Pressure groups are silent on the secret meeting between Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley and Integrity Commission chairman Ken Gordon because they are waiting. The Government and newspaper reports have said there has been total silence from civil society and pressure groups, normally vociferous on social and political issues, on the Rowley/Gordon matter. The T&T Transparency Institute (TTTI), the local watchdog of corruption in public life, has been waiting on the convening of its board meeting to discuss the matter. TTTI director Lorraine Rostant yesterday told the T&T Guardian the group will be having a board meeting today, after which a release will be issued on the Rowley/Gordon matter.
Fixin’ T&T, a social activism group, spoke out as recently as June 3 on the 31 e-mails Rowley read out in Parliament, implicating Government officials in misconduct. The group sent a letter to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar calling on her to authorise the providers of her e-mail accounts to allow investigators complete access to all e-mail transmissions on her accounts sent, received, deleted and archived from August to October 2012. Fixin’ T&T has been silent, thus far, on the visit by Rowley to the home of Gordon on May 15, five days before he revealed the e-mails in Parliament. Persad-Bissessar questioned whether Rowley should be charged for misconduct in public life and there have been several calls, from the Government and the public, for Gordon to resign. Kirk Waithe, head of Fixin’ T&T, said his group was waiting on Gordon to issue a statement on the matter first before it comments. “We want to hear Gordon’s side first. We’re hoping he makes a statement soon.”
Told the group was usually quick to speak out on everything, Waithe said: “It’s not every issue we speak out on. “But even when we speak, we wait to get all the information.” Gordon said he was certain he did the right thing by meeting Rowley. He said when he was ready, he would make a full statement on the matter. Persad-Bissessar is expected to meet President Anthony Carmona today about the Rowley/Gordon meeting. This follows a letter she sent to Carmona in which she asked him to take whatever course of action he saw fit. The President is expected to appoint new commissioners to the board of the Integrity Commission later this week. Although the board’s term expired in March, Gordon’s term still continues.