Moonilal to Rowley: Shut or be exposed

In the wake of his three-day ultimatum to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to fire Attorney General Anand Ramlogan for his alleged role in the proclamation of Section 34 of the Administration of Justice (Indictable Proceedings) Act 2011, Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley is being warned to desist or face exposure. It comes from deputy political leader of the United National Congress, Housing Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal. In his address to the annual conference of  the People’s National Movement’s Arima constituency at the Arima Town Hall on Sunday, Rowley said: “Anand Ramlogan should not be Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago. So we in the PNM will continue to rally this country to stand up to this Government.” Rowley added: “We meet in (a) public meeting at Arouca Junction on Wednesday night. I invite everyone of you present in this room to come to Five Rivers Junction Wednesday night. “If by Wednesday Anand Ramlogan is still the Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago, I am asking the people of Trinidad and Tobago to stand by for further action. “I say to Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, do like Richard Nixon when he was confronted and stand up and tell this nation 'I am not a crook'."

 

Moonilal, in an interview yesterday, said Rowley was giving weekly ultimatum to the Government. “I want to demand that he stop giving ultimatums or else we will expose him,” Moonilal added. He said the ruling People’s Partnership would hold a mass rally at Mid centre-Mall, Chaguanas, on Saturday from 2 pm. He said that rally was demanded by supporters and activists who were “extremely hungry and thirsty” for such an event, especially in the light of a recent protest march from Port-of-Spain to the Office of the President, St Ann’s, by Rowley’s PNM. Moonilal said the PNM had become a bigger group of hypocrites in recent weeks, calling for resignations and giving ultimatums to the Government. “We have looked on and we believe it is time that we respond in the public,” he added. Moonilal said the PP expected between 25,000 to 30,000 people at the rally on Saturday.

 

He said speakers at the rally will focus on the October 1 national budget and development plans and strategies for the future. “This rally is also to send a message to the hypocritics in the PNM who believe they are holier than thou,” he added. Moonilal said the rally would be a demonstration of the power of the people. He said there would be no petition calling for the removal of Rowley, ”but I think the mass rally will at least shut up the PNM for a while.” Persad-Bissessar is expected to deliver a major address. Other leaders of the partnership also would address the rally, including Minority Leader in the Tobago House of Assembly, Ashworth Jack, who is the political leader of the Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP). Moonilal said the rank-and-file members of the Movement for Social Justice were still supporting the PP. He said it was only people at the leadership of the MSJ who had withdrawn their support.