I have often resisted the allure of calling for persons resignation from office in Government because I find it counter-productive and in most cases inconsequential.
That isn’t to say that many persons in the current administration ought to be replaced, however, such as in the recent case regarding Stuart Young and his calamitous connection to the Venezuelan fiasco, his is only the last set of fingers to be caught in the proverbial pie.
As such, calling his for Young’s resignation, if employed, alone would only be a superficial band aid placed over the PNM administration, as the clear outcome from the showdown between the Prime Minister and Robert Le Hunte demonstrated that Young has the full approval of the sitting Cabinet.
There can be no guarantee therefore, that his replacement would be given any conflicting directive, and the only solution left would be to replace the entire government.
That having been said, however, with the clarification provided by the Ambassador of the United States of America regarding his personal meeting with Young, it is now evident that not only was the Minister of National Security willing to misrepresent certain details in his retelling to the public, but that he had no qualms with doing so while under Oath in the Senate.
According to Mr Mondello, “Since the government has spoken publicly about my May 6 conversation with Minister Young, though, I wish to affirm that I expressed concern to the Minister in that conversation about the consistency of Delcy Rodriguez’s visit to Port of Spain with Trinidad and Tobago’s obligations as a party to the Rio Treaty.”
Of course this vastly conflicts with Mr Young’s response to a question posed to him by Senator Wade Mark, as he then claimed, “As I have said, we continue to have open channels of communication. In fact only last week the US Government’s top diplomat in T&T, that is, the Ambassador, not any underling who may or may not be speaking with the media, had a conversation with me as a representative of Cabinet. There was no raising of the Rio Treaty.”
Not only does this rebuttal of Mr Young’s statement by the US Ambassador mark yet another international embarrassment by this current administration, but if Mr Mondello is to be believed, it means that Stuart Young deliberately misled the Parliament and by extension the citizens of this country in the hallowed halls of Parliament.
For that reason therefore, it is clear that Stuart Young cannot be believed or trusted to carry out his duties in good faith and must either resign from his Ministerial portfolio, or failing which, it must be rescinded by the Prime Minister.
In the past week it was decided that persons entering into oath before the Courts in Trinidad and Tobago will no longer be required to place their affirmation hand upon a religious text, but rather would only be made to recite the short statement of intent.
This has sparked a debate on how large a role religion plays a role in a persons moral persuasion whether or not the decision will negatively impact the quality of testimony that is being delivered to the judiciary as a result.
If it is found that Stuart Young did, in fact, attempt to hoodwink the Parliament and the people in the Senate that day, it demonstrates that there are individuals who have absolutely no regard for religion, the Constitution or any other sacred text, if it prevents them from accomplishing their own selfish objectives.