SHAS­TRI BOODAN

The Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Ch­agua­nas West says Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley should know bet­ter than to at­tack the Law As­so­ci­a­tion.

That’s the as­sess­ment of Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly MP, who has is­sued a me­dia state­ment on the mat­ter.

“This un­war­rant­ed at­tack by Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley on the en­tire le­gal fra­ter­ni­ty was no less than an at­tempt to in­tim­i­date the Le­gal Pro­fes­sion in­to aban­don­ing the re­quest of its mem­bers to hold a spe­cial gen­er­al meet­ing to dis­cuss the mis­con­duct of At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Regi­nald Ar­mour S.C.,” the MP wrote in the re­lease, which he is­sued short­ly af­ter the Prime Min­is­ter’s me­dia con­fer­ence on Sat­ur­day.

The Ch­agua­nas West MP al­so field­ed ques­tions from re­porters on Sun­day in his con­stituen­cy, while he at­tend­ed the open­ing of a crick­et coach­ing camp at the In­vaders Recre­ation Ground, Fe­lic­i­ty.

MP Ram­bal­ly, who is a lawyer, said the Law As­so­ci­a­tion must stand up for it­self.

“We are all en­ti­tled to have our views of the Law As­so­ci­a­tion as to their steps and as­so­ci­a­tion. The Law As­so­ci­a­tion has a role to per­form, a man­date un­der the Le­gal Pro­fes­sion Act.  They are part of the democ­ra­cy of this coun­try and a crit­i­cal one too and Dr Row­ley ought to know bet­ter than to at­tack the Law As­so­ci­a­tion,” he said.

“In my own hum­ble opin­ion, I ex­pect the Law As­so­ci­a­tion to stand up for it­self. I ex­pect the coun­cil to stand up—for the mem­ber­ship, all the lawyers, the le­gal pro­fes­sion, the le­gal fra­ter­ni­ty—against what can on­ly be deemed to be the crass­est, in­tim­ida­to­ry tac­tics on the part of Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley,” the Ch­agua­nas West MP as­sert­ed.

He added: “Re­al­ly, that press con­fer­ence yes­ter­day leaves much to be de­sired. As the head of the cab­i­net, as the head of the Re­pub­lic of T&T, Dr Row­ley needs to un­der­stand what good gov­er­nance en­tails and the con­duct and be­hav­iour that is as­so­ci­at­ed with lead­ing by ex­am­ple.”

Standing (back row) – Head of Central Sports Club, Richard Ramkissoon (left); Coach Ryan Austin; and Member of Parliament for Chaguanas West Dinesh Rambally MP, at the start of a Cricket Development Camp at Felicity on Sunday 3 July 2022. [Image by SHASTRI BOODAN]

Ac­cord­ing to the Op­po­si­tion MP, the Prime Min­is­ter seemed to have no idea of what was tak­ing place in the coun­try.

“While he was away, he seemed to have lost touch with the grounds of T&T,” he said.  “Com­ing back yes­ter­day, it was clear Dr Row­ley was re­fer­ring to a re­cusal of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al when it is patent­ly, pel­lu­cid­ly crys­tal clear that we have an is­sue—an or­der of a Mi­a­mi court, not re­cusal, noth­ing to do with a re­cusal.”

MP Ram­bal­ly point­ed out: “It was an out­right dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tion of Regi­nald Ar­mour SC as At­tor­ney Gen­er­al in pro­ceed­ings where he is rep­re­sent­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go. He was dis­qual­i­fied, and as a re­sult, what the judge found against the AG—the judge in Mi­a­mi—al­so dis­qual­i­fied, au­to­mat­i­cal­ly, the US Law firm.”

“Dr Row­ley seemed to be to­tal­ly un­aware of this de­vel­op­ment and what has hap­pened in the Mi­a­mi court, and in­stead was in­sist­ing that what he is there to talk about is a re­cusal,” he added.

The Crick­et De­vel­op­ment Camp be­ing held at the In­vaders Recre­ation Ground, Fe­lic­i­ty, was done in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Cen­tral Sports Club.  It will run every Sun­day for the next eight weeks.

There al­so will be a Crick­et De­vel­op­ment Camp on week­days from 9 am to 2 pm, when the school va­ca­tion pe­ri­od starts.

Coach­ing will be con­duct­ed by for­mer West In­dies play­er, Ryan Austin.