Robin Montano, interim chairman of the Independent Liberal Party, is not aware of the existence of a cabal within the four-month-old political entity. He, however, is certain one exists in the ruling People's Partnership administration which he voted for in the last general election.The attorney, who smells victory for the Jack Warner-led ILP in the next general election, constitutionally due in 2015, said he became disenchanted with the PP coalition almost immediately after it took office in 2010.
Q: Mr Montano, a few years ago you told me you were no longer interested in active politics. What made you change your mind?
A: (Seated in his black leather swivel chair in his Abercromby Street, Port-of-Spain, chambers, Thursday morning) That was perfectly true at the time I said it, and the truth is, there was nothing on the horizon which was attractive to me.
What made you join the ILP?
Let me put it this way: there is only one reason for politics, there is only one reason for government: to make life better for the people...full stop.
What propelled you into joining the ILP when you had clearly other choices among the traditional parties?
(Montano cupping his forehead with one hand recalled why he left the PNM; one of the reasons being it had become a racist party).
Wait... Wait... Racist?
(Getting a little hot under the collar) You want to discuss the PNM or you want to discuss the ILP?
I thought I was laying the foundation for us to get to the ILP?
Ok. The short answer to that is yes, and it was well documented at that time and I stand today...
Can you give us one example of this racist allegation against the PNM?
Oh gosh, you want one example? There has never been (slightly clapping his palms) any non-black or African person to achieve any position of high eminence in the party, who was capable of becoming the political leader of that party...
What about its former chairman Dr Lenny Saith?
Clevon, Lenny Saith was never a popular politician; he catered to a constituency of one...that is, Patrick Manning.
Very well. Fast-forwarding to today. How was Jack Warner able to draw you out of his political hat to join the party?
(A huge smile) Because Mr Warner appeared on the scene as a candidate, as a person who genuinely cared for and about the people...as a person who can and who will change the face of Trinidad politics.You know, one of the things that really pleased me was that Mr Warner's election to the Chaguanas West seat, to my mind, and in the mind of a lot of other people, signalled the end of the tribal politics in this country.
There is a school of thought which suggests this really began when the NAR severely trounced the PNM in the general election of 1986.
Well, no, I disagree with you completely, with that school of thought.
Didn't the results of the May 24, 2010 general election signal that the population was moving against tribal voting?
The May 2010 victory of the PP came like a false dawn.It is clear that this country is crying out for leadership that is not concerned with the colour of a man's skin or the texture of his hair.
What this country is concerned about is with performance, and that is what Mr Warner is promising. Mr Warner is a well-known workaholic, and like most workaholics, he scorns those people who don't work. The result is that anybody, everybody who works with him pretty well has to try and achieve his standards or they get short shrift from him, and I don't blame him.
Mr chairman, isn't Warner much less encumbered by way of family commitments? Most other parliamentary representatives have to look after domestic business, such as bringing up young children, and would like to put out (a similar) amount of working hours to service their constituents.
I can understand your comments there, but my answer to that is that this man is absolutely phenomenal in his working output.
Mr chairman, how are you certain that Warner's work ethic would be replicated if his team should form the next government?
Let me put it this way, I am going to work like crazy to make sure that his work ethic permeates all the way down.
OK, let's now turn to a very topical issue concerning you...your e-mail bacchanal, to be exact.
What, my e-mail?Yes. I am furious about that!
Listen, this thing broke out a couple days ago and you are still furious over that...what happened, you have that much fury to boil and fry?
Clevon, I am very much surprised that you would take such a flippant and lighthearted approach to what I consider a very serious matter.Absolutely. And I am going to continue to be furious. I am furious with this blatant invasion of my privacy. I am angry with the media, I am angry with the media because these so-called guardians of our democracy, the Express and the Trinidad Guardian especially, they should be taking this matter up. This issue is bigger than Robin Montano.
Why do you think, Mr Montano, that the Guardian, or any newspaper for that matter, should do their work how you see it?
It is not according to how I see it, it is about doing what is right. Tell me something, do you think that it is right for citizens' e-mails to be hacked?
No.
Right, and if citizens' e-mails are hacked, doesn't the press have a duty to call on the Government to stop this nonsense? Doesn't the press have a duty to investigate it? Or are you saying the press doesn't have a duty?
Mr Montano, with all respect for your feelings on this matter, don't you also think that the press would have their own timetable on how and when they pursue certain stories?
In other words, their own agendas?
No, Mr Montano, I said their own timetable.
Timetable? No, what you really mean by that, Mr Raphael, is they have their own agenda, and I do believe they have their own agenda.
Mr Montano, for the third time, I am saying timetable, not agenda.
You can call it what you like (leans back on his chair with hands folded on his stomach). You know and I know the media have their own agenda!
I keep hearing this media agenda accusation over the years. What is the media agenda, Mr Montano?
Well, you tell me...
Next year would make it 50 years I am in the media, and as far as I am concerned, isn't it to inform, educate and entertain?
OK, to educate, inform and entertain, all right, fine. So while the media educates and informs, doesn't the media also have a right to expose wrongs in the society, or no?
Which the media have been doing over the years...
Well, under "information," don't you think if a government–forget about this Government for now–if a government is illegally tapping phones of citizens...
This Government is tapping your phones?
(A matter-of-fact tone) Yes. I have as much evidence as I had before it was exposed in Parliament when my phone was being tapped by Manning.
Why would they want to tap your phone, Mr Montano?
(Animatedly) Good question! (Raised voice) Ask them, don't ask me! Why do they want to hack me? Ask them!I have never in my life (back to normal voice tone) been engaged in any form of criminality or any form of subversion and I will never be engaged in any of that.
Were you at any time enamoured of the PP administration?
(Head bent with an impatient countenance.) You want to me to give short answers, and sometimes it is very difficult to do that. The questions can be short, but the answers are sometimes necessarily long. But let me try and make it short for you.Off the top of my head, I began having difficulties with this administration almost from the start of their tenure. It was the Reshmi thing, then followed by other big and little things.
Mr Montano, a birdie whispered to me that you are concerned about a cabal within the ranks of the ILP?
(Curious expression.) Am I concerned about a cabal in the ILP? Never. Never. And to the best of my knowledge there is no cabal in the ILP.
In the PP?
All the evidence seems to suggest so, yes.
What kind of evidence?
Well, the fact that there is this group of ministers around the Prime Minister who clearly seem to be influencing her in all kinds of ways.
Isn't it correct, Mr Montano, that most if not all leaders surround themselves with an inner team?
You can look at it in two ways, and the answer to that is yes, there is always an inner Cabinet and there always has been, in just about every country, an inner Cabinet.However, there is a difference between an inner Cabinet as advisers who are being seen to have the best interest of the country at heart, and an inner Cabinet of advisers and ministers who are seen to be operating in their own personal interest.