Charles, Ragbir knock UNC during budget debate

NAPARIMA MP Rodney Charles knocked the UNC as he contributed to the 2024/2025 budget in Parliament on October 8.

He expressed pride, while sitting at the lower end of the opposition benches, in being labelled by his colleagues as a “dissident,” saying people labelled as such stood against oppression.

“According to a cursory Google search, a dissident is a person who opposes official policy, especially that of an authoritarian state,” Charles said. “If that is the case, I have nothing against being called by a name that denotes fighting against tyranny, oppression, autocracy and dictatorship.”

Comparing being sidelined to being placed in the “naughty corner,” he quipped that he had to do penance and write out the rules of local politics.

“The golden rules of politics are: Rule number one – the boss is always right; and rule number two – if the boss is wrong, refer to rule number one."

He said while people might have said he was seated in “Babylon,” he was actually seated in “Zion,” with his esteemed colleagues, Rushton Paray, Anita Hayes-Alleyne, Dr Rai Ragbir and Dinesh Rambally.

“I am sitting beside a doctor on my left. On my right is a de facto senior counsel, having earned his stripes, among other things, as a judge of the Industrial Court. On his right sits an accomplished businessman, deserving, some say, of an Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and on his right sits the only island scholarship winner seated in this honourable House.

“When we speak it is not for party, not for principalities nor powers, nor for frail human beings – omnipotent though they think they are – but for God, family and country.”

Ragbir: I make no apologies for doing my duty

A defiant Dr Rai Ragbir MP for Cumuto/Manzanilla made no apologies for supporting the Government in passing the Whistleblower Protection Act earlier this year, despite the apparent backlash.

“I know that voting in the interests of the people of Cumuto/Manzanilla and the people of Trinidad and Tobago has lost me favour from some members of this house, but I make no apologies for doing my duty to my people and my country. Now, I have been sidelined by my own party, forsaken and basically thrown away. Even the people don’t want me. But I love the people of Cumuto/Manzanilla.

“If there are those who are prepare to stand idly by and ignore injustice, corruption and abuses out of fear or out of their own selfish desires, then that is their decision. As my political hero, Dr Martin Luther King, famously said, ‘in the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.’”

He recognised that there were people in Trinidad and Tobago who saw no point in standing up for what was right, simply because they feared that wickedness would always triumph but he encouraged citizens to never give up the hope of a better tomorrow.

“Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up,” he said, quoting from Galatians 6:9.

Ragbir said he looked at the budget presentation and to him, the budget “looks fair.”

He however took the ministry of health to task saying that challenges facing medical institutions such as long waits, shortages in medication, overcrowding and overworked staff that may have been exacerbated by covid19, persisted well before the pandemic and continue to persist after the pandemic.

He, however, defended the Minister of Health saying that managing the health sector of the country could be a daunting task.

“I can understand the member for St Joseph. It is a very difficult task being a medical practitioner. You could have someone who is not paying any taxes, does not work, gets in an accident and his medical bill could come up to $500,000 because he was in ICU for a month. That is an example how health could reach to a bottomless pit.”

He also knocked detractors of covid19 vaccines.

“I disagree with those who believe that the covid19 vaccines were ‘fake,’ he said. “All evidence shows that the covid19 vaccine saved lives and I urge everyone to consult their doctors when they have medical questions and make informed medical decisions I urge the public to not take medical advice based on internet memes or random messages on Facebook.”

He suggested that a review of the pandemic and the Government’s response should be reviewed to be better prepared should something like that happen again.

The five were benched lower down in the seating order shortly after the UNC internal elections, Haynes-Alleyne told Newsday early in September she got word of an intention to "re-work" the seating arrangements. Prior to the shift in seating, the group was snubbed from the UNC election planning meeting on September 1.

Ragbir was also in hot water after breaking ranks with the UNC and voting yes to the Whistleblower Protection Bill 2024 in the House of Representatives.