Leader of the Highway Re-Route Movement Dr Wayne Kublalsingh yesterday delivered a letter to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar in which he thanked her for her prayers but at the same time knocked her for ignoring the findings of the James Armstrong committee. Special advisor to the Prime Minister Lisa Ghany collected the letter about ten minutes before noon. Ghany told Kublalsingh that Persad-Bissessar would read the letter “almost immediately.”
But Kublalsingh was not told if and when he would get a response from Persad-Bissessar. Kublalsingh started his second hunger strike on Wednesday to protest the controversial segment of the Debe to Mon Desir Highway. In a letter written by Persad-Bissessar to Kublalsingh on Wednesday, the PM described the strike as a futile “self-destructive action,” even as the case was before the court for adjudication.
In his letter, Kublalsingh told the PM, “You and your Government have ignored the findings of the independent Armstrong committee which reiterates your statement to put on hold and review the Debe to Mon Desir Highway. “Whether the matter is in court or out of court you are prepared to act illegally, breach promise and ignore the findings of science.”
He also begged Persad-Bissessar not to shut the doors of diplomacy and rationality. He said the only victory possible was for the PM to agree to put on hold the controversial segment of the highway and agree to review it.
“I think the only way out of this situation is dialogue and we have eminent technicians waiting to meet with the prime minister’s technical team to find a way out of this morass which we have found ourselves in to develop the best system of connectivity for Debe to Mon Desir and I think the Prime Minister ought to be open to dialogue and to the technical team,” Kublalsingh said.
On whether he believed his letter would have any impact on Persad-Bissessar, especially since she appeared unwilling to engage in dialogue, Kublalsingh said the PM was “not God.” Regarding the huger strike, he said, “A hunger strike takes on a certain trajectory. It starts very calmly but then eventually the participant himself begins to get very weak and approaches death and it is possible that might have an impact.
“I’m not looking forward to that but imagery of death is important. I hope it does not reach that. I hope good sense can prevail before that.”