News
Rodney Charles –
AFTER saying he could expose UNC secrets he has kept silent about for eight years if his loyalty to the party is threatened, Naparima MP Rodney Charles is now saying he never meant he would “leak party information wholesale to the media.”
He made the initial comments at a community meeting in Woodland on May 19.
The reason he gave for breaking his silence during that meeting was: “It is unfortunate that bloggers associated with the UNC, in their desire to support the status quo, they are busy spreading PNM propaganda (about me). There are people on our side who will lick us up in order to ensure that they will remain in power.”
But in a press release on Wednesday, he said he “had no choice” but to “present the facts” during that meeting to “vigorously defend (his) reputation.
“(I was) faced with a very recent, well-orchestrated, campaign by surrogates of what I can only presume to be elements of the party’s leadership that I was responsible for the loss of the 2015 general election..After membership in the UNC for almost 30 years and as campaign manager in the 2000 general election, the only time in its history that the UNC won a general election on its own, I was taken aback, but not surprised, that PNM propaganda was being used against me by surrogates of the leadership.”
He said, at the meeting he said, “if challenged,” he could provide information to support his statements.
“That remains my position, which cannot be construed as an intent to leak party information wholesale to the media.
“There is a point beyond which ‘taking one for the team’ no longer benefits the team. One must be willing to protect the thing one loves, even from itself.”
He said if his reputation is attacked and the UNC remains silent while knowing the truth, “My position is, and will always remain, that if my reputation is attacked, and my party remains silent, I will robustly defend my reputation personally with all available information.
“For that, I make no apologies whatsoever.”
