UNC Chairman Jack Warner says Prime Minister Manning should resign as prime minister and leader of the People's national Movement (PNM) for bringing both offices into disrepute.In a media release Monday, the Chaguanas West MP stated that if Manning is serious about developed nation status he should follow the example of leaders like former British Prime Minister Tony Blair "whose transgressions against his people and his offices were nowhere as many, or as reprehensible, as are Mr. Manning’s sins against the people of Trinidad and Tobago and his oath of office."
Warner noted that Blair left office after he was confronted with his party’s sagging fortunes and public anger over Britain’s engagement in the War in Iraq.
"Tony Blair did not announce a snap election, he resigned as Prime Minister, as Leader of the Labour Party, and as a Member of Parliament," Warner said.
"Mr. Manning ignored elected PNM members of Parliament and appointed his wife a Senator and a Cabinet Minister in the three successive administrations he has headed since December 2001. For that alone, developed country standards of governance mandate that Mr. Manning should resign," the UNC chairman noted.
"To further flatter Patrick Manning with comparison with Tony Blair, it is necessary to state that the British Prime Minister kept his embrace of the Roman Catholic faith an entirely personal and private matter while he was in office.
"In contrast, Patrick Manning flaunts his brand of religion and behaves as a man possessed when confronted with his spiritual adviser’s virtual cathedral on land at Guanapo Heights handed over by the government; with Prime Minister Manning’s blessings.
"Furthermore, our Prime Minister called upon members of minor religious groups to rise up against what he described as religious persecution; then went on to mislead Parliament about lands at Maloney the UNC government gave to Spiritual Shouter Baptist organizations and the Orishas," he stated.
Warner noted that it was not the first time "this sanctimonious Prime Minister was caught misleading Parliament."
He added, "He had gone down that road with the former PNM Treasurer re the PNM’s sale of majority shares in the Home Mortgage Bank (the state company of which he was Chairman) to a private company that he controlled.
"If a parliamentarian is caught lying to Parliament in a developed country like the United Kingdom, resignation is mandatory. The Prime Minister should attempt, now, to rise to developed country governance standards and resign for lying to Parliament; and for making it a habit," Warner demanded.
The MP also took issue with Manning's defence of Calder Hart "when he had knowledge that the UDeCOTT czar was under investigation for suspected criminal conduct".
He said that is another reason for Patrick Manning "to seek the capacity to do the honourable thing and resign."
He added, "That is what a Prime Minister who understands developed country standards of governance would have already done. No Commonwealth Leader has been so excoriated by the Privy Council for violating the constitutional rights of citizens, as Prime Minister Manning has been.
"In any nation seriously aspiring to developed country standards in public affairs, a Prime Minister would have done the honourable thing and resigned after the first such scathing Privy Council judgment.
"Our Prime Minister has chosen to continue in his serial bungling; general abuse of office; nepotism; misuse of public funds; deception in Parliament; and violation of the Constitutional rights of citizens of our Republic.
"If Prime Minister Manning’s self-inflicted act of political euthanasia in announcing an early election is his version of a resignation, the nation accepts it; even though he has already begun to use this gambit for a massive outpouring of public funds from a dwindling treasury, in a blatant and all too familiar attempt at bribing the electorate," Warner said.
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