MILLIONS FOR FARIS’S WIFE BUT NONE FOR SCHOLARSHIPS FOR CHILDREN

The obscene revelation that the Office of the Prime Minister has retained the legal services of the law firm belonging to the wife of Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi, demonstrates the Rowley PNM’s flagrant conduct in using public office to enrich their friends and financiers.

Keith Rowley must explain to the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago why yet again, potentially millions of dollars will be going from taxpayers into the pockets of Faris Al-Rawi’s family.

What makes this latest PNM insider deal all the more repugnant is the fact that the Attorney General’s wife has been hired to fight the families of children demanding an equitable share of scholarship funds.

Without any sense of shame, in a letter dated April 12th 2021, the law firm of Al Wari, Haynes-Soo Hon and Co, told the attorney working on behalf of children denied scholarships that “ we are unable to accept your client’s tendentiously framed claim that it has “acquired a legitimate expectation that scholarships would continue to be awarded on the basis of merit and academic achievement as opposed to other arbitrary and subjective criteria.”

Through his latest self-serving act, Keith Rowley is telling the nation that the state cannot afford to help the children from poor families access scholarships, but there is however millions of taxpayer dollars to pay the family of his own Attorney General.

The Attorney General's weak defence in claiming his Ministry is not involved in this, reeks of the same desperate excuses of him saying he recused himself from Cabinet while his colleagues approved the State rental of his properties to the tune of millions of dollars.

Is this why the PNM gutted the Procurement Act and removed all transparency regarding legal fees paid by the State? To hand out taxpayer dollars to members of the PNM Wives Club?

The Attorney General continues to degrade and diminish the respect, authority and integrity that comes with the Office of the AG with this repeated “milking” of the treasury to benefit his family.

In any other part of the World, a sitting AG’s wife receiving State legal briefs from the Government would not only be wholly condemned but avoided at all costs, but under Rowley’s PNM, anything goes once it benefits their friends, family and financiers.

Opposition Abstains from The House of Representatives Sitting as Covid-19 Safety Concerns Still Not Addressed.

Opposition Members of Parliament have abstained from today's sitting of the House of Representatives as our COVID-19 safety concerns are yet to be addressed after raising them almost a week ago.

Upon the news of the Prime Minister testing positive for COVID-19, the Opposition wrote to the Speaker seeking guidance and assurances that measures were being implemented to protect all members. Days later, it is quite concerning that we have received no response or guidance on a matter which threatens everyone within the Parliament.

One must ask the serious question if Trinidad and Tobago is now a one party state, where opposing voices are being stifled in our Parliament.

Opposition Members take their Parliamentary obligations very seriously, however, as we have seen reported in the media, thirty-five (35) citizens have gone into quarantine as a result of being primary and secondary contacts of the Prime Minister.

As it stands, we are still unsure how many members of our House of Representatives have been primary or secondary contacts of the Prime Minister.

Today as the Government announces new lockdown measures to try and stem the spike in positive cases, one has to wonder why the Government refuses to subject Parliament to the same standards as the rest of the nation. Why is the Government applying one rule for citizens and another rule for themselves?

The Opposition remains concerned about the Government’s complete mishandling of the health crisis, and we will continue to seek the interests of citizens on this critical matter.

Response to the Opposition Leader’s latest attack on the Minister of Health

This is pure mischief and the usual disruptive behaviour of a deranged Opposition Leader struggling for relevance.

As all CARICOM countries are busily engaged in positioning ourselves to obtain vaccines from a turbulent pandemic market environment, we in Trinidad and Tobago are careful to obtain and accept vaccines ONLY from sources which have WHO approval and certification. This is for the protection of our population.

It was in this situation of constant regional communication that Prime Minister Mottley of Barbados indicated to me (not the Minister of Health) that Barbados was offered 50,000 doses of a vaccine from India and that she was making a gift gesture of 2,000 of these doses available to Trinidad and Tobago for “essential persons” (including PM and Cabinet).

I accepted the offer knowing that not all suppliers of these products from India had received WHO clearance. I anticipated and it did come to pass that by the time we got the items and waited a while, the WHO only recently certified the source supplier in India and thus we were able to use these vaccines, not on the Cabinet, but on our frontline health care givers.

Our national program remains on track as we have continuously informed the national population.

Monies have been paid, local preparations have been made, orders and negotiations outside of the COVAX supply are currently underway and we are close to receiving and using our anticipated supply.

Vaccines are currently said to be available from many sources around the world, not all of which carry the quality assurance stamp of the WHO. It is up to individual governments to determine how they treat with the various sources and supply chains. In the case of Trinidad and Tobago, in protection of our citizens, we will maintain our policy of working within the COVAX, WHO and PAHO and expect to receive our safe quotas from myriad sources as soon as they become available.

We will ignore the persistent attempts of the irresponsible Opposition whose only aim is to undermine the national effort and disturb the psyche of the people of Trinidad and Tobago.

Notwithstanding the best efforts of the Opposition Leader and her few followers, the people of Trinidad and Tobago can continue to rest assured that their interests are well served in the management of this pandemic challenges by a Government which has been careful at the beginning and remains competent and caring to the end.

Stuart Young caught in another lie

Another act of deceit by National Security Minister Stuart Young.

