Sporting an outstanding green tie and bearing a green bay leaf in Parliament yesterday, sacked justice minister Herbert Volney all but declared his intention to jump the UNC ship and join the “green ship.” He said three MPs will, in time, join the “green ship”, too. “I’ve seen the ship come into the harbour and I’ve gone to meet it.” Volney spoke to members of the media after the sitting and, later, to the T&T Guardian.
Questioned later on the three MPs, Volney said: “I would not rat on the confidence of MPs of the House of Representatives. “Whatever views were given to me, were given in confidence.” But he said: “Three MPs will, in time, join the green ship.” And what about the Opposition’s support for Warner, as it is being alleged? “I don’t know about that,” he replied.
Volney asserted his new found independence by being the only one in the House to not vote for the Dangerous Dogs Bill which was passed with all the Opposition votes. “This is my declaration of independence,” he said. He said the bill was “anti-poor man” because the pitbull is the poor man’s dog and he will not have money to pay the exorbitant insurance for it.
Former government minister and Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner, whose nomination as a UNC candidate in the July 29 by-election for the vacant seat was rejected by the Government, has announced that green is now his colour, implying a new political party is to follow. Explaining the choice of the bay leaf, Volney said it wards off pests. Asked what might be the name of Warner’s party, he said he, too, was waiting for it but would love if Warner uses the word “patriotic” in it.
Asked if he was resigning from the UNC, he implied that was imminent. “I don’t want to leave the UNC but if the UNC doesn’t want to withdraw the candidacy of Khadijah Ameen (UNC Chaguanas West candidate), I will have to support Mr Warner. “If they don’t want to sort out their problems, let them expel me, and Warner, and everyone else who disagrees with them.”
Asked if he would be playing an active role in the election campaign for Chaguanas West, Volney said: “I will lend support to Mr Warner.” He said he has no immediate plans to speak on Warner’s platform but the dynamics of politics is such that he could very well end up lending him a hand. Volney said he does not believe the people of Chaguanas West will turn on Warner.
“I do not think the people of Chaguanas West would like to be branded neemakaram, that especially as East Indians, they are ungrateful people. Mr Warner has done a lot for them and I don’t think they will vote against him.” He said he cannot support Ameen because she is “unsuited.” Asked why she was more unsuited than Warner, Volney replied: “Because there are many allegations against her.”
Commenting on Warner’s integrity, which Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar questioned at a UNC meeting in Chaguanas West last Monday, Volney said: “She always knew about these allegations. “Why did she keep him in Cabinet all the time if she knew about that? It served her purpose. It was a purpose of convenience.”
Asked if the Concacaf report by Sir David Simmons did not concretise the allegations against Warner, Volney said: “Nothing came out of it, nothing. No charge has been laid. “No indictment has been returned. Nothing, just allegations. It’s Concacaf and Fifa’s way of getting rid of people, by having these reports made against them.”
Asked with all the controversy surrounding Warner if he had not, in fact, become a liability to the government, Volney, likening Warner to a sort of Jesus character, said, “He shed himself of all his robes and came down to be one like the people, with nothing, no office. “And he has come to them and said if you find that I am with sin, forgive me and re-elect me. But if you cannot accept me as I am, then reject me.
“And the people are entitled to sanitise him by voting for him. That is why they say the voice of the people is the voice of God. God forgives. People can forgive.” Asked if he was begging people to forgive Warner his sins, Volney said: “I am not begging anybody to do anything.” Volney denied his jumping ship is because he has an axe to grind or is a case of sour grapes. “Let the donkeys bray,” he said.