Joint Trade Unions Movement (JTUM) leader Ancel Roget has declared “war” on Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar. Speaking to a crowd on the Brian Lara Promenade, Port-of-Spain, up until 8 pm last night, Roget, who is also head of the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU), blasted Persad-Bissessar for what he called her “unprovoked attack on him in Parliament.”
He was referring to a statement the Prime Minister during her contribution to Parliament yesterday in which she recalled an incident at state-owned Trinmar back in the 1990s when Roget worked on the rigs. The incident surrounds a worker being injured under Roget’s watch.
“You want to start a war with me that you cannot finish?” Roget said.
Roget said Persad-Bissessar would not have a quiet day in or out of office after using parliamentary privilege to attack him.
“That fight will continue long after you leave office. You will not be able to hold your head up after,” he added.
When the group and their supporters gathered at Woodford Square just after 3 pm, Roget unveiled a mannequin wearing a yellow dress. During his speech after the march, he again unveiled the mannequin and encouraged the crowd to shout “boo” four times at the effigy.
“You cannot fight with me, you have to be sober to do that,” Roget said.
He said the Government believed that everyone could be bought or silenced with pre-action protocol letters, and that it was able to buy out “every Tom, Dick, Harry and McLeod,” even people attached to the Police Service.
“If they have to sue me every day, every week for speaking out, they could sue me every day,” he said.
Roget and the JTUM supporters were joined by Independent Liberal Party (ILP) leader Jack Warner during the more than two-hour march through Port-of-Spain. Warner was warmly welcomed on the stage, where he once again apologised for his role in the ascension of the Government into office. He also hinted his allegiance could be with another party, saying the ILP can find a home in another “corner.”.
Almost two hours before that march moved out of Woodford Square, dozens of yellow-clad PM and United National Congress (UNC) supporters gathered at the Parliament building in a show of support for the Government. That too was condemned by the JTUM.
Roget said the Government was taking advantage of the poorest people attached to CEPEP, making them gather in support of the Government.
He lashed out at a former minister allegedly named as a person of interest in a plot to murder a radio DJ. “The man is a person of interest. Police looking for him to identify himself now but he cannot even identify himself when he sees himself in a video,” Roget said.
He said it was the Prime Minister that must be held ultimately responsible for the issue with the Government. “The PM is unmasked,” he said, after removing a black plastic bag covering the mannequin.
