Sascha Wil­son

Point Fortin high­way pro­test­ers launched a scathing at­tack against Works Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er and oth­er min­is­ters, la­belling them trai­tors, dur­ing a meet­ing at the Debe High School yes­ter­day. Un­der the watch­ful eyes of armed po­lice of­fi­cers, pro­test­ers re­fused to lis­ten to the min­is­ters speak, jeer­ing and boo­ing them at the fifth con­sul­ta­tion meet­ing.

Po­lice of­fi­cers even had to take up po­si­tion in front of the stage, near the podi­um, while Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Chan­dresh Shar­ma was speak­ing, as pro­test­ers rushed for­ward shout­ing and point­ing at the min­is­ter. The pro­test­ers, who have formed them­selves in­to the High­way Re-Route Move­ment, led by Dr Wayne Kublals­ingh, are against the por­tion of the high­way from Debe to Mon De­sir.

Even ju­nior Works Min­is­ter Sta­cy Roop­nar­ine was not spared their wrath as a pro­test­er stood up and shout­ed "shut up, shut up, you're ly­ing," as she was speak­ing. NID­CO pres­i­dent Dr Car­son Charles al­so had to cut short his ad­dress on the ben­e­fits of the high­way as res­i­dents con­stant­ly shout­ed the cho­rus, "re-route, re-route."

Warn­er was la­belled a trai­tor as he tried to ex­plain that the high­way was meant to im­prove their lives. "I am sure the vast ma­jor­i­ty of you want a high­way," Warn­er said. The re­sponse was a deaf­en­ing no by pro­test­ers who re­mained close to the stage. Res­i­dents bear­ing plac­ards in sup­port of the high­way were in the meet­ing, but were drowned out by the pro­test­ers.

The for­mal pro­ceed­ings were cut short due to the dis­rup­tions. The pro­test­ers said they were not op­posed to the high­way just the spe­cif­ic por­tion. They com­plained that the high­way would de­stroy their cul­ture, re­li­gion, his­to­ry, fam­i­ly life, wet­lands and agri­cul­tur­al lands.

Af­ter that seg­ment was con­clud­ed the protest­ing frac­tion stormed out as Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Em­manuel George was speak­ing. In­ter­viewed af­ter­wards Warn­er ex­tend­ed an olive branch to Kublals­ingh, say­ing that he was will­ing to have di­a­logue with him to find a res­o­lu­tion to the mat­ter.

Kublals­ingh said he was al­so will­ing to meet, but nei­ther of them in­di­cat­ed that they would be will­ing to re-con­sid­er their po­si­tion on the is­sue. Al­so speak­ing were Plan­ning and Econ­o­my Min­is­ter Dr Bhoe Tewarie and oth­er NID­CO of­fi­cials. On the Caribbean Air­lines Ltd record­ing a $300 mil­lion debt last year, Warn­er, the for­mer Trans­port Min­is­ter said: "While it was un­der me I am not aware that it had any debt and I am aware there was mon­ey in the bank. What hap­pened since then and now is what you have read and what I have read. I can­not say much more than that."

He said, how­ev­er, that through col­lec­tive re­spon­si­bil­i­ty "I must share the blame as any one else for where CAL is to­day. "I hope it would have been dif­fer­ent so I will share the blame and one day I hope I shall share the praise."