Young: ‘Ignore him’

TWO days after releasing the Prime Minister’s personal contact information on social media, former minister Devant Maharaj yesterday did the same thing to National Security Minister Stuart Young. On WhatsApp and Twitter, Maharaj said, “Prime Minister Rowley has opted to disconnect from the sufferings of the average citizen caused directly by the mismanagement of the economy by the termination of his cellular telephone.”

He said Young accused him of sedition for calling for a lawful protest and sharing the PM’s cell number. Maharaj urged citizens to call Young and “speak out about the undemocratic pattern of behaviour by the Rowley Administration on his phone.” He then released Young’s phone number. When contacted yesterday about Maharaj publicising his number on social media, Young said, “He is to be ignored.”

In a statement on Saturday, Dr Rowley regretted having to discontinue his telephone number because Maharaj publicised it on social media last Friday. The PM said Maharaj also encouraged and incited people to harass and threaten him. Also on Saturday, Young said, “It is plainly wrong and even dangerous to circulate, publicly, the private information of any citizen, and that includes, public officers.” He urged all civic-minded citizens to reject and condemn Maharaj’s actions.”

Young also said Maharaj’s circulation of calls for protest action warranted a criminal investigation and “may qualify as the serious crime of sedition.” Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith said there is no criminal investigation into Maharaj circulating the PM’s’s personal contact information on social media. But Griffith warned citizens against making this kind of information public because it could jeopardise people’s security. Griffith said subsequent to the PM’s cell phone number being publicised on social media, Rowley received threatening phone calls from one person. He said this matter is now the subject of a police investigation.

People’s National Movement (PNM) Women’s League chairperson Camille Robinson-Regis said the Opposition Leader must condemn Maharaj’s “guerilla gambit.” But she opined that this may not happen if the “opposition’s thin veneer of decorum was shattered on her instructions.” Robinson-Regis said if this is the case, the League demands that Kamla Persad-Bissessar “take responsibility for the reckless actions of her former cabinet member.” She also said the League expects “nothing short of an immediate apology and public interdiction of Mr Maharaj.”

In a statement, the PNM supported Robinson-Regis’ position. PNM public relations officer Laurel Lezama Lee Sing said Maharaj continues to be “unpatriotic and ill-disciplined” in and out of public office. She said Maharaj’s efforts to harass and effectively torment the PM “only serves to prove his “imbecilic and obnoxious levels of thinking, and his malicious intent to attempt to destabilise our country.”