Morean politicising Industrial Court

OPPOSITION Chief Whip Ganga Singh accused Attorney-General Glenda Morean of trying to politicise the operations of the Industrial Court  and claimed that Deputy Chief Magistrate Deborah Thomas-Felix was one of the AG’s political appointees to the court.

Speaking during the 2003/2004 Budget debate in Parliament yesterday, Singh alleged that Morean submitted a Cabinet note which indicated that Court  judges Ramchand Lutchmedial, Bindimattie Mahabir, Sandra Ramparas and Judy Rajkumar-Gualbance no longer desired to serve the Industrial Court when Court president Addison Khan had expressed different sentiments to the AG. He further alleged that in that note, Morean recommended Thomas-Felix and Joy Donaldson (daughter of PNM vice-chairman John Donaldson) as two of the replacement judges. “The AG is misleading the Cabinet,” Singh declared. Prime Minister Patrick Manning, however, dismissed Singh’s claims, saying that Cabinet has yet to deliberate on the matter.

Singh described the Budget as a drug “to provide a feeling of goodness” to the population to make them forget about crime in Trinidad and Tobago. The Chief Whip accused the PNM of providing no resources for the nation’s security intelligence agencies to fight crime and claimed that under the UNC, members of the Counter-Drug Task Force were required to pass polygraph tests run by the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). He wondered why was there a need for Brigadier Peter Joseph’s Special Crime Unit when there already was a plethora of intelligence units in TT. Manning then scolded Singh for being “irresponsible in the extreme” when he started to reveal the location where the Joint Operational Command Centre used to operate their radar system. Former AG Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj said prior to his dismissal from the Basdeo Panday Cabinet, there was an effective security intelligence network in place.

Reading a list of all persons kidnapped since the PNM took office, Singh warned the population against developing “an immunity to kidnapping” as they sought the “oasis of 2020.” He said Manning was wrong to base the Budget on an oil price of US$25 per barrel when Norway and Venezuela were reportedly setting their budgets on oil prices of  US$21 and $18.50 respectively.