Richard Lord

The con­tro­ver­sial bill­board de­pict­ing the na­tion­al flag with pic­tures of Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er su­per­im­posed on it, was de­mol­ished yes­ter­day. The bill­board, which was lo­cat­ed off the Solomon Ho­choy High­way, Ch­agua­nas, raised con­cerns as it was be­lieved to be a breach of the law and an act of dis­re­spect as the coun­try ob­serves its Gold­en Ju­bilee to­mor­row. Warn­er called a news con­fer­ence at his Aber­crom­by Street, Port-of-Spain of­fice yes­ter­day to de­fend the bill­board say­ing it was not in breach of the law. He said the Op­po­si­tion Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) had al­so put out an ad with the face of its leader, Dr Kei­th Row­ley, su­per­im­posed on the na­tion­al flag. Warn­er pro­duced copies of the ad to prove his point.

At the end of the news con­fer­ence Warn­er said he was in­formed that the bill­board was "be­ing tak­en down as we speak." Deal­ing with the bill­board off the Sir Solomon Ho­choy High­way, Warn­er said he was first in­formed of it via an e-mail sent to him by na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty ad­vis­er to the Prime Min­is­ter, Gary Grif­fith. The e-mail sent at 10.30 pm on Au­gust 27, read in part: "Nev­er­the­less, to avoid fur­ther con­tro­ver­sies, Prime Min­is­ter is seek­ing your as­sis­tance to have it re­moved AS­AP." An­oth­er e-mail, this time sent to Per­sad-Bisses­sar by Grif­fith one day lat­er, said: "The bill­board with the na­tion­al flag paint­ed and the pho­tos su­per­im­posed on it, is in no way the work of the Gov­ern­ment." Grif­fith al­so told the PM the bill­board was on the pri­vate prop­er­ty of Boodram and Sons Used Cars. He said he spoke with the own­er, who in­di­cat­ed that he was a strong sup­port­er of the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship Gov­ern­ment.

In the same e-mail Grif­fith told Per­sad-Bisses­sar: "Nei­ther can the Min­istry of Works get in­volved, as it is con­struct­ed on pri­vate prop­er­ty and is not in­fring­ing on any state prop­er­ty." Warn­er al­so dis­missed claims by the Op­po­si­tion PNM that the flag at the Fire Ser­vices head­quar­ters on Wright­son Road was a de­pic­tion of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress par­ty em­blem which is a ris­ing sun with ra­di­at­ing rays.

"The Fire Ser­vice de­cides to put up an em­blem, which they took from Bak­er's Flags and Em­blems. They put it up there in their colours, and that is the ris­ing sun and that makes news." He in­sist­ed the flag was not in any way the UNC's par­ty sym­bol. Warn­er said all the claims by the Op­po­si­tion were the re­sult of des­per­a­tion.