Jack on reuniting with Kamla, Gary: We can save Trinidad and Tobago from abyss

BUSINESSMAN and former UNC chairman Jack Warner on Monday urged voters to trust in the trio of UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, NTA leader Gary Griffith and himself to save the country, at a UNC/NTA rally at the Centre of Excellence, Macoya, where he lavished praises on his friends-turned-foes-turned-friends.

He saluted Persad-Bissessar as "the Mandela of local politics" in reference to the late South African leader's efforts at national reconciliation after apatheid.

Warner spoke for only about 15 minutes but did not offer any explanation as to his previous fallings out with Persad-Bissessar and Griffith, but simply said that the cause of saving the nation now required them all to work together.

He distanced himself from a politician who recently left the UNC to join the PNM.

"I must come and work among my brothers and sisters in the UNC and NTA and earn my dues.

"Then I will call an emergency meeting of the ILP and disband it. The ILP has to be permanently reintegrated to the UNC. We are one family."

Warner lamented that youngsters were leaving TT in droves and violent crime was at runaway levels.

"What can we do? We have amongst us the best commissioner of police the country has ever had," he said in reference to Griffith.

Warner then said that he himself had been TT's best-ever minister of works and transport and minister of national security respectively.

"With Gary Griffith and myself and the best prime minister (Persad-Bissessar) this country has ever seen – that threesome – you have no cause to fear."

Warner urged electors on local government election day on August 14 to come out in their numbers, saying, "Don't tote, Vote!'"

"Tonight to have me here before you, I say Mrs Persad-Bissessar is the Mandela of local politics. That's why I'm here.

"I am here to join Mrs Persad-Bissessar and the entire team to bring this country back on an even keel."

He wanted the UNC-NTA to improve on the seven-seven tie in corporations won in the last local elections.

"We have to accept change is needed and have to all put our shoulder to the wheel."

Warner said detractors might say he was cursing Griffith or Griffith was cursing him, but nowadays this type of negative campaigning did not work.

"Those things will not affect us at all.

"The writing is on the wall for the PNM. Look at here tonight!" he said alluding to the large crowd size which packed the hall.

Warner then lambasted two Cabinet ministers, describing one as a fool in a jacket and tie and saying the other should send his former in-laws to Miami for treatment rather than offering him a first-class airline ticket to go there.

He ended his speech by urging listeners to never forget the past, admonishing, "We tend to forget too quickly."

Before Warner had gone on stage to talk, he held hands with Persad-Bissessar and Griffith, while the deejay played Richie Spice's song, The World is a Cycle, the song which also played as he ended.

Persad-Bissessar, who spoke after Warner, said now the UNC was sorted out, it was ready to work with other parties.

She invited Warner to rejoin the UNC, telling listeners he had not asked for anything in all of this.

"He just wantedto help improve lives."

She downplayed past differences between herself, Warner and Griffith in an apparent reference to each of their past exits from her former cabinet.

"Whatever differences there were, they have been sorted out. Mr Warner and I are not toting, we are just voting."

Likewise she said any past difference between herself and Griffith had been "minor matters" and neither of them was now toting, that is, neither was harbouring any ill-will.

Urging listeners not to get distracted by people crying like "little babies," she said "When they see Jack, Gary and I (together), they are quaking in their boots."

Quoting the children's rhyme that sticks and stones could break her bones but words could never hurt her, she said her back was broad.

"What matters most for us is you and your families, not Mr Warner, Mr Griffith or Kamla, any one of us.

"What we are working for is to bring back this beautiful land of us, TT.

"What we are working for is to restore and rebuild TT.

She again called on others who wanted to join with the UNC-NTA to do so but warned that no-one would be able to parachute in at the top or to re-enter with selfish intentions.

"The people who stood strong with us, who defended us since 2015 against all manner of insults and assaults, you will never be pushed aside.

"We are willing to work with anyone but loyal and loving members of the UNC must always come first.They are the bosses of the party."