UNC rumblings —

UNC POLITICAL Leader Winston Dookeran yesterday told Chaguanas MP Manohar Ramsaran, “we have to keep on fighting,” when Ramsaran told him he had been kicked off the UNC Executive.

Ramsaran said he felt very much at one with break-away MPs Gerald Yetming, Gillian Lucky and Fuad Khan.This although he sat in his usual seat in the frontbench in Parliament yesterday.

Yetming, Lucky and Khan have declared their independence from the UNC. Ramsaran, who was elected as Regional Representative for Central, said yesterday that he had seen the letter, signed by party CEO Tim Gopeesingh, which was sent to his replacement Sylvester Ramquar.

The letter dated April 20, according to Ramsaran, stated that Ramquar was appointed with immediate effect. Ramquar lost to Ramsaran in the last UNC internal elections.

Ramsaran who has been very critical of Panday, said he had not been informed of the decision to fire him. He said he was not surprised by the decision since he had been “rallying with my Political Leader, working with him and sharing his vision.”

Ramsaran stressed that in all this and in his short stint as an MP, he had never embarrassed the party. “You have the chairman who is more in court than in Rienzi (Complex) and nobody asks him to resign. I feel the anomaly there is great,” he said, adding that the country must wake up and let the leaders know that they (the people) were ready to talk seriously to them. Ramsaran lamented however that few of the senior members on the Executive were prepared to tell the Chairman these things to his face. “Yet when the small fry (on the Executive ie himself) expresses his opinion, he is fired,” the Chaguanas MP noted.

Ramsaran said he had “legal officers” looking into whether an elected officer could be replaced without an election under the UNC constitution. “They (the lawyers) would advise me on my next move,” he said.

Ramsaran said when he gave the letter (written to Ramquar) to Dookeran on the corridor outside the Parliament Chamber yesterday afternoon, Dookeran said to him ‘we have to keep fighting, letting people know where we stand and what the truth is.’

Meanwhile Newsday was informed that three members of the UNC met with House Speaker Barry Sinanan before the sitting of Parliament. Among the group were Chandresh Sharma and Kelvin Ramnath.

Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday was not part of the team. Caroni Central MP Hamza Rafeeq has been acting as Chief Whip in the absence of Ganga Singh who was out of the country. Singh returned to Trinidad yesterday afternoon.