Dookeran calls on T&T to build a new nation

Winston Dookeran told supporters Sunday change is coming to Trinidad and Tobago and urged everyone to work together to build a new nation.

The leader of the Congress of the People (COP) was speaking at a unity rally in Port of Spain, which was attended by some UNC officials including MP Winston "Gypsy" Peters and UNC general secretary, Dr Glen Ramadharsingh.

“This is not about the fall of the PNM—that is inevitable," he declared. "What we must start doing is decide how we are going to build a new nation,” he added.

Dookeran said there must be a complete change in the attitude of people and leaders.

He noted that it is critical for people to recognize that crime and corruption are not a part of the country's culture. Dookeran said the country will eradicate both evils only when people accept that it can be done.

He also spoke about alleged corruption at the state-owned UDeCOTT and said the most recent developments show that his party is working hard at dealing with issues of corruption.

He joined calls from the opposition United National Congress (UNC) for a forensic audit of UDeCOTT.

UDeCOTT executive chairman Calder Hart resigned over the weekend and left the country with his family.

It came in the same week that COP unveiled a document obtained from authorities in Malaysia connecting Hart's wife, Sherrine, to directors of a company that had won lucrative government contracts from UDeCOTT.

The same information had been presented to the Uff inquiry into UDeCOTT and the construction sector by Carl Khan, who is a former husband of Sherrine Hart.

Tabaquite MP Ramesh L. Maharaj had also produced evidence connecting the Harts to the construction company, CH Development.

Hart had always denied any family connection and Prime Minister Patrick Manning had defended the UDeCOTT boss, dismissing all the talk of a family connection as the words of "a jilted lover."

Dookeran also addressed constitutional reform and suggested that Trinidad and Tobago should not have an executive president.