Columnist Clarence Rambharat says he will deal with Community Development Minister Winston Peters, once nominated to represent constituents of Mayaro for the PNM.
He made the announcement on the PNM platform in St Augustine on Tuesday night. He said he expected criticism for his decision which comes less than a year from the 2015 general election.
He added: “I am my own boss. When Anand Ramlogan wrote in the Guardian and then decided to join the COP platform he didn’t ask my permission. “When Herbert Volney was screened when he was on the Bench and skid off the Bench and landed in the community of St Joseph nobody asked my permission.
“When nominations are called for I will accept your nomination and if the screening committee decides, I will deal with Gypsy in Mayaro. I believe the people of Mayaro are smart enough.”
Rambharat said the tipping point which prompted his return to a political platform related to the Life Sport programme and grass-cutting contracts.
A daily newspaper revealed earlier this month that several people, including a sports journalist at another daily newspaper, were receiving contracts worth $200,000 to cut grass as part of the programme.
He told the crowd: “I am very familiar with grass-cutting and you are very familiar with the UWI (University of the West Indies) building.
“That big grounds opposite UWI administration building cost $800 a month to cut.”
Rambharat said he was not anti-government, as he was called in the new pro-government newspaper, The Voice, but said he was anti-wastage and anti-nonsense.
“I believe the people of this country have reached their limit.
“I have written and used the keyboard but I could also talk and I am prepared to talk and talk and talk and there are people out there who are afraid to talk and I will tak for them because in politics, silence is consent,” he added.
Rambharat praised the PNM for its commitment to introduce whistle-blower legislation once the party returned to office.
“We need whistle-blowers legislation now,” Rambharat said as one of the audience members blew a whistle.
Rambharat spoke about corruption within state companies, telling the crowd he had been told by a whistle-blower that Caroni 1975 Limited had been sued by a high-ranking executive employee for $12 million.
Instead of being terminated, he said the employee retained his $40,000 a month salary and was moved to a newly-formed state enterprise, Caroni Green Ltd, with a $150,000 severance package.
He said those were examples of the corruption taking place within the People’s Partnership Government.