Smart: Overthrow of Robinson never discussed

Anthony Smart who served as attorney general during the 1990 uprising said he never held any discussion with any minister about the overthrow of then prime minister Arthur NR Robinson. Smart said he was not aware of any discussions that were held on the matter. He is calling on retired public service head, Reginald Dumas, to name the minister who asked him, in the middle of the crisis, to serve in a new government. Dumas, retired head of the public service, who was permanent secretary to prime minister Arthur NR Robinson at the time, gave evidence earlier this week to the Commission of Enquiry into the 1990 attempted overthrow of the government.

 Asked if he felt there was a plan by government ministers to stage a right wing counter coup, get rid of Robinson and install a new government after the Jamaat staged the uprising, he replied there was a possibility. Dumas, in his evidence, said a minister called him the day after and told him to stand by to serve as a minister in a new government. But Smart, in a release from his law firm, Gittens, Smart & Co, said he was one of the NAR ministers at Camp Ogden (trying to run an interim government while others, including Robinson, were being held hostage at the Red House by Jamaat al Muslimeen insurgents). Smart, taking offence to that, recalled other statements by Dumas during the enquiry. He said Dumas told the commission that one of the ministers expressed the view to him that the army should storm the Red House.

Dumas said he imagined the inference to mean to kill the Muslimeen and all therein, including Robinson. Smart said, “I wish to put the following on record for the benefit of the Commission of Enquiry and the public.
• “I was one of the ministers at Camp Ogden on July 28, 1990. The others were Herbert Atwell, Clive Pantin, Lincoln Myers and Carson Charles.
• “I held no discussion with any of the aboved named ministers or with anyone else for that matter about the overthrow of Mr Robinson nor was I aware of any discussions being held on the matter.
• “I never discussed with Dumas the possibility of his serving as a minister in a new government.”

Smart concluded, “These allegations by Dumas are serious and damning against all the ministers who were at Camp Ogden on that day. “He has a public duty and on obligation to name the minister with whom he had the discussion if only to clear the names of the other ministers. “And I call upon him to do so.”