Ministers on Jack’s hanging petition: We’ll go with Cabinet

Ministers Winston Peters, Bhoe Tewarie and Vernella Alleyne-Toppin will be toeing the Cabinet line regarding Works Minister Jack Warner’s death penalty petition. All three confirmed this position yesterday when asked if they would be signing their colleague Warner’s petition to get hangings back on track. On Tuesday, Warner launched a campaign calling on all MPs and senators  to sign a petition advocating  enforcement of the death penalty. He said copies would be sent to the Prime Minister. Warner said this was “our opportunity” to speak with the Government, Opposition and independent senators. He said he had informed the Prime Minister and Attorney General of his move and did not need the Government’s permission for it. “If the Government is sidelining me, Chaguanas West is not,” Warner had added.

 

At a Valencia function on Wednesday, Prime Minister Persad- Bissessar reportedly said Warner’s campaign was a personal one and it was not a policy decision of the Cabinet to embark on such a campaign. Yesterday, copies of the petition were circulated by Warner’s Chaguanas West office, including to the media. At yesterday’s post-Cabinet media briefing, Warner’s three colleagues—Tewarie, Peters and Allyene-Toppin—responded on whether they would sign the petition and how they would deal with the situation. Peters said: “My personal view has nothing to do with the collective responsibility I have in Cabinet. “Whatever my colleagues in Cabinet do, we’ll all have to take responsibility for it.

“Whatever Cabinet agrees to do, that’s what we’re gonna do—that’s what I’m prepared to do...I don’t know how to divorce myself from being a private citizen from a public figure. People forget you have a private life. I’m a public figure and whatever I do I think it has to be done in that context. Tewarie said: “Minister Warner is both a minister and a constituency representative so I suppose to the extent that he is an MP of the people, he’s taken an initiative. “But any decision we take on the death penalty will be from the point of view of Cabinet and we’ll have to carry collective responsibility on that. 

 

“I could express my personal view but it’s not appropriate at this time.” Alleyne-Toppin added: “I concur with my colleagues, we’re responsible to the nation as a Cabinet and Government and we have a position that we’ll agree on when the time is necessary.” Warner launched his campaign the same day he visited residents of the Prime Minister’s Siparia constituency who had been protesting. He reportedly calmed residents—who  dubbed him the “Can do minister—and  lobbied for the PURE project to alleviate their woes. The project was under probe. However, an email from Warner’s staff which stated Persad-Bissessar was also expected to visit the area on Tuesday along with Warner was subsequently denied by Persad-Bissessar’s office which indicated this was not on her itinerary. After yesterday’s Cabinet meeting, Persad-Bissessar presided over a meeting of the National Security Council  (NSC) at the Diplomatic Centre. Present at the centre was former admiral Richard Kelshall who had been tipped to handle four units from John Sandy’s National Security portfolio. The units were, however, returned to Sandy recently, after word of the transfer broke.

After the NSC meeting, Persad-Bissessar met with the COP, TOP, NJAC and MSJ leaders of the Partnership at 5.30 pm to begin talks on Partnership issues.