SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

For­mer deputy po­lit­i­cal leader of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) Nafeesa Mo­hammed is ex­tend­ing an olive branch to Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley to make peace be­tween them–at least for the repa­tri­a­tion of more than 100 T&T na­tion­als de­tained in jails and camps in the Is­lam­ic State.

“I want to make peace with Dr Row­ley. I mean, Almighty Al­lah is in con­trol but I have no mal­ice against him. I would like to bridge the re­la­tion­ship with him,” Mo­hammed said in a tele­phone in­ter­view on Thurs­day.

Mo­hammed, an at­tor­ney, said she wished a re­li­gious leader could me­di­ate to mend the fence be­tween them so she could as­sist in the repa­tri­a­tion ex­er­cise of T&T cit­i­zens from Syr­ia and Iraq.

On Mon­day Dr Row­ley com­mit­ted to bring­ing back over 100 T&T na­tion­als cur­rent­ly held in Syr­ia and Iraq and ap­point­ed for­mer speak­er Nizam Mo­hammed to head a three-man com­mit­tee to over­see the repa­tri­a­tion process which will in­volve sev­er­al tech­ni­cal is­sues. The oth­er two mem­bers are Is­lam­ic leader Kwe­si At­i­ba and for­mer am­bas­sador Patrick Ed­wards.

Mo­hammed, who served as a le­gal ad­vis­er to the Prime Min­is­ter, was fired in 2018 fol­low­ing a Face­book post where she took is­sue with the ar­rest of her rel­a­tive Tariq Mo­hammed.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley

NICOLE DRAYTON

She re­signed from the PNM in 2020, cit­ing in­jus­tices in­flict­ed on mem­bers of the Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty and her­self by the Row­ley-led Gov­ern­ment.

In her res­ig­na­tion state­ment to the me­dia, Mo­hammed said the coun­try did not de­serve a bul­ly­ing Prime Min­is­ter and that she will con­tin­ue to stand for fair­ness, jus­tice and equal­i­ty.

She ad­mit­ted to pay­ing a heavy price for be­ing out­spo­ken.

The last time she re­mem­bered speak­ing to the PM was in 2018. In the five years she has not spo­ken to Row­ley, Mo­hammed said she has nev­er dis­re­spect­ed him.

She said if Row­ley was hold­ing her in mind for speak­ing out, there was noth­ing she could do.

How­ev­er, her fer­vent wish is that some­one could help to make peace be­tween them. “I am not ask­ing for any per­son­al favours. But on this par­tic­u­lar mat­ter (repa­tri­a­tion), I know I am one of the few peo­ple in this coun­try who has the skill set to help ex­pe­dite the process. It sad­dens me to be ex­clud­ed from it, you know, be­cause of the pol­i­tics and where things stand with me. I guess the Prime Min­is­ter him­self did not see it fit to want to in­clude me in it,” she said.

Mo­hammed, who has done a lot of ground­work on repa­tri­a­tion, said she had hoped to be con­sid­ered in some ca­pac­i­ty to help out, but no one called or emailed her.

“If I am asked to help or serve in any way, I will not turn my back.”

Since her res­ig­na­tion, Mo­hammed said gov­ern­ment min­is­ters have been treat­ing her like a lep­er. Some have stopped speak­ing to her.

“They would not talk to me. The scorn, con­tempt and si­lence from the peo­ple in the PNM dis­ap­point me when you could have been help­ing to heal this thing.”

Will­ing to of­fer guid­ance and ex­per­tise for free

Com­mu­ni­cat­ing with the de­tainees and speak­ing to their fam­i­lies since 2019, Mo­hammed said she was will­ing to of­fer her guid­ance and ex­per­tise free to the State to help bring our cit­i­zens back home.

In wel­com­ing Row­ley’s move to have di­a­logue with the Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty on the mat­ter, Mo­hammed said the task was not in­sur­mount­able.

“With prop­er col­lab­o­ra­tion and di­a­logue with crit­i­cal stake­hold­ers, these is­sues could be re­solved soon­er rather than lat­er.”

Mo­hammed con­sid­ers her­self a stake­hold­er and said that to try and “si­lence” her on this is­sue was not right.

“It’s an area where I have a lot of ex­pe­ri­ence where I helped in the leg­is­la­tion that set up the new child pro­tec­tion frame­work with the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty.”

Mo­hammed said there was al­ready leg­is­la­tion in place that can speed up the repa­tri­a­tion process.

Hav­ing worked in the mon­i­tor­ing com­mit­tee of the Fam­i­ly Court, Mo­hammed said this will al­so help.

“It’s an area where I see the civ­il side of the le­gal sys­tem is al­ready in place to help deal with these chil­dren and women when they re­turn to the coun­try. I re­al­ly wish I could be of as­sis­tance to the Prime Min­is­ter, his min­is­ters, and his team. How­ev­er, I have be­come per­sona non gra­ta at the po­lit­i­cal lev­el.”

Ac­cord­ing to Mo­hammed, ac­com­mo­da­tion for these de­tainees will not be an is­sue as they have the sup­port struc­ture of their fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties in T&T.

How­ev­er, the rein­te­gra­tion process will not hap­pen overnight.

“On­ly when you do a prop­er mul­ti-dis­ci­pline type of as­sess­ment you can gauge what in­ter­ven­tions are re­quired.”

She said the Gov­ern­ment kept the repa­tri­a­tion is­sue on the back burn­er for too long.

“Re­gard­less of the re­li­gious back­ground, it is un­ac­cept­able.”

PM Row­ley did not re­spond to calls and a What­sApp mes­sage to his phone on Mo­hammed’s call for peace.