Ex-PNM AG endorses UNC in Penal: Jeremie backs Kamla

FORMER attorney general in the People’s National Movement (PNM) John Jeremie made a surprise appearance on a United National Congress (UNC) platform on April 14, pledging support and promising to vote for the UNC on April 28. He gave a rousing endorsement of Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

Jeremie who served as AG in the Patrick Manning administrations from 2003-2007 and from 2009 to 2010, called for an end to the race talk that seeks to divide in this critical election as he was warmly welcomed by Persad-Bissessar, whom she referred to as her brother, in law. Both are attorneys.

He called her a patriot and spoke of a relationship which spanned their university days, when she was his teacher.

Persad-Bissessar said she was moved to tears by his statements and assured him of a warm welcome into the UNC family.

Alluding to his role in her government should she win the April 28 election, Persad-Bissessar told him to “brace his back” as there was a lot of work to be done.

Mounting the platform just before Persad-Bissessar closed the meeting in her constituency at Bhupsingh Park, Penal, Jeremie acknowledged that he was the last man anyone of them would have expected to see on the UNC platform, given his past portfolio in the ruling party.

“I have fought bitter battles in the Parliament against many who are seated here tonight. I understand that it is frowned upon to change sides in our culture. I am fully aware of how I can be harmed for this, and I stand to gain nothing for myself.”

He said he was a child of the PNM, explaining, “My deceased mother worked for the first Prime Minister of TT Dr Eric Williams. As a child, I spent hours in a room at Whitehall outside of the office of Dr Eric Williams, waiting for my mother to finish work.

“At university, I became a member of the PNM and years later, I served the PNM loyally in the parliament. Two weeks ago – only two weeks ago – for those of you who listen to the politics in a public meeting, at Harris Promenade in San Fernando, they spoke in complimentary terms of my work as AG.

“...I speak to you as a patriot and ... by definition, I speak therefore outside of the PNM.

“For me, it has always been country first. That is why I took up battles against corruption, because corruption robs the young and unborn.”

Before an audience which included representatives of the labour movement, Prof Selwyn Cudjoe and former PNM minister Fr Kennedy Swaratsingh, Jeremie, recalled having known Persad-Bissessar since she taught him the English language course at UWI, more than 30 years ago.

“Later, when she switched to law and came to the Cave Hill Campus as a student, she was, if memory serves me correctly, pregnant with her son. She struggled to attend lectures, so I was happy to lend her, my teacher, the notes that I had.

“She went on to finish top of her class at the UWI,” he declared, for which Persad-Bissessar thanked him when she took the platform.

“Years later, we found ourselves on opposing sides, but both serving the people of TT in the Parliament.

“I view her too as a patriot. I view her as a mother, a grandmother, and a friend who has worked tirelessly in service of the people of TT.

“Tonight, I want to say a couple things to you. First, it is time for us as a people to stop the race talk.”

Referring to a headline in the Express which spoke to UNC using “black people” to divide, coming out of a PNM meeting, Jeremie noted, “The newspaper on Saturday was full of it, and it did not come from the UNC. It came from a PNM platform.

“Listen carefully, at a meeting in Chaguanas last Wednesday, it was said that the UNC was using black Trinidadians to spread a message of division and hate... as a black man with a certain degree of academic and national accomplishments, I stand here in front of you to endorse the UNC.

“Second, I urge you to take a good, hard look at the state of the country today. I ask you to look at this honestly. To say that our country is in crisis is an understatement. The criminal element is threatening to overwhelm us all. That is not my conclusion; it is the conclusion of the present government, which declared that a state of emergency (SoE) existed in this country several months ago.”

The SoE ended at midnight on April 13.

He said, “The economy is beyond crisis. We have spent all of our reserves in the past ten years, and all the economic and social indicators suggest that we are in a place beyond crisis.

“So.., we stand together at a junction in our history and on the eve of a very important general election, I ask you a couple of questions.

“The first is a question that has been asked before of a population faced with the choice that you face on 28th April: Are you better off today than you were ten years ago?

“Brothers and sisters, the answer to this question must honestly be no.

“I then ask another question: Are you going to continue with those who have driven us to the point of crisis? The logical answer must be no.

“And so, I urge you to do as I will on 28th April. I will vote for change. I will vote for the UNC. I urge you to ask your friends to do so – I will, ask your relatives to do so- I will.

I urge you to ignore the race talk and those who will divide us on the basis of race.

“Give yourselves and your children a chance to change our future.”

In 2024, Jeremie was tipped to be appointed as a judge on the Appeal Court but withdrew from the process after members of the Judiciary and legal fraternity raised concerns over his roles in the criminal prosecutions of the late former prime minister Basdeo Panday, the late former chief justice Satnarine Sharma, vascular surgeon Prof Vijay Naraynsingh and the investigation of the late former CL Financial executive chairman Lawrence Duprey, Newsday reported in articles on May 11 and May 26.

Former prime minister Dr Keith Rowley has also been critical of Jeremie over his role in a 2006 Integrity Commission probe of the Landate housing development in Tobago. The commission’s report was sent to the Office of the DPP without Rowley having a chance to respond. This led to a court ruling in favour of Rowley on the basis of a breach of his constitutional rights.

The Law Association had passed a vote of no confidence against Jeremie as the titular head of the bar over allegations of interference in criminal cases.

Rowley, in a July 2009 interview, recalled that he had made a public statement that Jeremie was unfit to be the AG when Manning brought him back into the government.