Resign or be fired

NATIONAL Security Minister Edmund Dillon must resign or be fired by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley over a case in New York involving Dillon’s friend Neville Piper, to which he is a party.

“Dillon, pick up your bundle and go. Resign. If you do not resign, Rowley, do your duty and fire him. He needs to go now, before he damages TT further.”

UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar made the call at the UNC’s Monday Night Forum at the Las Lomas Government Primary School.

“This Prime Minister will not act. This Prime Minister does not have the testicular fortitude to act.

“I had no such thing, but I knew when I had to act and I did act. I had to do it to protect the integrity (of the country).”She said the issue was not about Dillon the person, but the integrity of the country, and pointed out there were international headlines featuring the national security minister, which were exceedingly damaging to TT’s international reputation.

“How can you stay there? And on top of which, you are the worst performing minister of national security,” she declared.She asked who was paying for Dillon’s travel to New York to attend to a court case and for his lawyers, and whether taxpayers were footing these bills. She also questioned who was Dillon’s lawyer and how long Rowley had known about the NY situation involving his National Security Minister.

Persad-Bissessar pointed out that Marlene McDonald had been fired twice as a minister, the second time within 48 hours of her appointment, but with Dillon, Rowley has not acted.

“Does he (Dillon) have some kind of goods on you?” she asked. She said there was a stark contrast in leadership between herself and Rowley. For her, the public’s confidence and trust in Cabinet ministers was important, she said, and she would act decisively when questions arose.

“Ask (then sport minister) Anil Roberts,” she said. Roberts resigned amid the Life Sport fiasco. She pointed out that in the case of then attorney general Anand Ramlogan there were allegations and it was one man’s word against him. “I asked him to resign. The same thing with Jack Warner. There was no court case before him. But given the allegations in the public domain that were very damaging to TT, again we asked him to give up his office.” Warner resigned in the midst of the allegations in his then capacity as FIFA vice president.

She named Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi, whose children brandished machine guns, PNM Senator Dr Lester Henry, who was convicted of drunk driving, and Sports Minister Darryl Smith (whose ministry was involved in a sexual harassment lawsuit, which was settled). She also told the gathering not to be distracted by fake news and denied that she or her party was ever involved with the controversial data mining company SCL and Cambridge Analytica. She said the party had engaged the MORI group, which had previously been engaged by the Patrick Manning administration. She also said Rowley, in commenting on domestic violence, had told women he was not in their bedroom. “Rowley, thank God you not in my bedroom,” she declared.