Humphrey tells 1990 Coup probe to read Express to understand context of events

John Humphrey on Thursday continued his account of what he remembered of the failed 1990 Muslimeen and explained the reaction of Basdeo Panday to the event.

He told the Commission of Enquiry into the coup that Panday's wife, Oma, told him that her husband was drowsy when he said, "Wake me up when it's over."

Humphrey said Panday was "sound asleep" when his wife went to wake him up to tell him what has happening on the evening of July 27, 1990. "And it was in his drowsiness" that Panday made the remark, which people have often quoted to suggest that Panday didn't care about what was happening.

The former Prime Minister gave the same explanation in an interview with JYOTI two years ago. He said he left Parliament early that day and returned home. He had been recuperating from open heart surgery and went to bed in the afternoon.

Humphrey said when his wife, Helen, saw Abu Bakr on television, she thought it was a best village play.

Humphrey also gave his views on what he thought may have caused the uprising, telling lawyers that said he did not think it was connected with the upsurge in crime, noting that in the period following the coup the crime situation was "reasonably well managed".

Crime dropped significantly dropped the Panday administration, which ended when President Arthur N.R. Robinson appointed Patrick Manning as Prime Minister following the 18-18 tie in the 2001 general election. Robinson was PM at the time of the coup and was held hostage at the Red House.

Humphrey blamed Manning for the upsurge in crime. He said after Robinson made Manning PM, Manning spent "massive amounts of money" in what he called a social program.

"But it was really distributing that money to young people who formed themselves into gangs, and that money enabled them to get involved in weapons and drugs and those gangs, instead of being community development oriented, became criminal gangs and I think that is the source of the crime wave we face now," he said.

He claimed Manning was literally minding 30,000 Afro-Trinidadians who refused to register to vote and were guaranteed incomes through the Unemployment Relief Program (URP) and CEPEP.

He said the "community leaders" received most of the money and instead of sharing its equitably, used it for personal reasons.

Humprhey told the commissioners that Robinson was eager to get rid MPs who were loyal to Panday and who had been members of Panday's United Labour Front (ULF), which was dissolved when Panday joined Robinson and other political leaders to form the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR).

But a commission lawyer challenged that noting that former ULF members Winston Dookeran and Emanuel Hosein stayed in Robisnon's cabinet after Robinson fired Panday and some of his loyalists.

Humphrey suggested that the Commission should read two articles published by the Trinidad Express newspaper: "ULF Grab for Power" and "Indianisation of the Government".

He said the Express was being used politically and suggested that former NAR cabinet minister Ken Gordon was using his influence at the newspaper. Gordon was a top executive at the Express. He said Gordon was not just a shareholding but had a "controlling interest" in the paper.

Humphrey suggested that the Muslimeen hated Robinson and just wanted him removed as Prime Minister.