UNC senators call for resignation of entire independent bench

Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress Gov­ern­ment Sen­a­tor Phillip Alexan­der has called on all nine in­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors to re­sign be­fore next Tues­day’s Sen­ate sit­ting.

This, af­ter the de­feat of Gov­ern­ment’s Spe­cial Op­er­a­tion Zones bill in the Sen­ate on Tues­day, when eight of nine in­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors vot­ed against the con­tro­ver­sial bill.

Point­ing out that a Sen­ate sit­ting has been arranged for next Tues­day, Alexan­der yes­ter­day made his call for res­ig­na­tions on the ba­sis of Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s claim that two un­named in­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors seek­ing favours in re­turn for their votes.

The PM made the claim yes­ter­day, al­though she nei­ther named the sen­a­tors nor gave any ev­i­dence to sup­port her al­le­ga­tions.

“There’s a se­ri­ous al­le­ga­tion in the pub­lic space by no less than the Ho­n­ourable Prime Min­is­ter that two in­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors ap­proached a se­nior Gov­ern­ment sen­a­tor try­ing to ex­change votes for the (Zones) bill for com­pen­sa­tion,” Alexan­der said.

“Be­sides be­ing a se­ri­ous al­le­ga­tion of cor­rup­tion, that taints the en­tire Sen­ate In­de­pen­dent bench and they should all do the right and ho­n­ourable thing. They speak so much about ethics, in­tegri­ty and moral­i­ty in pub­lic af­fairs - this is a won­der­ful time to demon­strate it, be­cause the Prime Min­is­ter isn’t some­one to say things light­ly. I know she would have her in­for­ma­tion or­gan­ised.”

He added, “So, if they tar­ry and linger, they might get their names called in the pub­lic space. That is ca­reer-de­stroy­ing in­for­ma­tion.”

Alexan­der claimed there is “a prob­lem” in the way this in­de­pen­dent bench has been man­ag­ing their re­spon­si­bil­i­ties.

“But as of now, this sit­u­a­tion war­rants no less than a com­plete res­ig­na­tion of the en­tire In­de­pen­dent bench. They taint­ed all their col­leagues. You can­not say you stand for in­tegri­ty and ethics for every­body else and when that mir­ror is watch­ing you, you fail. You have a du­ty and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty now. Do the right thing!”

He said the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice and pos­si­bly Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions will have to get in­volved.

“All of those who are mem­bers of pro­fes­sion­al as­so­ci­a­tions - the Bar etc- those have to re­sign. They’ve taint­ed them­selves, there’s no com­ing back from this. The light that has to shine on them must make an ex­am­ple that naked pol­i­tics and po­lit­i­cal cor­rup­tion will not be tol­er­at­ed by the Per­sad-Bisses­sar Gov­ern­ment.”

Gov­ern­ment Sen­a­tor David Nakhid said, “We walk be­hind the Prime Min­is­ter, who’s spo­ken of these two in­de­pen­dents who should re­sign forth­with and be sub­ject to po­lice process.”

Sev­er­al oth­er Gov­ern­ment sen­a­tors had no com­ment or didn’t an­swer calls.