Baksh: It was PNM

Government Minister Dr Lenny Saith suggested yesterday that the planting of cocaine in UNC Senator Sadiq Baksh’s water tank may have been the work of someone (within the UNC) who was trying to create "a wave of sympathy."

He was responding to allegations from Baksh who called on Government to enlist the assistance of the CIA, FBI, Interpol, MI5 and other international agencies to bring to justice the perpetrators of the act of terrorism against him and his family. Baksh had blamed the PNM for the action.

Speaking in the debate on the Anti-Terrorism Bill, Baksh also denied that he or the UNC had any links with the Jamaat al Muslimeen or any terrorist organisation.

He called on government to rebuild the fence which was erected by the UNC in an attempt to contain the expansion of the Jamaat. This fence which, according to Baksh, symbolised the clear demarcation between law and order and disorder; between law-abiding citizens and terrorists, was torn down by the PNM.

Baksh defined as an act of terrorism, the accusations of voter-padding made against him and the UNC by the PNM and the subsequent charges laid against members of the public. He said a Commission of Inquiry (into the EBC) showed that the accusations were just a smokescreen to allow the PNM to do "social engineering" and move people (names on the electoral list) for the first time from city centres like Diego Martin to rural communities like Moruga.

Noting that his home was searched by the police (looking for evidence of voter-padding), Baksh said it was comical because the police took the computer monitor while leaving the server.

Saying that the country had to admit that there were more bad eggs in the Police Service than good ones, Baksh cited a situation which occurred during the 2002 elections. He said there was a group of men with sawed-off guns terrorising people in the constituency. He reported it to the police, whom he led to the men. The men still had the sawed-off guns, but, said Baksh, the police kept asking him, "where" (are the guns).

Saith, who stated that he had to set the record straight, pointed out that it was former NAR leader Selby Wilson who walked away from a joint UNC/NAR platform in 1995, saying that he (Wilson) was convinced that there was an arrangement between the Jamaat and the UNC. And Saith recalled, the first group Basdeo Panday met with as Prime Minister was the Jamaat.

On the voter-padding issue, Saith said it was a member of the UNC team who came to the PNM with the voter-padding allegations. The PNM went to the EBC which referred it to the police. Saith said what happened afterwards (the charges) were a result of police investigations.