’s (UNC) pick for Pres­i­dent, but says the Prime Min­is­ter will be aware of her choice be­fore next Mon­day.

The Op­po­si­tion Leader would on­ly say that their pick for Pres­i­dent is ex­act­ly what they were hop­ing Dr Row­ley would have sug­gest­ed yes­ter­day, some­one who has no po­lit­i­cal af­fil­i­a­tion.

“I know you’re try­ing to get a name but you’re not go­ing to get it now,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar told Guardian Me­dia at a me­dia con­fer­ence at the Of­fice of the Op­po­si­tion leader in Port-of-Spain.

“I think the per­son will be a good can­di­date, the per­son does not be­long to the UNC nor the PNM, but it’s a ca­pa­ble and com­pe­tent per­son. As I said, I pre­fer if we fi­nalise that process be­fore I share the name be­cause these are pri­vate cit­i­zens and we would not want to have their names jump­ing up.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the Prime Min­is­ter gave her un­til Mon­day to sub­mit the name but she will do so be­fore that date due to the im­por­tance of the mat­ter.

How­ev­er, a mes­sage was sent to the Gov­ern­ment yes­ter­day via What­sApp to Camille Robin­son-Reg­is, in­di­cat­ing that the UNC will not be sup­port­ing Kan­ga­loo for Pres­i­dent.

Even be­fore Per­sad-Bisses­sar en­tered the room for her press con­fer­ence, there was a tele­vi­sion mon­i­tor next to her podi­um show­ing a paused video clip of Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo at a PNM po­lit­i­cal ral­ly.

The Op­po­si­tion Leader said Kan­ga­loo and her fam­i­ly are deeply en­trenched with­in the PNM.

“She con­test­ed the seat for the PNM in Pointe-a-Pierre years ago and Wade Mark was the UNC’s can­di­date, she be­came a cab­i­net min­is­ter there­after, she was an Op­po­si­tion PNM Sen­a­tor, her fam­i­ly is in bed with the PNM, the whole clan, the fam­i­ly, they are from the bo­som and the bow­els of the PNM,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar stressed.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar then in­struct­ed that the paused video be played. It showed Kan­ga­loo at the lectern at a PNM po­lit­i­cal ral­ly say­ing, “Re­mem­ber to take the gospel of the PNM and take it to your homes, your vil­lages, in your of­fices and through­out the length and breadth of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

“This is the per­son the Prime Min­is­ter wants to con­vince us is apo­lit­i­cal,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said, point­ing to the mon­i­tor, “So will she now take the gospel of the PNM and spread it in Pres­i­dent’s House?

UNC Sen­a­tor Mark, who al­so spoke at the press con­fer­ence, went one fur­ther, claim­ing that Pres­i­dent’s House will now be Bal­isi­er House Num­ber 2.

“She is PNM to the bone!” he loud­ly de­clared.

Mark al­so urged the pub­lic to re­mem­ber that it was Kan­ga­loo who was Act­ing Pres­i­dent dur­ing the con­tro­ver­sial fir­ing of Jwala Ram­bar­ran as Cen­tral Bank Gov­er­nor.

Mean­while, Per­sad-Bisses­sar called on “all right-think­ing cit­i­zens” to join the UNC in re­ject­ing Kan­ga­loo.

The Op­po­si­tion Leader al­so had a fi­nal mes­sage for out­go­ing Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes.

“I would say go in peace, go in peace, you tried your best but it didn’t work, it just didn’t work, it was a fi­as­co what hap­pened in our coun­try and it was one we are still pay­ing the price for with that Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice is­sue.”