Moonilal warns CJ to prepare for house arrest

People living on the same street with Chief Justice Sat Sharma should stock up on coconut water and canned foods because the Government plans to put him under house arrest. This allegation was made by Oropouche MP Dr Roodal Moonilal in the House of Representatives yesterday. Alluding to the Occah Seapaul issue, which occurred ten years ago, Moonilal charged yesterday that Government intended to use the same strategy to solve the constitutional crisis involving the CJ. Former House Speaker Seapaul had been placed under house arrest in 1995, after the failure of Government to have her resign from office led to conflict and constitutional deadlock. That is the PNM’s pattern of behaviour, the Oropouche MP said. And it was what people were  saying on the streets, he claimed.

Moonilal, speaking in the debate on the Caricom Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ), used the opportunity to refer to the major issue of the day — the investigation of Sharma by Prime Minister Patrick Manning following complaints from the Director of Public Prosecutions and Attorney General John Jeremie. Moonilal attacked Prime Minister Patrick Manning for his “veiled threat” in his address to the Senate “that he was looking at religious leaders who are talking about violence. While he was looking at the head of the Maha Sabha, bandits were holding up the head of the IRO — not the IRA, the IRO,” Moonilal stated, referring to the attack on Rev Cyril Paul. “They held up the man, beat him up, stole monies, they may have stolen his bible. They (the Government) promote a culture of lawlessness,” he said.

In his statement to the Senate, Manning had promised swift action to contain any threat of violence, noting that such a  threat had emanated  from one important quarter. Moonilal accused Government of undermining the head of the Judiciary. “Statements made in the press by the Attorney General, if they are wrong, the Attorney General should resign forthwith!” “It is interesting that the Attorney General has not denied the allegations in the front page of a newspaper yesterday,” he said, in reference to Newsday’s front page exclusive on Tuesday. This was the same Attorney General who said he knew nothing about a move against the CJ in the Senate, he said, suggesting that the AG was being less than honest.

Moonilal said Government had lost public trust and the country owed a debt to Senator Wade Mark and the UNC for first bringing this constitutional crisis to the public domain. The UNC MP said the Prime Minister, whose “narcissism and megalomania,” caused him to refer to himself in the third person 18 times during his 18-minute statement in the Senate on Tuesday, had to understand that the rule of law was important to trade as he linked his statement to the Bill under debate. “When have you ever heard of a Prime Minister mandating and setting deadlines for a Chief Justice to respond to him? Imagine in this Parliament they cannot answer the question after two months on the Order Paper, but he telling the CJ to reply  (allegations) in ten days. Madness!” Moonilal charged.

The Oropuche MP observed that Manning, who acted on the basis of political spite and malice in the Marlene Coudray matter, had given a mandate and deadline to yet another High Court judge (Justice Mark Mohammed.) “This is a dangerous period in our history,” he said, adding that the country could have little faith in Government’s handling of the matter. On the Caribbean Court of Justice issue, Moonilal noted that while the Jamaican government had conceded that there was no alternative but to go for a referendum (based on the Privy Council’s ruling), a CCJ judge was being sworn in every Monday morning. “We don’t know if the CCJ is coming or going, but every day someone from President right down is being sworn in,” he said.