SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Af­ter be­ing brand­ed a bil­lion­aire by Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young has ad­mit­ted had he re­mained in pri­vate prac­tice as an at­tor­ney he would have been a lot rich­er to­day.

Hav­ing en­dured five years of po­lit­i­cal at­tacks from the Op­po­si­tion, Young said when he of­fered to re­con­test the Port-of-Spain North/St Ann’s West seat for the rul­ing Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment in the Au­gust 10 gen­er­al elec­tion, he did so with­out full fam­i­ly sup­port.

Young was speak­ing yes­ter­day at a press con­fer­ence about his re­cusal from Cab­i­net meet­ings from 2016 to 2020 be­cause of fam­i­ly ties and con­flict of in­ter­est in the award of mul­ti-mil­lion con­tracts and the procur­ing of loans, among oth­er fi­nan­cial ac­tiv­i­ties.

He said what was equal­ly dis­turb­ing was the ir­re­spon­si­ble be­hav­iour of Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar who brand­ed him “a mil­lion­aire to bil­lion­aire PNM style,” in a state­ment on Fri­day.

“I wish I was a mil­lion­aire....giv­ing up the last five years of my life in pub­lic ser­vice has not been easy be­cause it would have been the prime of my prac­tice as an at­tor­ney. But I did it for Trinidad and To­ba­go, be­lieve it or not,” Young said.

As a found­ing mem­ber of Syn­er­gy TV and We Sport, Young said he has not re­ceived any div­i­dends or a cent from them since he be­came a mem­ber of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment Gov­ern­ment.

“I wish they would pay me a div­i­dend.”

Young said he had a choice to make not too long ago “whether I would put my­self back up for five years in this pol­i­tics, hav­ing en­dured what I have done in the last five years. And the sole rea­son why I have done it, with­out full fam­i­ly sup­port... be­cause I felt the coun­try need­ed good and de­cent peo­ple to con­tin­ue to serve. And God for­bid that the UNC were to get back in­to of­fice.”

As he spoke, his voice quiv­ered, break­ing at times.

He said he would stand “strong and fight what­ev­er sac­ri­fice.”

In the last five years, Young said he be­came a po­lit­i­cal tar­get by UNC mem­bers.

“I know why I am a po­lit­i­cal tar­get....be­cause I know there is no sin­gle per­son in the whole world could come for­ward and say they have com­pro­mised Stu­art Young. There is no per­son here... any­where could come and say Stu­art Young gave a favour...Stu­art Young bent the rules. That al­ways makes you en­e­my num­ber one.”

Asked if he had re­grets of en­ter­ing pol­i­tics and if the PNM wins next Mon­day’s elec­tion it would be his last term in of­fice, Young said when the Op­po­si­tion first start­ed at­tack­ing his younger broth­er An­gus Young “I did have that fear.”

But his broth­er’s com­pa­ny stood by him be­cause they knew there was no wrong­do­ing.

“I don’t have re­grets. I have of­fered my­self for ser­vice...I have of­fered my­self for T&T and I will do the best I can.”

Young said dur­ing his tenure there were nu­mer­ous calls for him to re­sign as min­is­ter.

He jok­ing­ly stat­ed he even earned the ti­tle of “Min­is­ter of Every­thing.”

At vary­ing times Young held down four port­fo­lios—Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Min­is­ter, Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter and Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al and Le­gal Af­fairs.

Young said he does not in­tend to hold of­fice for the rest of his life as oth­ers have to be giv­en an op­por­tu­ni­ty to serve.

In 2014, Young be­came a tem­po­rary PNM Sen­a­tor

A year lat­er, he was elect­ed MP for Port-of-Spain North St Ann’s West con­stituen­cy.