Opposition MP Dr Rai Ragbir has broken ranks with his party, the United National Congress, and voted in favour for the passage of the Whistle-Blower Protection Bill.
During the vote at Friday's sitting of the House of Representatives, Dr Ragbir was the only Opposition member to support the Government in amending clauses within the Act “to combat corruption and other wrongdoings, by encouraging and facilitating disclosures of improper conduct in the public and private sector, to protect persons making those disclosures from detrimental action, to regulate the receiving, investigating or otherwise dealing with disclosures of improper conduct and to provide for other matters connected therewith.”
Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar was absent from the House during the vote.
Dr Ragbir was recently identified as one of several dissident members of the UNC for calls on the party leader to trigger the national executive elections. Persad-Bissessar previously threatened to expel party members who vote against party lines in the Parliament.
The government did not need Opposition support to pass the bill. It eventually passed 22 for, 15 against and no abstentions.
When asked to comment on his decision, Dr Ragbir said:
"Persons must be encouraged to feel confident in raising serious concerns at the earliest opportunity when they suspect illegal, immoral or fraudulent activities at the workplace private or public. Making a disclosure or blowing a whistle will have repercussions such as being dismissed or demoted in their job. And to add to that the individual will experience psycho-social issues [that] need to [be] dealt with. I am at a moral crossroads where I must align my actions with my values—spiritual and moral. Country first."
In a response to the development, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar told Guardian Media she was not shocked by Dr Rai Ragbir's decision to vote against party lines.
"Not surprised at all,” she said. “For us in the UNC it’s business as usual because I told everyone during the internal campaign that some of the dissidents were working with the PNM and would go to the PNM after getting rejected by the membership in the internal elections. So said, so done."