Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says the tim­ing of the ar­rest and charges against a UNC sen­a­tor and for­mer UNC at­tor­ney gen­er­al were “very sus­pi­cious.”

She re­called pri­or to the 2002 gen­er­al elec­tions sev­en UNC mem­bers were charged in­clud­ing for­mer prime min­is­ter Bas­deo Pan­day, for­mer en­er­gy min­is­ter Fin­bar Gan­gar and for­mer ed­u­ca­tion min­is­ter Tim Gopeesingh with crim­i­nal of­fences.

“What has be­come of those cas­es, noth­ing, ab­solute­ly noth­ing. I want you to clear your brain and stay fo­cused on the re­al en­e­my,” she told her au­di­ence at a Moth­er’s Day func­tion, host­ed by the UNC Women’s Arm, in Ch­agua­nas on Sat­ur­day.

In ref­er­ence to the lat­est ar­rests of sen­a­tor Ger­ald Ramdeen and Anand Ram­lo­gan, the Op­po­si­tion Leader, while not call­ing their names, said the law should be al­lowed to take its course.

“I find the tim­ing of these things very sus­pi­cious and I am re­mind­ed that every time an elec­tion is in the air the same thing hap­pens,” she said. Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she will not be de­terred and the par­ty will be­gin screen­ing can­di­dates for lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tions lat­er this month. She al­so re­ferred to the po­lice raids at Gulf View, La Ro­main on Fri­day, where the sev­en homes were searched by the elite Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Re­sponse Team. Noth­ing il­le­gal was found in what po­lice said was a search for nar­cotics.

“I think we need a re­al­i­ty check in this coun­try, I think we re­al­ly do, and that re­al­i­ty check has to do with the fact when some of the more af­flu­ent ar­eas, where po­lice come in and walk as they did in Gulf View yes­ter­day (Fri­day) where sev­er­al homes were raid­ed in the Gulf View area, where some more af­flu­ent peo­ple live.

“Again I don’t know the de­tails of why it was done. Again there is a huge out­cry and it’s the same thing when they go in­to ar­eas that are im­pov­er­ished...whether it is af­flu­ent or whether it is in im­pov­er­ished ar­eas, abuse of pow­er is not to be con­doned,” she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so claimed a suite of leg­is­la­tion brought the PNM-led Gov­ern­ment is turn­ing T&T in­to an­oth­er Nazi Ger­many.

Nazi Ger­many is the com­mon Eng­lish name for Ger­many be­tween 1933 and 1945 when Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Par­ty con­trolled the coun­try through a dic­ta­tor­ship.

She said in the past four years the PNM gov­ern­ment has brought the most “dra­con­ian leg­is­la­tion” be­fore the Par­lia­ment.

“Then they say we are ob­struc­tion­ists, but when your MP stand up in that Par­lia­ment, when your sen­a­tor stand up we are not do­ing it for our­selves. They say we are afraid but now I am re­al­ly afraid of this gov­ern­ment of their dra­con­ian in­ten­tions. I am afraid, all along I said I am not afraid but you know what, I am afraid for you. I am afraid for our chil­dren in this coun­try and that is why I give you the com­mit­ment, they could say what they want, we are ob­struc­tion­ists, they could do what they want, we will stand for you in­side the Par­lia­ment and out­side the Par­lia­ment to en­sure that good law is passed.”