PRESIDENTIAL Candidate of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), Mr. Donald Ramotar has called on former Police Commissioner, Winston Felix, now a candidate for the People’s National Congress Reform-led A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), to provide answers to a number of issues while he was at the helm of the Force. Ramotar told the media yesterday that foremost among the answers Felix needs to provide is the recorded conversation between himself and former PNCR Member of Parliament (MP) and other APNU candidate Basil Williams, when Williams “thanked him for turning the thing away.”
“I have said publicly before, I have said it in Parliament over and over…I have asked Mr. Basil Williams to explain what he meant when he said, to Felix, thanks for helping us out by turning that thing away from us and Felix, since he is going into the political arena, needs to explain now why he helped the PNC out by turning the thing away from them, because he, himself, admitted that he turned the thing away from them in the telephone conversation,” Ramotar stated.
The PPP General Secretary said these are the answers Guyanese need and, as such, Felix, if, as he claims, has a clean slate, then there should be some explanation as to what and how he “turned the thing away from the PNC.”
Ramotar said, however, with Felix now being on the APNU slate, a coalition dominated by the PNC, it is a clear case of what he was helping the PNC out with.
“Now I think it’s becoming very clear, in my view, that he had his political convictions before and he was helping out a political party, whose hands were deep in crime, that is what it appears to me to be,” he insisted.
Ramotar said, making public his political allegiance, vindicates the PPP/C’s position that Felix was politically biased, even when he was at the helm of the Force.
“It, probably, reflected why the crime rate was so high when Felix was in charge. It tells a story, in my view,” he posited.
Felix has been at the centre of a number of controversies, including his alleged links to criminals who many claimed were aligned to the then PNCR.
In 2006, several recordings of telephone conversations were made of what is purported to be the voice of Felix and members of Opposition.
On March 20, 2006 a recording sought to suggest that then PNCR Vice-Chairman Williams was thanking Felix for “turning the thing away” from the party.
Following that, on May 27 the same year, another recording alleged that Felix and a member of the PNCR were plotting to plant drugs on a Congress Place janitor who, reportedly, stole some money and was fleeing the country.
Felix has been denying these allegations, but many, who are familiar with the former Police Commissioner, claim it was his voice on both recordings.
Felix has also been accused of diverting security forces from hot spots, so that criminal elements can slip into hiding.