Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

“Good­bye and bless­ings.”

That was the re­ac­tion from Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar yes­ter­day, fol­low­ing the news that Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la MP Dr Rai Rag­bir had re­signed from the par­ty.

“In democ­ra­cy, every­one is free to choose,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar added.

Rag­bir an­nounced his res­ig­na­tion af­ter the April 28 Gen­er­al Elec­tion date was de­clared and the 12th Par­lia­ment dis­solved.

Rag­bir has been es­tranged from the UNC lead­er­ship since last March, when he sup­port­ed fel­low Ma­yaro MP Rush­ton Paray’s call for the par­ty to hold its in­ter­nal ex­ec­u­tive elec­tions on time. Rag­bir al­so called for a lead­er­ship elec­tion. Both were crit­i­cal of Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s lead­er­ship.

He al­so un­suc­cess­ful­ly con­test­ed the post of deputy leader of the UNC on Paray’s Unit­ed Pa­tri­ots slate. Rag­bir lat­er vot­ed with the Gov­ern­ment on the Whistle­blow­er Pro­tec­tion Act in Par­lia­ment, which led to him be­ing chas­tised by the par­ty’s hi­er­ar­chy. He re­cent­ly with­drew from screen­ing for a seat with the par­ty.

In his res­ig­na­tion let­ter to the UNC’s na­tion­al ex­ec­u­tive yes­ter­day, Rag­bir said, “I here­by re­sign from the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress with im­me­di­ate ef­fect. It was an ho­n­our to serve the par­ty, but as I have pre­vi­ous­ly stat­ed, the UNC no longer up­holds the val­ues it once rep­re­sent­ed. It has be­come a par­ty in­flu­enced by in­di­vid­u­als whose con­duct is deeply trou­bling.

“Now that the Gen­er­al Elec­tion has been called and my term as MP has end­ed, I see no rea­son to re­main af­fil­i­at­ed with a par­ty that has lost its moral com­pass. My com­mit­ment re­mains to the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go, and I will con­tin­ue to serve in what­ev­er ca­pac­i­ty I can.”

Asked whether he’s go­ing to the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) or oth­er groups, Rag­bir said, “I have made no de­ci­sion on my po­lit­i­cal fu­ture. I’m spend­ing time with my fam­i­ly. When the Lord wants to guide me as to my next chap­ter, I’m sure he’ll send me a sign.”

Asked if he would be at­tend­ing po­lit­i­cal meet­ings dur­ing the cam­paign, Rag­bir said, “My on­ly child starts school in the US and I will be tak­ing him there for ad­mis­sion.”

Mean­while, Paray did not re­spond to ques­tions about his fu­ture with the UNC or if he would soon re­sign.

He was screened for Ma­yaro and is await­ing word on if he’s se­lect­ed.

Yes­ter­day, an­oth­er so-called dis­si­dent, Ch­agua­nas West MP Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly, thanked his con­stituents. His dis­play of grat­i­tude came af­ter Par­lia­ment was dis­solved for the elec­tion.

He said: “Thank you Ch­agua­nas West.”

Ram­bal­ly had al­so with­drawn his can­di­da­cy from the UNC for the seat he held.

When con­tact­ed, he said: “The on­ly thing I wish to and which I’m pre­pared to com­ment up­on at this time is my grat­i­tude to the con­stituents of Ch­agua­nas West for the past five years and my re­newed com­mit­ment to serv­ing T&T al­beit in an­oth­er ca­pac­i­ty.”

Ram­bal­ly de­clined to say what that “ca­pac­i­ty” was.”

Two-day Cab­i­net meet­ing

Mean­while, the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment-led Gov­ern­ment un­der Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young held its first meet­ing of Cab­i­net min­is­ters yes­ter­day, since the ap­point­ments on Mon­day.

The de­lib­er­a­tions will al­so con­tin­ue at an­oth­er Cab­i­net meet­ing be­ing held to­day.

Asked why two Cab­i­net meet­ings were tak­ing place, Guardian Me­dia was told by of­fi­cials, “There are on­ly 40 days to the Gen­er­al Elec­tion so we have to get things or­gan­ised.”

Young didn’t an­swer ques­tions on whether the PNM would in­vite Rag­bir to join the par­ty, nor did cam­paign man­ag­er Ro­han Sinanan, gen­er­al sec­re­tary Fos­ter Cum­mings or for­mer prime min­is­ter and po­lit­i­cal leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley.

Row­ley and oth­er par­ty of­fi­cials al­so did not com­ment on the po­lit­i­cal lead­er­ship of the PNM. Par­ty sources said Row­ley would like­ly re­sign as leader, but not­ed that in the elec­tion set­ting, the PNM can’t hold a lead­er­ship elec­tion.

Row­ley’s lead­er­ship term ends in 2026. He’s al­ready said he would be step­ping down from that role at the “ear­li­est” in con­sul­ta­tion with the lead­er­ship of the PNM.