RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

As Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Mooni­lal faces fresh al­le­ga­tions of cor­rup­tion, sup­port for him is still high in his con­stituen­cy with sev­er­al peo­ple say­ing even though they sel­dom see him, they still love him.

Con­vinced that there is an at­tempt to un­der­mine and frame him, the ma­jor­i­ty of con­stituents from Friend­ship Vil­lage, St Johns, Mon­key Town, Har­ry­paul Vil­lage, Ra­goo Vil­lage, Dun­can Vil­lage, Di­a­mond Vil­lage, Debe, Welling­ton Gar­dens and Ridge­wood Gar­dens agreed that Mooni­lal should not be de­barred from po­lit­i­cal life, say­ing he should con­tin­ue to serve the Oropouche East con­stituen­cy, which he has held for 24 years.

But not all res­i­dents ex­pressed loy­al­ty. Mau­reen Collins of Ra­goo Vil­lage said she is dis­il­lu­sioned with pol­i­tics.

“I don’t want to vote again, PNM or UNC. I don’t see no­body. I don’t see him (Mooni­lal). He don’t come and say, ‘How you do?’ That is true. I’m not ly­ing. If he want, he could go up (for screen­ing), but he does noth­ing for we, sim­ple as that,” Collins said.

At Friend­ship Vil­lage, sup­port for Mooni­lal was over­whelm­ing.

“The al­le­ga­tions that are made against him, I don’t think it is right. It is wrong. They will do any­thing to put him on a low­er scale,” Ramesh Sookhai said as he swept his front yard.

He de­clared his con­tin­ued sup­port.

“I sup­port him all the time and he al­ways sup­ports his peo­ple. The al­le­ga­tions have not changed my mind about him. He is al­ways there for the peo­ple.”

Lawrence John of Har­ry­paul Vil­lage dis­missed the al­le­ga­tions of cor­rup­tion against Mooni­lal de­scrib­ing it as an elec­tion ploy.

“I just think it is un­time­ly they lay fresh al­le­ga­tions now be­cause it is nine years and it seems con­ve­nient that it hap­pens right around the cor­ner from elec­tions, the sil­ly sea­son,” John said.

He added, “It is just an al­le­ga­tion. Dr Mooni­lal has not been con­vict­ed in any court of law. There are peo­ple sit­ting in gov­ern­ment who have worse records than him.”

He in­sist­ed that the pub­lic opin­ion of Mooni­lal re­mains un­changed.

“Peo­ple’s minds are not go­ing to be changed. It’s around elec­tions and it is very in­com­pe­tent on the part of his ac­cusers. This seems very strate­gic and planned. He is one of the strongest politi­cians in the coun­try, the best de­bater in Par­lia­ment. There is no rea­son not to sup­port him,” John added.

At Mon­key Town, con­stituents were not shy about their sup­port for their MP.

Dhan­roop Deo said the al­le­ga­tions will not af­fect Mooni­lal’s rep­u­ta­tion.

“He is a good MP and a good sol­dier. He is a good man, he does things for we down here,” Deo said.

At Welling­ton Gar­dens, Ravi Ram­s­ingh de­scribed the al­le­ga­tions as in­signif­i­cant say­ing Mooni­lal had “blind sup­port­ers.”

“He has too high sup­port, too many blind­ed peo­ple who don’t think too much, and the al­le­ga­tions have not been proven in court. So un­less it is proven, that is the on­ly way it will af­fect him,” Ram­s­ingh said.

He added, “These al­le­ga­tions don’t change any­body’s at­ti­tude. The aim of these fresh al­le­ga­tions is not to af­fect Dr Mooni­lal’s chances as an MP but to af­fect his chances for the lead­er­ship of the UNC.”

At Di­a­mond Vil­lage, Shantelle Small dis­missed the al­le­ga­tions. Even though she has moved out of the com­mu­ni­ty, Small said peo­ple from Oropouche East will con­tin­ue to vote for Mooni­lal.

“This com­mu­ni­ty has a strong be­lief in Dr Mooni­lal, and these com­ments will not af­fect him,” she said.

Over at Pri­am Street, Di­a­mond Vil­lage, Ed­mond Collins said Mooni­lal should re­main as MP.

“To me, he is good. I does sup­port him right through. I be­lieve they try­ing to de­stroy his char­ac­ter,” Collins said.

At Debe Junc­tion where Mooni­lal’s con­stituen­cy of­fice is lo­cat­ed, Cindy Gan­garam of Debe ex­pressed sym­pa­thy for him.

“I feel a lit­tle sad for him when I heard be­cause it don’t have to be that way. They are try­ing to dis­cred­it him,” she said.

Sha­heed Baig of Debe al­so re­ject­ed the al­le­ga­tions say­ing the one mis­take that Mooni­lal made was not be­com­ing Prime Min­is­ter.

“Mr Mooni­lal is sup­posed to be the prime min­is­ter, so what they talk­ing about cor­rup­tion? That is a waste of time. On­ly want to black­mail the man and stop him from reach­ing that po­si­tion,” Baig claimed.

He added that Mooni­lal was the “bright­est” in Par­lia­ment and would make a good prime min­is­ter.

Oropouche East is a UNC strong­hold and tra­di­tion­al­ly has nev­er vot­ed for PNM. It had 28,271 reg­is­tered vot­ers in the 2020 gen­er­al elec­tions. On Thurs­day, Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar threw her sup­port be­hind Mooni­lal say­ing the al­le­ga­tions were “fab­ri­cat­ed.” The EM­BD has filed new al­le­ga­tions against Mooni­lal, con­trac­tors, and com­pa­ny ex­ec­u­tives—ten years af­ter a mul­ti-mil­lion dol­lar car­tel claim law­suit was filed in court.