Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar will steer clear of the recent Integrity Commission collapse during her speech today at the People’s Partnership’s fifth anniversary celebrations.
In an interview with the Sunday Guardian yesterday, Persad-Bissessar said she planned to remain focused on the issues that people of T&T were facing.
“Some issues are generating a lot of airplay and a lot of print play, but those aren’t the issues that affect the people on the ground,” Persad-Bissessar said.
In the past two weeks, Persad-Bissessar faced a roller coaster of political highs and lows which began when Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Joan Honore-Paul publicly condemned her for speaking on documents which were part of the police investigation into Emailgate. Honore-Paul’s condemnation stemmed from the fact that Persad-Bissessar seemed to use the published statement from the US Department of Justice to exonerate herself on the issue. One day after that six-page letter from Honore-Paul was published, Persad-Bissessar thanked her for confirming that the US Department of Justice letter was authentic. She then said that Honore-Paul’s letter was vindication.
Days later, Persad-Bissessar again expressed vindication when Integrity Commission chairman Zainool Hosein issued a statement to the prime minister’s attorney, Israel Khan, SC, saying that there was not sufficient evidence to continue the now two-year-old Emailgate investigation and the case was closed. Persad-Bissessar used fresh wind from Hosein’s letter to call for Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley to step down from his post.
Shortly after it was reported that commissioner Dr Shelley-Anne Lalchan had tendered her resignation from the Integrity Commission citing personal reasons.
The PM’s victory was short-lived, however, when then deputy chairman of the Integrity Commission, Justice Sebastian Ventour stepped down, citing his disapproval of the commission’s statement clearing the PM as the only reason for his resignation. Ventour said on Thursday that the statement issued by the commission to Khan, on Tuesday, which stated that there was “no or insufficient grounds” to continue the probe, was misleading to the public because it was incorrect. He said that up to the time just prior to his resignation, the commission had not yet received all the information it sought from email service providers.
Hosein initially remained mum on Ventour’s surprise resignation, but by Friday, he broke that silence to say that he “did nothing wrong.” Hosein, a retired Appeal Court judge and former president of the Retired Judges Association, said he could not speak on the issue of the (former) deputy chairman because with two commissioners gone, the Integrity Commission was no longer constituted.
Nevertheless, the PM remains unmoved. “I will continue to maintain that the emails are false, so I will not be getting into that. I will remain focused on delivery,” she said.
“My hands are clean and my heart is pure and that is all the ground really cares about,” the Prime Minister said.
She said even the collapse of the Integrity Commission was a governance issue, which was one of the pillars of her Government that had her attention.
“The ground, you will find, is more concerned with jobs, with education, with water and utilities than they are with these issues,” Persad-Bissessar said.
Those, she confirmed, would be the highlights of today’s speech.
“The ground support has actually swelled in the past two to three days,” she said.
Persad-Bissessar said she was just informed that all the maxis booked to help supporters get to Constantine Park, Macoya, today were full and there were still some 3,000 people requesting transportation.