“What’s new?” That was Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley’s response on Tuesday to the legal action being taken against him by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Attorney General Anand Ramlogan and Local Government and Works Minister Suruj Rambachan, in relation to the Section 34 e-mail fiasco.
“It’s a continuation of an effort to keep me quiet, to prevent me from talking about things that are uncomfortable to them,” Rowley told reporters outside the Susamachar Church, San Fernando, moments after he attended Appeal Court Justice Wendell Kangaloo’s funeral. Persad-Bissessar, Ramlogan and Rambachan are initiating legal action against Rowley for alleged defamatory statements he made about them over the e-mail issue at a May 23 public meeting.
The pre-action protocol letter seeks to bar Rowley from repeating the statements or making “any similar defamatory statements,” failing which the parties will “immediately seek injunctive relief before the High Court” without notice to him. When asked if he was fazed at all by the lawsuit, Rowley said: “It comes with the job. “When the state Attorney General decides that pre-action protocols is a way of keeping the Opposition shut up, he will continue doing that,” he said.
“But I have taken an oath of office and I will stay true to the oath of office to act without fear of favour, malice or ill-will.” He said he would continue to discharge his responsibilities to the people of T&T and would continue to raise with them “all issues which are of their interest and as we get to the court, it will be adjudicated upon that.”
Asked by reporters whether he was worried at all, he said no and asked if this was attempt “number five, number six, or number seven” to quiet him. “But that will not prevent me from raising issues which make the government uncomfortable, cause that’s the job,” he said. The matter is still being investigated by the police team led by deputy Commisisoner of Police Mervyn Richardson, who said on Monday that the probe was moving along.