Akash Sama­roo

Se­nior Re­porter

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is not at all im­pressed with the Op­po­si­tion Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment’s (PNM) Sen­ate bench, say­ing the par­ty has brought back some “re­jects” in­to the Par­lia­ment.

De­spite not win­ning their seats on April 28, Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has found a space for Fos­ter Cum­mings and Faris Al-Rawi on her six-mem­ber Sen­ate slate.

Com­ment­ing on the bench’s com­po­si­tion yes­ter­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said it’s a clear in­di­ca­tion of where the PNM is head­ing.

“They are bring­ing back per­sons who have been re­ject­ed and, of course, that’s okay to bring them back in the Sen­ate legal­ly, but they were there for nine years and all the poli­cies and pro­grammes they presided over did not help the peo­ple of T&T, so be­ing in the Sen­ate, I can’t see that giv­ing them and their par­ty any great lift,” the Prime Min­is­ter said.

She added, “In oth­er words, it is clear that the one per cent is still in charge. When you look at some of the mem­bers of the PNM’s sen­a­tor’s bench.”

The Prime Min­is­ter said she al­so no­ticed that some PNM mem­bers had brought back ties with the par­ty’s bal­isi­er sym­bol on them.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said yes­ter­day, “The scourge of the bal­isi­er tie has re­turned. It has re­turned, they have dis­card­ed it and now they feel it is nec­es­sary, so we wait to see. And giv­en the con­tent of the speech of the leader of the Op­po­si­tion, it was every­thing PNM, PNM, PNM, so we await to see if they re­main PNM for­ev­er. I re­mem­ber Jack Warn­er say­ing they are PNM un­til they are dead, I hope they don’t die.”

Speak­ing to re­porters out­side of the Par­lia­ment af­ter thank­ing her sup­port­ers who were gath­ered in Wood­ford Square, the Prime Min­is­ter was al­so asked about her choice of at­tor­ney-at-law Jagdeo Singh as House Speak­er.

The Prime Min­is­ter said, “He’s a very strong per­son, he’s very learned in law and on that ba­sis, I think he will make an ex­cel­lent speak­er. He’s com­mit­ted to help­ing peo­ple, he has done it in his prac­tice, so that’s what we’re about.”

She was, how­ev­er, re­mind­ed that Singh had some is­sues with the law in the past.

Singh was charged with cor­rup­tion in 1999, when he was a 33-year-old lawyer. At the time, there were claims he asked for $40,000 to bribe a mag­is­trate and pros­e­cu­tor for bail. Singh was re­port­ed and ar­rest­ed dur­ing a sting op­er­a­tion col­lect­ing the cash. He was con­vict­ed in 2001 and ap­pealed all the way to the Privy Coun­cil, which quashed the con­vic­tion in 2005.

But the Prime Min­is­ter said it was im­por­tant to fo­cus on one key fact.

“It was over­turned. And there­fore, our jus­tice sys­tem al­lows us to have jus­tice. You are in­no­cent un­til proven guilty, and he re­mains in­no­cent; he has nev­er been proven guilty. All the charges were thrown away.”

With re­spect to Kenya Charles, who was ap­point­ed as a Sen­a­tor and then elect­ed Sen­ate Vice Pres­i­dent, Per­sad-Bisses­sar ex­plained, “Kenya is a very, very strong per­son. I think she will do a great job up there. She has al­so been the chair of the women’s arm of my par­ty and she’s been with us a long time. I know her well and I think she will do a great job in the Sen­ate.”

The PM was al­so asked about the ab­sence of Prakash Ra­mad­har from her par­lia­men­tary line-up. The Con­gress of the Peo­ple leader is yet to re­ceive any ap­point­ments un­der Per­sad-Bisses­sar. The COP was a part of the UNC’s Coali­tion of In­ter­est in the April 28 Gen­er­al Elec­tion. There were re­ports that he was promised the po­si­tion of Sen­ate Pres­i­dent. Ra­mad­har nev­er con­firmed this but said there were talks be­tween him­self and the PM and he is con­fi­dent they will ma­te­ri­alise.

Asked about Ra­mad­har yes­ter­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar was curt in her re­sponse.

“Well, those are par­ty mat­ters to be dealt with at a par­ty lev­el, this is at the par­lia­men­tary lev­el.”

When pressed for more, the PM re­peat­ed her­self.

Re­gard­ing Jayan­ti Lutch­me­di­al-Ram­di­al, who was not re-se­lect­ed as a sen­a­tor, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said, “There will be a space and place for her.”

The Prime Min­is­ter said she will re­veal the first busi­ness of Par­lia­ment at a lat­er date, and will al­so an­nounce the date for the next sit­ting “soon.”