(April 2009: Paula Gopee-Scoon, who was T&T Foreign Minister at the time, hugs visiting American President Barack Obama)Jack Warner on Friday took the member for Portin Fortin to task for her criticism of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
The Works Minister was speaking in the budget debate and talked about the contribution by the former Foreign Minister, Paula Gopee-Scoon.
“She was critical of our Prime Minister and wrongfully so,” Warner said. “She is trying to teach our Prime Minister protocol behaviour: how to speak, how to dance, how to sing, how to think and so on...
“Mr Speaker, I went in my archives and I pull out a picture I had from since last year,” he said as he displayed a picture of the former foreign minister higging the U.S. President.
“The picture I have, Mr Speaker, is a picture of the (then) Minister of Foreign Affairs hugging and almost kissing the most powerful man in the world! Breaking through his secret service like a little kid from in a school and trying, or course, to get close to–I repeat–the most powerful man in the world.
“Mr Speaker, imagine a former foreign minister going in the political cesspit as it were to attack our Prime Minister. And she is coming to tell our Prime Minister how to dance and she is telling our Prime Minister to dance in moderation?
“What protocol did (she) know when she hugged President Obama this way? What protocol did she know when she hugged him this way? And look at it: it’s a waist-hug!
“The international media were very shocked, Mr Speaker, about this breach of protocol. She was unrestrained, she was out of control, she giggled like a school-girl! She almost kissed the man.”
“And of course President Obama was not only embarrassed, but was visibly shocked. Look at his hands. His hands are off (her body) he is so shocked. And she is coming here to talk to our Prime Minister about protocol?”
The Works and Transport Minister Jack Warner also threatened to take PNM Senator Faris Al-Rawi to court for refusing to return $334,000 which NIDCO paid to rent a building that it is not renting.
Warner said between 2008-2010, NIDCO under Colm Imbert's stewardship paid a foreign legal firm, White and Case, $41 million. He said during the same period, seven local lawyers got $2 million.
he made the comment in reference to the PNM's questions about Attorney General Anand Ramlogan's payment of $13 million to a team of lawyers to audit five state companies.
"Why they don't slam White and Case?" the minister asked.
Warner said NIDCO wanted to move to a new building on Alexandra Street, Port of Spain and paid an initial 10 per cent deposit of $334,000 to Al Rawi, not realising that the building was earmarked for Local Government.
"They paid him and then they asked back for the money. Mr Speaker, that money was paid to him on March 2009," Warner said.
He said despite writing to ask for a refund of the money he got no answer. "And therefore the next step is to go to court," Warner said.
He said the government spent $1.6 million for a fete to open a highway Interchange, even bringing down soca star Bunji Garlin from a helicopter.
He said the ramp was to cost $349 million but ended up costing $519 million. "For a ramp!" he stated incredulously.
Warner said when he launched the water taxis "we had mauby and rock cake".
She also suggested that it would have been madness for the government to proceed with the Rapid Rail project, which would have cost $44 billion. He said more than half a billion dollars have already been spent for a design with $30 million still owing on it.
He called it "scandalous" in the light of the fact that the consultants at NIDCO have advised that the project should not be undertaken because the economic cost outweigh the potential benefits.
Speaking about the policies of the new People's Partnership, he noted that in less than four months, she has appointed three different people to act as Prime Minister, all them elected members.
He told Rowley it must be a big disappointment for him that he sat among the PNM MPs for years and never got the warm the seat for former Prime Minister Patrick Manning, who chose to trust only one man, an unelected Senator, Dr Lenny Saith.
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