Even before the House of Representatives was asked to vote on a motion to suspend Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley, Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner said he turned down an offer to assume the role of Opposition Leader temporarily. Warner denied he was mobilising support for the position. “Some people have asked me if I am interested. I made it quite clear to those people who asked me if I am not interested in becoming Opposition Leader. They tempted me by saying I could pick six new senators (and) I say I have no interest in that.”
Warner said he would not say who made the offer to him. “They asked me if I want to be Chief Whip, I am not interested in that either.” He said he only wanted to serve to the end of his term and see what would happen when election was called in a few weeks time. He insisted he had “no aspirations whatsoever to be Leader of the Opposition.”
Two Opposition MPs, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, later denied any knowledge of such a request being made by the party. “That can’t be true” one said, while the other said he was not aware of any such move being made by the PNM. Both said any such request would have to go through party channels. For an Opposition MP to be elected as Leader of the Opposition they must have the majority support of Opposition MPs.
Earlier House Leader, Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal, presented a motion of censure in the House of Representatives yesterday to suspend Rowley for his “scandalous, unsubstantiated and scandalous allegations” about senior Government ministers, including the Prime Minister and former attorney general and other senior politicians, being part of a plot to murder a newspaper journalist in 2012, to bug the office of the DPP and remove him from office.
That stemmed from publication of newspaper stories about the proclamation of Section 34 of the Administration of Justice (Indictable Proceedings) Bill 2011. It was claimed that early proclamation of the section of the legislation would have prevented businessmen Ishwar Galbaransingh and Steve Ferguson from facing prosecution in a series of criminal cases linked to the Piarco Airport development project.
The Parliament was reconvened in emergency session to repeal the controversial section that was proclaimed. In May 2013, Rowley read a thread of 31 e-mails purportedly belonging to senior government officials discussing the criminal conspiracy.
Mark refers Rowley to Privileges body
House Speaker Wade Mark has referred Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley to Parliament’s Privileges Committee over Rowley’s recent allegations against Finance Minister Larry Howai. He gave the ruling during yesterday’s Parliament session after Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, at the previous sitting, requested that Rowley be taken to the Privileges Committee for making “reckless ”statements about Howai in the recent debate on a motion of censure against Howai.
The PM said Rowley knew or ought to have known the statement he was reading from was false, inaccurate and damaging. Mark said it was not for him, as Speaker, to determine whether a contempt had been committed.
He added: “I have given this matter careful, serious consideration. I have examined the Hansard (record) in detail and I am of the view this matter warrants further investigation. I rule that, prima facie, a sufficient case of breach of privilege has been established. I therefore refer the matter to the Privileges Committee for full investigation and report.”
However, Mark denied Rowley’s request for Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine to be referred to the Privileges Committee for an inaccurate remark in relation to the salary of former Petrotrin boss Malcolm Jones on April 17. Ramnarine had told the House that Petrotrin’s current chief financial officer Ronald Huff’s package, with a basic salary of $147,000, plus other perks, was less than Jones’ basic salary, which Ramnarine said was $162,000, plus “other things.”
Rowley had argued that Ramnarine ought to have known Jones’ salary was $125,000, which was contrary to what he stated and should have known the figure he gave the Parliament was inaccurate. Yesterday, Mark noted that Ramnarine had corrected the remark at the first opportunity which was at the last sitting.
Gail Alexander