Dear Sir:
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad — A prime minister who has never been able to say anything positive about the citizens of the country, prime minister Dr Keith Rowley, has once again, ploughed into the latest “constituency” to feel his venom – attorneys-at-law who he is calling a “set of blasted scamps without an iota of commitment to the country.”
But in so doing, is Dr Rowley also inferring that his significant other, a practicing attorney-at-law is a blasted scamp who does have an iota of commitment to Trinidad and Tobago?
He used the Peoples National Movement (PNM) political platform to paint all lawyers as scamps and today, if I were any of the attorneys-at-law within the fold of the PNM like Faris Al-Rawi, Stuart Young, Christine Kangaloo, Fitzgerald Hinds, Brigid Annisette-George, Camille Robinson-Regis, Randall Mitchell, et al, I would be asking my political leader why would he have publicly shamed me and called me a “Scamp.”
Dr Rowley has been and continues to be a leader who has continually bought shame and disgrace to the office of prime minister. His platform rhetoric continues to be some of the most vulgar, disrespectful, crude anti-feminine language that one can ever imagine would emanate from a prime minister. Added to his language, Dr Rowley has never been able to make an acquaintance with Mr & Mrs Truth.
Rowley aided and abetted by his incompetent and dysfunctional attorney General Faris Al-Rawi and his minister for Just-About-Everything, the very successful failure Stuart Young, has been an embarrassment in the corridors of government with their actions and pronouncements, every day.
Prime minister Rowley was attempting to paint those attorneys who were retained by the former Peoples Party government, attorney general Anand Ramlogan to pursue matters on behalf of the State as “scamps.” He continues to be disingenuous with the truth and facts which speak louder than his shallow rhetoric.
His premeditated deception to score cheap political points was to allege that a clique of attorneys were paid $1.4 billion for state briefs under the former government. He looked at the amount of fees expensed for legal services and deliberately claimed that there was corruption involved in the disbursement of legal fees which was nothing more than political grandstanding.
The fact is that the former Manning-led PNM government was involved in so much corruption and illegality that the Peoples Party government had to take measures to put proper documentation in place and further seek to recover billions of taxpayers’ dollars from suspicious transactions. The former Manning administration and Rowley failed to follow legal and tendering procedures. In fact, the Dr Rowley-led administration has all but abandoned the procedures for the award of government contracts and has emasculated the central tenders board.
A comparison of legal briefs awarded by Peoples Party government, attorney general Ramlogan and the PNM’s attorney general Faris Al-Rawi will show a great and significant “return on the State’s investment on these said legal briefs” during Ramlogan’s tenure.
In just one matter that was initiated by Ramlogan, the State was awarded a judgment of $1.2 billion. Just one case. Ramlogan won a multitude of civil cases with large financial settlements. He was prosecuting directors for corruption and abuse of office.
Al-Rawi, on the other hand, cancelled some of these cases that Ramlogan had initiated which could have resulted in the State being awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in judgment. Al-Rawi has the dubious distinction of losing almost every civil matter that he initiated, which has resulted in the State paying out millions of dollars in settlements and costs.
The Privy Council has made it very clear that the withdrawal of the billion-dollar claim against Malcolm Jones was deliberately orchestrated by the Dr Rowley-led administration for nothing more than politics… the most blatant abuse of executive power to help one of their own.
To quote a former prime minister, this attorney general (Al Rawi) not fit to tie that attorney general’s (Ramlogan) shoelaces.
Prime minister Rowley’s wilful mismanagement, sheer and total incompetence and damning allegations of blatant corruption and nepotism have plunged Trinidad and Tobago into a dark morass.
Capil Bissoon
