Open letter to Winston Dookeran

It is common knowledge the current crime wave has its roots in the July 1990 coup attempt, and the murders in and around Parliament on that day.

Or the first few days of that coup attempt, you lay cowering under the guns of the murderers while Basdeo Panday and Patrick Manning — who were fortuitously absent from the house —asked to be "awakened when its over" and stated it was "a falling out among friends".

This while your colleague lay dying in your presence. John Humphery, whose seat you now occupy, gave comfort and advice to the terrorists, even as you were held under the gun, and your colleague, representative Des Vignes was bleeding to death. The insurrectionists released you for you to assist in the negotiations to save them from the army surrounding parliament. Upon your release you participated in a plan to issue an "amnesty" to the insurrectionists — which you and the others on the outside would subsequently deny and then arrest the terrorists whom you intended to dupe into surrender. You also had legal advice that, should the "amnesty" be exposed, it would not stand in court because it was issued under duress.

Make no mistake, I support you and the other heroic people who took this course. After the terrorists surrendered and the remaining hostages were released, you told the world media — quite correctly in my opinion — that no amnesty had been given.

Kelvin Ramnath, now a candidate for "Deputy Leader" under you, walked out of Parliament with a copy of the "amnesty" document, and presented it to Ramesh Maharaj, the Jamaat Attorney, who used it to secure the release and temporary acquittal of the terrorists. (By the time the Privy Council overruled the scurrilous judgment in the Muslimeen favour, the "Habeas Corpus" rule prevented any re-arrest.)

I therefore now ask: How do you reconcile your call for an end to this crime wave, created by the UNC under the auspices of Ramesh Maharaj, Sadiq Baksh and Dhanraj Singh, and fine-tuned by the PM, with the betrayal of your position in 1990 by Kelvin Ramnath, who may soon be your Deputy Political Leader? Also, do you accept that the current crime wave has its genesis in the 1990 coup attempt?

Will you, as the next Leader of the Opposition, call for an investigation into the 1990 coup attempt, where Basdeo Panday and Patrick Manning abandoned you and the country, and Kelvin Ramnath betrayed you personally? And if not, why not?

I work, in my own way, to raise our consciousness and fight this crime wave. You can do so much more — you can expose the very roots of the matter.

My worry is that you will not! You can take comfort that if you ignore me you will join the other 1.6 million sheep you hope to one day lead.

However, I did refer to you in my next Sunday column (Sunday Newsday) as the "last respected person in electoral politics".

Please don’t let me down. Let’s have a public response to my questions to you. Standing alone.

PETER O’CONNOR

Port-of-Spain