Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) is call­ing for the res­ig­na­tion or re­moval of Sean Sobers as Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs.

Speak­ing at a me­dia brief­ing yes­ter­day, Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor and for­mer For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne said his con­tacts with­in the re­gion­al body have con­tra­dict­ed the Gov­ern­ment’s ac­count of events sur­round­ing the now con­tentious re­treat in Nevis.

Browne said that de­spite Min­is­ter Sean Sobers’ claim he was de­lib­er­ate­ly blocked from at­tend­ing the re­treat be­cause in­vi­ta­tions were lim­it­ed to Heads of Gov­ern­ment, he has been in­formed that Cari­com of­fi­cials made every ef­fort to per­suade the min­is­ter to at­tend.

“None were ex­clud­ed, none were de­nied, none were dis­in­vit­ed, and all were wel­come. Dr. Browne, are you ac­cus­ing the gov­ern­ment of ly­ing on Cari­com on this mat­ter? Yes, I am. They are ly­ing.”

The Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor said “ex­tra­or­di­nary” mea­sures were tak­en by the Cari­com Sec­re­tari­at to in­clude Min­is­ter Sobers at the Nevis re­treat where the elec­tion for Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al took place.

“Specif­i­cal­ly, above and be­yond the call, with phone calls, What­sApp ex­changes, and com­mu­ni­ca­tion late in­to the night be­fore. When it was clear that the Prime Min­is­ter had bussed it and left the coun­try, up to the morn­ing of the re­treat, 1 AM, you have Sec­re­tari­at staff labour­ing and reach­ing out and en­gag­ing, try­ing to per­suade.”

He said the Prime Min­is­ter then made an “ab­solute fool” of her­self for de­scrib­ing the elec­tion process as “sur­rep­ti­tious and odi­ous.”

“The on­ly thing sur­rep­ti­tious is the al­le­ga­tions be­ing made by this gov­ern­ment, and the on­ly thing odi­ous is the dis­hon­esty of the cur­rent cab­i­net, and in this mat­ter, the Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com af­fairs,” Dr Browne posit­ed.

Like Dr Ralph Gon­salves, Browne point­ed to Ar­ti­cle 28 of the Re­vised Treaty of Ch­aguara­mas which said that a coun­try’s ab­sence from a vote is tak­en as an ab­sten­tion and ab­sten­tions do not in­val­i­date the process.

He said Sobers and the gov­ern­ment are em­bar­rass­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“Un­der these cir­cum­stances, the Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs, Sean Sobers, can­not con­tin­ue in of­fice, hav­ing mis­led the re­gion­al com­mu­ni­ty and the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go, so com­pre­hen­sive­ly on such an im­por­tant and fun­da­men­tal mat­ter.”

The for­mer Prime Min­is­ter of the St Vin­cent and the Grenadines claimed that Sobers told Cari­com of­fi­cials that he did not want to go to Nevis via boat be­cause he gets sea­sick. Sobers lat­er said it was a joke and he un­der­scored his will­ing­ness to at­tend.

How­ev­er, Browne did not think it was fun­ny and said this fur­ther un­der­scores the in­com­pe­tence of the min­is­ter and is more proof that he must step down.