Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has again de­fend­ed Hous­ing Min­is­ter and Ca­roni Cen­tral MP David Lee, af­firm­ing that he re­mains a mem­ber of her Cab­i­net de­spite mount­ing calls for his re­moval fol­low­ing his re­lease on $1 mil­lion bail on fraud-re­lat­ed charges yes­ter­day.

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions from Guardian Me­dia via What­sApp hours af­ter Lee se­cure bail, Per­sad-Bisses­sar made her po­si­tion clear, say­ing, “Min­is­ter Lee con­tin­ues to be the Min­is­ter of Hous­ing.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s sup­port for Lee came even as Op­po­si­tion Chief Whip Mar­vin Gon­za­les called on Prime Min­is­ter to “do the ho­n­ourable thing” and im­me­di­ate­ly re­voke the min­is­te­r­i­al port­fo­lio of Lee, fol­low­ing the crim­i­nal charges that were re­laid against him on Tues­day.

Lee was grant­ed $1 mil­lion bail yes­ter­day, as the State pre­pares to lay an in­dict­ment against him and busi­ness­man Hugh Leong Poi.

The men are charged with con­spir­ing to de­fraud the State over the im­por­ta­tion of a $2 mil­lion Mer­cedes-Benz G63 AMG. The State al­leges that Lee false­ly claimed own­er­ship to ben­e­fit from par­lia­men­tary tax ex­emp­tions.

Fol­low­ing Lee’s re-ar­rest on Tues­day, the PM had said, “We have re­spect for the courts of the land. Min­is­ter Lee was pre­vi­ous­ly ac­quit­ted of these al­le­ga­tions. Now that the charges have been re-laid, we have con­fi­dence in the courts to de­liv­er a just re­sult.”

Speak­ing at a me­dia brief­ing at the of­fice of the Op­po­si­tion Leader at Charles Street, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day, Gon­za­les said the sit­u­a­tion presents a se­ri­ous test of lead­er­ship and in­tegri­ty for the Prime Min­is­ter, not­ing that there is a clear prece­dent for how sim­i­lar mat­ters were han­dled by past ad­min­is­tra­tions.

“David Lee serves at the plea­sure of the Prime Min­is­ter, and there­fore it falls up­on the Prime Min­is­ter to do the right and ho­n­ourable thing in the pub­lic’s in­ter­est to re­move David Lee from the Cab­i­net of Trinidad and To­ba­go un­til such time he ven­ti­lates his mat­ter be­fore a court.”

Gon­za­les re­mind­ed Per­sad-Bisses­sar that she had tak­en ac­tion when sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tions arose dur­ing her first tenure as prime min­is­ter.

“Jack Warn­er, when he faced se­ri­ous al­le­ga­tions of crime and mon­ey laun­der­ing, and cor­rup­tion, she called up­on him to clear his name, and she re­moved him. When her at­tor­ney gen­er­al faced se­ri­ous crim­i­nal al­le­ga­tions with re­spect to wit­ness tam­per­ing, she re­moved him from of­fice,” he said in ref­er­ence to cas­es against Jack Warn­er and Anand Ram­lo­gan.

In 2013, Warn­er re­signed as na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter in Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship gov­ern­ment. Per­sad-Bisses­sar had called on Warn­er to step aside to clear his name, af­ter a US in­dict­ment was filed against him in re­la­tion to a FI­FA bribery scan­dal he was ac­cused of be­ing in­volved in. Warn­er on­ly re­cent­ly won his fight against ex­tra­di­tion to the US to face the charges in re­la­tion to that case.

Ram­lo­gan re­signed as AG in 2019, af­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar called for it fol­low­ing an im­broglio be­tween him­self, then min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Gary Grif­fith and Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty di­rec­tor David West. West had al­leged that Ram­lo­gan asked him to with­draw a wit­ness state­ment he made in a defama­tion law­suit be­tween the Ram­lo­gan and then Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley.

Ac­cord­ing to Gon­za­les, a prece­dent has been set and he even point­ed to in­stances where the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment was forced to take the nec­es­sary ac­tion against their own mem­bers.

“Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald, who served as a min­is­ter un­der the lead­er­ship of for­mer Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, faced crim­i­nal charges and in­ves­ti­ga­tions, and the tra­di­tion is that she was re­lieved of her min­is­te­r­i­al port­fo­lio im­me­di­ate­ly and al­lowed to have her mat­ter cleared be­fore the courts.”

Gon­za­les fur­ther con­tend­ed that back in 2022, the then-op­po­si­tion UNC made al­le­ga­tions against for­mer PNM min­is­ter Fos­ter Cum­mings and, at the time, called up­on Dr Kei­th Row­ley to re­move him from cab­i­net.

“To­day, what is fac­ing the Prime Min­is­ter is not al­le­ga­tions or in­ves­ti­ga­tions but crim­i­nal charges be­ing brought up­on a sit­ting mem­ber of her cab­i­net. As of­fice hold­ers, we have to do the ho­n­ourable thing be­cause the of­fices we hold are not per­son­al to us, they are the of­fices of the peo­ple and must be oc­cu­pied by ho­n­ourable peo­ple.”

Ghany: No need

for dis­missal

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia on the calls for Lee’s re­moval yes­ter­day, how­ev­er, po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tist Prof Hamid Ghany said Lee is not ob­lig­at­ed to ei­ther step down or be re­moved by the Prime Min­is­ter.

He said the on­ly thing spe­cial about the case was the way in which it pro­gressed from be­ing dis­missed to con­tin­u­ing.

“It’s not un­usu­al for par­lia­men­tar­i­ans in very high of­fice to have charges hang­ing over them. In 1995, No­vem­ber of 1995, Mr Bas­deo Pan­day formed a coali­tion gov­ern­ment with the sup­port of Mr ANR Robin­son and he had sex­u­al of­fence charges hang­ing over his head and Pres­i­dent Noor Has­sanali ap­point­ed him as prime min­is­ter with the charges hang­ing over his head. So, none of this is new.”

Ghany not­ed that Per­sad-Bisses­sar had found Lee favourable as an MP can­di­date for the April 28 Gen­er­al Elec­tions be­fore the mat­ter was ini­tial­ly dis­missed that same month and he could not see her los­ing faith in him now.

“He was, nom­i­na­tion day, he was dis­charged on the Mon­day af­ter the nom­i­na­tion day on the Fri­day. So, the leader of the par­ty had con­fi­dence in him to be a can­di­date of the par­ty. When he was dis­charged, he was al­ready nom­i­nat­ed as a can­di­date and then the dis­charge came,” Ghany said.