…AFC slams former MP as treacherous

THE Alliance For Change (AFC), having entirely assessed the actions of former member Charrandass Persaud has concluded that somewhere along the line he set out to deliberately mislead his party.

The same was expounded upon at an AFC press conference on Wednesday attended by Public Security Minister and AFC Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan; Minister of Public Telecommunication and Vice-chair, Cathy Hughes; AFC General-Secretary Marlon Williams and AFC executive member and Member of Parliament (MP) Michael Carrington.

Apart from the present investigation on whether Persaud’s vote to remove the government may have been linked to bribery, Ramjattan said that there is much evidence to show that former MPs action was not led purely by his conscience.

“It could not have been a conscience vote,” Ramjattan said. “He was at Local Government [Elections] with us cussing up the PPP. He was at Courtland at a Christmas party of Sita Nagamootoo, making a major speech to the children’s party cussing them up. I have five tapes that have now been sent to me from Dave’s Television which indicate what the attitude of the man was.”

This “attitude”, he continued, was one of allegiance with his party, even the wee hours leading up to his divergent vote. “Even the day when we voted on the no-confidence motion, after we adjourned to have meals, he came to me and he indicated ‘Khemraj you made a wonderful speech; you proppa knock them down heavy’ and next thing he did what he did. It obviously blind-sighted us,” the AFC chairman said.

BETRAYAL and TREACHERY
He explained that this is the reason why the action of the former AFC member has since been viewed as a “betrayal” and “treacherous.”

Regarding Persaud’s security on the night of his shift in vote, Ramjattan said that Persaud’s aim was to intentionally double cross colleagues when he made prior arrangements to be whisked away by adviser to the Opposition Leader Peter Ramsaroop, unbeknownst to his party.

Ramjattan detailed: “After he voted the way he did, the entire opposition set of members said that we must look after him as government, his security. And, I went up to him and asked –and you were all there—and he said ‘yes’ he would need some security. I indicated to him what security he would want and he said the commissioner [of police] could provide a car for him, he’s going to Timehri. That is what was provided. He did not, however, take the car to Timehri; rather, he went with Peter Ramsaroop and a number of other characters and then went some place and then ended up at Ogle Airport. So I think he was probably deliberately diverting me. I didn’t want anything to happen to him because that would have had massive repercussions and so we wanted him to be secure but, of course, he had arranged his security otherwise.”

JAGDEO KNEW of PLANS
Just last week, when pressed by the media, Ramsaroop confirmed that he knew of Persaud’s inclination to vote for the PPP and that the former AFC member had requested his security beforehand. The AFC leaders maintain that it is a fair theory that Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo knew, too, of these plans although he and Ramsaroop continue to deny the same.

“The deduction must be made that Bharrat Jagdeo had Charrandass in the bag for some time before they could have come with a no-confidence motion. It is an unassailable deduction,” Ramjattan said.

“In the cafeteria he [Persaud] was saying [on the day of the vote] ‘you know I did really want to talk tuh, why y’all didn’t allow me to talk’ and then he went and did that.”
The minister added that even as police investigations are ongoing into a report that Persaud had initiated a plan to purchase approximately US$1M worth in gold leading up to the debate, as his colleague, he never knew Persaud to be in the gold business.

Regarding the sum of money which converts to over G$208M Minister Hughes interjected: “Do a simple check of his law practice and a very simple check of his stipend as a member of parliament and make your own deduction.” Ramjattan added: “This is a fellow that was never knowingly dealing with gold any time before that. When the screen shot of when he said to Errol Ross came out it was December month. Is it so coincidental that all of a sudden he got clients to buy US$1M worth of gold?”

DUAL CITIZENSHIP
Furthermore, regarding dual citizenship, AFC General-Secretary Marlon Williams confirmed that Persaud, like all other AFC party members, was questioned on his status and did not indicate that he had dual citizenship.

“The previous general secretary would have approached all persons selected to become MPs and that question was asked. The Alliance For Change has always been adamant about adhering to the constitution; we did ask everyone and, if you notice, its only one person that said they were in good stead and we then discovered that they were not,” Williams stated.

In hindsight, the party leaders agree that perhaps they must now look at systems to be put in place for MPs to prove their citizenship, but treading too far down that line can result in privacy violations.

Nonetheless, the party leaders say that while the opposition and their influencers continue to choose underhanded means of playing the political game, the government will remain steadfast in its position on fairness, democracy and transparency.

Hughes stated: “I would be the first to admit that the one way I think we have fallen down is that we really come to the table playing politics with a totally different perspective. We have always played it by the book. We are not the ones that will get into paying people to go and vote…last election we had proof of individuals that were paid to vote in a certain way. We would never do that. That is not our modus operandi.”