Ramesh to retire in 2007

FORMER attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj yesterday declared he will ride off into the sunset in 2007 if the people of Trinidad and Tobago do not want a change in local politics. Addressing a meeting in Curepe to discuss plans for a new political party, Maharaj also declared that Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday had outlived their political usefulness and were hindering the nation’s development by remaining at the helm of their parties. “Since I am no longer a minister, I am enjoying what I am doing. I have enjoyed fighting for the little people. I would be unfair to you if I am not saying to you that I am also making much more money than I made as a minister,” he said. “In a short space of time, my demand in the Caribbean has been very great. My love is with the politics as with the law. When I left the Government I had a choice. I could have taken up an assignment abroad in respect of an international organisation.

I did not. I do not intend to do that until the year . . .  until the people decide they no longer want my assistance.” Maharaj continued: “I am not going to give the people of TT my whole life to say ‘you must tell me.’ I have set the year 2007 for the people of TT to decide whether they want to have a new kind of change in politics. After 2007, I will fight for you but I think if for some reason the people do not want us, I think there should be somebody new to take up the leadership of the organisation.” In direct reference to Manning and Panday, Maharaj said: “I do not believe that a leader should be there all the time, at all costs. Leaders must know when to go. We must stop that kind of neemakaram in TT.” Explaining that the new party must have a support base of at lease 25,000 persons to make a difference in the next general elections, Maharaj pledged that any administration he leads will have a written contract with the population that will allow it to be removed ahead of its constitutional period if it fails to perform.

He said the new party will not consider alliances with any political party until it is firmly established and even then will not do so if its potential partners are not committed to true national unity. He claimed the Commission of Inquiry to investigate contracts awarded to NH International and Warner Construction was not independent because it was perceived to have ties to the PNM. Maharaj said the UNC was being hypocritical about the issue of corruption. He claimed former finance minister Gerald Yetming initially supported commissions of inquiry to investigate corruption allegations against the former government but changed his mind after speaking to Panday. “I am happy to see the converts (in the UNC),” he said. Maharaj added that ideals for governance which the UNC held pre-1995, vanished once they entered government and this was indicative of all governments in TT. Maharaj expressed optimism that the new party would be launched by March 2005.