UNC: Joseph an insult to TT

NEW National Security Minister Martin Joseph has been described as “an admission by the Prime Minister not only that the Government has failed miserably but also that his administration is on the verge of collapse.”

In a statement yesterday, the Opposition UNC declared: “The removal of Senator Howard Chin Lee from the Ministry of National Security and the appointment of PNM General Secretary Martin Joseph to that most crucial Ministry is another insult to the intelligence of the nation. In his tenure as Minister of Housing, Senator Joseph was a dismal failure. It must be remembered that under Martin Joseph, the NHA was transformed into a war zone. So bad was the situation that the Prime Minister called in the Army to intervene in the NHA refurbishment programme.”

The UNC claimed there were several acts of intimidation against its supporters in the 2002 general elections in Ortoire/Mayaro and Joseph was the campaign manager for then PNM candidate (and current Works Minister) Franklyn Khan. The Opposition claimed that Joseph’s new portfolio was due to his alleged relationship to a group which allegedly committed those acts. The Opposition further alleged that sentiments expressed by Public Services Association president Jennifer Baptiste in a Newsday story proved that Dr Keith Rowley’s new portfolio as Housing Minister “was strategic and aimed at winning the next general elections,” The UNC warned Rowley that “any attempt to use the Ministry of Housing as a political tool for winning elections by house padding will be dealt with in a national and international context.”

Joseph and NHA Executive Director Noel Garcia have comprehensively denied that there is any truth to Opposition allegations of house-padding in the marginal constituencies of San Fernando West, Ortoire/Mayaro, Tunapuna, St Joseph and Barataria/San Juan. The PNM currently controls the first three while the remainder are in UNC hands.