Loud objections

Did Laventille West MP Fitzgerald Hinds accuse the Opposition of being involved in money-laundering, during debate yesterday on a bill to amend the Proceeds of Crime Act and Financial Intelligence Unit Act?

Saying Caroni Central MP Dr Bhoe Tewarie had just said any serious MP will support the bill, Hinds told him to talk for himself only.

Tewarie said, “But the records in this House show that his colleagues on the other side have demonstrated consistently in this Parliament that they are not in that sense serious. “But I just want to tell him they are serious money-launderers,” Hinds then said.

Pointe-a-Pierre MP David Lee stood up to complain under Standing Order 48(6) (which bans an MP from imputing bad motives to another MP), standing alongside an equally-irate Naparima MP Rodney Charles. Hinds retorted, “I said ‘there’ are.” Speaker Bridgid Annisette-George overruled the Opposition’s objection. Hinds continued: “I told him (Tewarie) to speak only for himself, because there are in this world, serious money launderers, serious bribe-takers and serious thieves.

“The Member for Caroni Central must notice today in this very important debate that certain serious members of the other side are, to me at any rate, I don’t know if they gave you an explanation, inexplicably and strangely absent. All the concerns he has expressed how serious it is, many of the serious players starting with Siparia, Oropouche East, Caroni East, are absent today.” Hinds again urged Tewarie to talk only for himself.