FORMER Strategic Services Agency (SSA) director retired major Roger Best made a shocking appearance at a United National Congress (UNC) general election community meeting in Debe on April 1.
Approached by the media at the end of the meeting, Best said he was invited by former Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal and “decided to come show my support.”
Asked if his presence meant he was now supporting the UNC, he said, “I am supporting righteousness. I believe righteousness is the key and I think everybody in Trinidad and Tobago should stand for righteousness. I am a patron of the state.”
Best said with an unblemished record for over 30 years, he was supporting “democracy.”
He also said there were many people in the UNC “who have supported us….The oppressed and I am very thankful for that.”
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Best also posed a question, “If you are a member of a society and the society is going through difficult times, would you, as the leader, not want to go through difficult times yourself? Is it righteous that you do well for yourself and the society that you're responsible for, you don’t do right by them? Is that righteous?
“I'm asking. No, I'm asking. I'm standing for righteousness, for that which is right. I've always stood for righteousness.”
He said people would disagree with him and, “I'm okay with that.”
Although maintaining he was not aligned with a political party, he said, “Don't make too much out of this…I still think we should be a democratic country. I don't think we are a dictatorship, although it may seem so from time to time.”
Best was fired as the SSA director on May 18, 2024, two days after he and other SSA operatives were arrested by police.
He was joined by former acting deputy commissioner of police Deodat Dulalchan and retired police officers Johnny Abraham and Roger Alexander, the UNC's prospective candidate for the Tunapuna seat.
Moonilal,who is again seeking re-election for Oropouche East, charged that the police were being used as a weapon against the Opposition.
He said "these security experts" would help to end the crime scourge that has overwhelmed the country over the past decade.
Winding up a meeting which featured former MPs Saddam Hosein and Barry Padarath and his predecessor former Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh, Moonilal recalled Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar's vow to introduce new offences for home invasions.
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“That nonsense must stop. This thing where people come and invade the sanctity of your home, rob you, beat you, murder you, rape your family in front your eyes, that must stop and it will stop under a UNC government,” he asserted.
“I can tell you; we have Roger Alexander with us. We have with us Mr Dulalchan, distinguished police officer Johnny Abrahan and major Best. We now have the manpower, we have the capacity, we have the expertise to deal with crime.”
Telling the audience don’t be fooled by Prime Minister Stuart Young and his government, Moonilal said the majority of police officers are ‘bawling’ for change.
“We stand in support of the police service, of law enforcement and when we get back there, we will depoliticise the security and intelligence community.
“They (PNM) have made the police a weapon against the political opposition. They have made the intelligence community their plaything to spy on us.”
He told of a recent incident with his cell phone which went blank despite being fully charged.
“That is a dangerous thing, because when they are spying on you, and they are retrieving information, copying it from your phone, they take the phone off.
“We must be on guard because they are politicising the intelligence community,” he said.
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In his lengthy address, Moonilal vowed that a UNC government would repeal the TT Revenue Authority Act, pledged to implement a nine per cent settlement for National Insurance Board (NIB) workers for 2014 to 2016 and to start negotiations for public sector workers, including police and security officers, starting at 10 per cent.
In the countdown to the April 28 election, he also reminded supporters of the 2010 general election.
“The day before the election was Man-In, the day after the election was Man-Out. The PNM has a new slogan, All-In. Well, I want to tell them after April 28, it will be All-Out.”
Also at the Debe meeting, outgoing MP Indarsingh was hailed as a man of class and spoke on the platform to introduce Padarath.