In moving a Motion of No Confidence in the Minister of National Security, we revealed that Minister Young allowed selected persons to enter the country without having to undergo the required quarantine under the public health regulations.

According to a letter from the Ministry of National Security given to the Opposition by concerned individuals, Minister Young personally allowed persons to bypass official quarantine measures by going from the airport directly to their residences.

This is a slap in the face to the thousands of nationals of Trinidad and Tobago who remain stranded abroad. This act of deceit not only contravenes the principle of equal treatment under our national laws but erodes public trust.

Today marks 311 days since our nationals have been barred from entering their homeland by Stuart Young and having learnt of this today, it begs the question of who is this Government really representing?

Minister Young used the defence of the Vienna Convention, however, this is grasping at straws, as several countries have imposed state quarantine measures across the board.

The Minister’s defence is weak, particularly given that the country was told that International Election Observers were unable to monitor the August 10th General Election due to Trinidad and Tobago’s quarantine requirements. Why did this privilege not apply then?

Again we ask, why is Stuart Young discriminating against our citizens? Why does this PNM Government keep treating our nationals as second class citizens?

This act by Minister Young further highlights why he is totally unfit and ill-suited to the responsibility as Minister of National Security.

--END--

STUART YOUNG MUST STOP TRYING TO DISTRACT US FROM HIS INCOMPETENCE

"In his desperation to hide his possible misconduct, Minister Young evades the questions posed by Mrs. Persad-Bissessar by referring to legally locked down borders. The country needs to know, what law empowers him – and only him – to grant exemptions which thousands of our citizens stranded abroad have been begging for, and which he has been awarding with such blatant discrimination."

Minister Stuart Young’s juvenile and childish response confirms both his incompetence, dangerousness and why this Motion of No-Confidence brought by Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar is absolutely needed.

Stuart Young has been inflicted on the citizens of this country at a time when the people of Trinidad and Tobago face unparalleled crises of Covid-19 lockdowns, Venezuelan migrants and refugees. We could not have had a worse, more inept, more ill-suited person in charge. He has consistently shown himself to be petty, juvenile, unskilled and out of his league, leaving our citizens in serious danger, both here and abroad.

In trying to distract from the Opposition Leader’s exposure of his incompetence, Minister Young arrogantly disrespects the Leader of the Opposition, who represents over 309,000 citizens. Yet the only relevance Stuart Young has achieved as Minister is setting a national record for his 57 recusals from Cabinet meetings, while his family members secured million-dollar contracts from the PNM Government.

In his desperation to hide his possible misconduct, Minister Young evades the questions posed by Mrs. Persad-Bissessar by referring to legally locked down borders. The country needs to know, what law empowers him – and only him – to grant exemptions which thousands of our citizens stranded abroad have been begging for, and which he has been awarding with such blatant discrimination.

Minister Young has been a failure as a public official. The UNC will meet him in the political Gayelle, the pavement and the Parliament, where he will have to face the music whether he likes it or not. He MUST be held to account.

-END-

Dr. Kirk Meighoo

Public Relations Officer

757-3489

OPPOSITION FILES MOTION OF NO CONFIDENCE IN MINISTER OF NATIONAL SECURITY, STUART YOUNG

Today I filed a motion of no confidence in the Minister of National Security, Stuart Young.

Mr. Young’s failure to faithfully discharge his duties to the people of this nation as their Minister of National Security, has compelled the Opposition to take action.

Since his appointment as Minister of National Security, Minister Young has been responsible for one disaster after another. These include the chaotic and poorly conceived migrant registration policy, the rapid deterioration of security of our national borders, and the secret award of private security contracts.

The confused and muddled manner in which Minister Young continues to preside over the Government's exemption process represents a new low for himself. The necessity of this motion is underscored by the draconian and authoritarian decision to keep our borders closed to citizens, leaving tens of thousands of nationals stranded abroad and making Trinidad and Tobago the only nation in the entire world where nationals require an exemption directly from a Government Minister to return home. This Ministerial authoritarianism is unacceptable and unconstitutional.

The manner in which the exemption process has also been conducted is evidently riddled with discrimination, inequality and unfairness. As we have observed over the past few months, many citizens have been inexplicably delayed and given the runaround by the Minister, while close family members of the PNM administration seem to experience no problem with securing exemptions.

Additionally, the influx of Venezuelan migrants has been allowed to persist with no immediate attention placed on border management, even as Venezuelan pirates have been advertising their trips to and from Trinidad openly on social media. We charge that Stuart Young has sabotaged our nation’s border security by preventing the use of multiple air and naval assets because they were purchased under a UNC-led Government.

The lack of proper border security has allowed a growing human- and weapons-trafficking network to flourish with the effects further crippling our nation.

Mr. Stuart Young has proven himself to be the most incompetent, ineffective - even bordering on dangerous - Minister of National Security to ever hold office. Every day he remains in office is a further threat to our safety and security as citizens of Trinidad and Tobago.

A full case will be presented in the Parliament outlining every detail and every instance where he has placed the security and reputation of our nation at risk.

All 19 Opposition Members Parliament stand firmly in support of this motion given the turmoil and grave danger our constituents and, by extension, all citizens face on a daily basis. For the sake of our national well-being, we pray that our colleagues on the Government side will see Mr Young for what he truly is – a clear and present danger to the national security of Trinidad and Tobago.

--END--