BUSINESS IS BUSINESS

“It was a business proposition. I don’t think I should discriminate in business. In any case, we should not try to muzzle anybody from saying what they have to say politically. Let the man have his meeting, undisturbed. The taste of the pudding is in the eating.”

On Monday, the Kamla Persad-Bissessar faction of the UNC unleashed an attack on Dookeran at party founder, Basdeo Panday’s Couva North constituency office. It came one week before Dookeran’s planned Congress of the People at the Centre of Excellence in Macoya on Sunday.

Asked the reason for the attack on Dookeran, Warner replied, “Over the last few months we were advised to stay calm and cool but on August 30, the UNC executive came to the conclusion that Dookeran had abdicated his role as political leader, and that the hope for unity was doomed.”

Dookeran had been invited to attend the executive meeting but refused to show. Warner said the attack on Dookeran will continue as long as was necessary. Dookeran’s communications officer, Nirad Tewarie, explained why they were using a place owned by a political rival for their big meeting on Sunday.

“There’s a procedure to go through to get the place. We applied and got it. We wanted a comfortable facility in the St Augustine area and this was one of the available venues. Warner did make it clear that he would rent the Centre of Excellence to anyone, including the PNM.”

Tewarie described the UNC’s attack on the political leader as a “dirty tricks campaign” and charged that it included putting up anti-Dookeran posters near the Centre of Excellence.

But Warner denied this, saying that the Dookeran faction was “paranoid”.

He said their attack on Dookeran did not include posters because that would give him more publicity. “He’s already getting enough publicity from the media,” he observed.

Tewarie said he could not say who will be the speakers at the Congress of the People on Sunday, because that had not been finalised.