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IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Former national security minister and Member of Parliament for Chaguanas West Jack Warner on his arrival at last night’s public meeting, dubbed “Straight Talk”, at Pierre Road Recreation Ground, Charlieville, Chaguanas. —Photo: STEPHEN DOOBAYI’LL BE BACK
Jack to resign as MP
By Ria Taitt Political Editor
Story Created: Apr 25, 2013 at 11:17 PM ECT
Story Updated: Apr 25, 2013 at 11:30 PM ECT
Effective midnight (tonight), Jack Warner will resign as Member of Parliament for Chaguanas West.
Warner made the announcement last night as he addressed a massive crowd at a public meeting in Chaguanas.
But in an unusual twist, he also declared that he would want to contest the by-election as a United National Congress (UNC) candidate for the same seat—90 days from today in July.
Constitutionally a by-election must be held within 90 days of the declaration of the seat (of Chaguanas West) as vacant by the House Speaker Wade Mark
“I wish to let you know that tomorrow, Friday, I would be advising the Speaker of the House of Representatives that effective midnight on Friday night I am resigning as Member of Parliament for Chaguanas West,” he said.
“Let me tell you that when I spoke with the Prime Minister at her residence on Sunday I told her that if it became necessary for me to resign as Minister and UNC chairman—which it now has—I would also wish to resign as the MP for Chaguanas West. I felt that the proper thing to do would be to offer you my constituents...I had advised the Prime Minister of my thinking on this matter. I also did tell her that I will want to contest the by-election as a UNC candidate for the Chaguanas West seat as I am UNC to the bone...Ninety days from April 25, 2013 will be July 24, 2013 and, who knows, with luck, love and your support, Jack Warner will be back,” he stated.
Warner said in spite of the trials, tribulations and disappointments that he had endured, “the character assassination, the slander, the ridicule of my family and the abandonment of long-time friends—in spite of the hurt, in spite of the indignities I have experienced, I stand here tonight void of hatred, animosity or ill will for my Political Leader, my party, your party, our party, the United National Congress or the People’s Partnership Government.”
However, in an apparent criticism of his colleague Suruj Rambachan, Warner said:
“We cannot win as a party if within one day at the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure we are threatening to change communication departments in the Ministry because of its ethnic composition. We cannot win my people if as a Government people’s jobs are lost because of their closeness to Jack Warner. When these things begin to happen it is because some of us are misinterpreting the responsibilities given to us and when large portfolios like two mega ministries are placed under one man’s control. It sends the wrong message not only to the person in charge but also to the national community, especially when one’s race or ethnicity can be punished because of the historical patterns of some of us.”
Warner also disclosed that he had requested Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to accept his resignation as Minister of National Security today (April 26), but this request was eventually denied.
“Last Sunday I went to the Prime Minister’s residence with my folder of papers. At the very start of my conversation with her I told her that I was offering my resignation should she think that she needs it, and then I went through page-by-page with her, the vast majority of the documents shown to you here tonight. Unfortunately, the circumstances as they unfolded did not allow me the privilege to make similar presentations to the other members of Government and therefore they did not have the privilege and benefit of this information.
“At last Sunday’s meeting, I told the PM that in order to give her peace of mind that I will resign on Friday, April 26, 2013, thereby giving me enough time to tie up some loose ends at the Ministry as well as discuss the SOFA Bill in the F&GP Committee—a Bill to which I had serious objections. Our Prime Minister is a very brilliant legal mind and I do believe that she followed my presentation and the facts. Following my presentation, the Honourable Prime Minister advised me that she will consider my resignation offer. I then left the Prime Minister’s residence with the intention of going to a puja in Trincity but upon coming outside of her office I saw three MPs lurking outside the room, one of whom has been my consistent antagonist. And I knew then that everything I said to the PM would have been in vain. The rest is history.
“I was called out of the puja by my security detail who told me that one of the three ministers called the Head of the Army, to call me to call you (Warner).”
He said when he called the Prime Minister she then advised him that she had reconsidered “and that she would prefer to accept my resignation now. I said okay and then hustled to the Ministry to clear my desk”.
“Not her fault. She has some advisors who advise her to her detriment and to the detriment of the country,” said Warner.
“Friends, it is easy to fight external enemies like the PNM and Rowley, but the hardest fight is to strike a blow against internal enemies and I have had to fight against my internal enemies for too long. If we in our party continue to be consumed by hatred for each other as we have practised in the past we will not survive. I am not bitter but when my friends are targeted, when my associates are targeted, when their jobs are threatened because of their association with me, then we can never be successful ever again. My three sons have opted to live outside of Trinidad and Tobago for peace of mind and even that they have been denied.
“We cannot win as a party if a Cabinet member bears so much malice as to deprive me from telling my side of the story by instructing CNMG to cancel the coverage of tonight’s meeting,” Warner stated.
“At 11.30 on Wednesday night I heard that through the grapevine. My colleague from my party do me that?” he asked.
Warner defended his stewardship in FIFA, Concacaf and Caribbean Football Union, suggesting that the falling out with FIFA president Sepp Blatter was the root of all the allegations related to these bodies.
“Every vicious allegation levelled against me is without basis,” he said, citing numerous documents.
Declaring that his hands are clean, Warner also defended his stewardship as minister, saying: “In the last three years, you would never hear any contractor tell you, nowhere he gave Warner a favour, a benefit, a bribe.”
Saying that there was an unholy alliance against him, he stated that PNM Leader Keith Rowley was aided and abetted by persons local and abroad, persons inside and outside of his party.
Warner, who attacked the media and who emphasised the number 24 (May 24 is the date of the UNC coming in office and January 24 is the date on which Kamla Persad-Bissessar first became political leader and Warner party chairman), also announced that a weekly newpaper, will be launched on May 24, the Sunshine Newspaper “designed to bring a new hope into your lives”.
“And come July 24, 2013, who knows with your love, your support and your understanding, I shall be your MP again.”
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