When Calder Hart resigned on Saturday and promptly left the country with his wife and daughter, the news spread like wildfire.It was because Hart had become a kind of symbol for the political assault on Patrick Manning and the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago UDeCOTT, which Hart headed.
He had been under extreme pressure following startling revelations before the Uff Commission of Inquiry that linked Hart's wife to directors of a company, CH Development, that won a lucrative UDeCOTT contract, awarded while Hart presided over UDeCOTT.
For his part Hart had always denied the allegations but before the Uff Commission closed its hearings, his lawyers decided not to cross examine the witness who provided the information, Carl Khan, a former husband of Hart's wife.
The matter had also been raised by the opposition UNC, while Basdeo Panday led the party.
Jack Warner provided the resources for the research in Malaysia and it was Tabaquite MP Ramesh L. Maharaj who first raised the matter of Hart's alleged family connection to the multi-million dollar contract to build the government's legal affairs tower.
Just days before Hart's sudden departure from UDeCOTT and Trinidad, the Congress of the People (COP) produced documentary evidence that confirmed what had been known for several months.
COP is trumpeting its move as the straw that broke the camel's back. Perhaps it is so but then again it may very well have been the weight of all the overwhelming evidence against Hart that had come before.
For COP it was a master Public Relations coup. The timing of the release of the COP report was perfect, coming in the same week that the High Court was to rule on whether it would allow the Uff report with the UDeCOTT details go to the president.
It turns out the court decided against Hart and UDeCOTT, clearing the way for the report to get into the hands of the president. What better timing to spill the beans on Hart and connect the dots to try to paint a picture of corruption!
And like all good politicians, the party's leaders have been saying COP's investigation was key to the latest developments.
COP leader Winston Dookeran hailed members of COP's legal team at a weekend unification forum noting that they blew the whistle on some of Hart's business dealings.
It's true that the team had made connections with a Malaysian law firm which was able to access birth and marriage certificates of persons who are allegedly involved in several local projects and to make the family connection. Hart's defenders are still suggesting that the documents might be bogus.
So the truth is nobody has anything that could stick to Hart or Manning or UDeCOTT ... not yet at least.
For now Hart is a free man and there is no evidence today that will change that. As far as his former colleagues are concerned people are hounding Hart without justification and one of Hart's lawyers has said his client is returning home and is without reach with just a phone call.
What is clear is that opposition politicians collectively contributed to the fall of Hart. And if they are wise they will keep the pressure on Hart, Manning and UDeCOTT to get to the bottom of the matter.
It makes no sense to try to score political points instead of doing more to get the hard evidence that could make a case for corruption.
However, it would be useful for Trinidad and Tobago if COP's leaders pool their legal and other resources with the official opposition and work to dig deeper and unearth real evidence that can prove some of the allegations about corruption that have been making the rounds since the day Patrick Manning fired Keith Rowley for ostensibly behaving "like a wajang".
The truth is nobody has shot Calder Hart, who remains a free man. He has fallen from his pedestal, but he isn't even wounded. And for now, there is no sign that the political grandstanding will change that.
Jai Parasram | Toronto, March 9, 2010
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CALDER HART MANNING AND THE RAMESH DOCTRINE
Within months of his re-entry into the parliament in late 2007; Opposition Chief Whip Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj had the infant Manning administration on the run, as he focussed his guns on the alleged Hart family connection to the multi-million dollar contract to build the government's legal affairs tower. And his prediction that the government could fall within two to three years was made in early 2008. Maharaj moved a vote of no-confidence in the Prime Minister and his robust arguments during that debate were so rivetting that it caused the Prime Minister to flood Woodford Square with artificial support.
Since that time, the government has been embroiled in controversy after controversy all because of the strategy as crafted by Chief Whip Maharaj.
The front bench of the Opposition is the arena in which the display of constitutional, legal and political prowess is shone. This is where the bulwark of the state is confronted. Whistleblowing is fine and makes news but it is the quality of debate that carries the day. The Opposition front bench is now very weakened and the blunders of the current Chief Whip has worsened the stocks of the UNC.
For the time that Maharaj was Chief Whip he turned debates of the government on points of order effectively thwarting the government's parliamentary agenda. This is the doctrinaire attitude in Maharaj which induces in him to hunt down the higher principle in each and everything thus rendering the parliament as a turf which has his stamp of authority.
This is how an Opposition is supposed to operate. Now we have the sordid spectacle whereby the three top debaters, Maharaj, Panday and Ramnath are on the back bench.
We are told by one MP that this is three hundred years of experience. How therefore is the Opposition going to harness this experience for the benefit of the country ?
Ganga Singh resigned as Chief Whip on principle will Jack Warner resign as Chief Whip or will he put self before country ?
Ronald Bhola
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