Ramadhar says opposition no-confidence motion unwarranted, calls it "a dangerous thing"

Ramadhar chats with a Point Fortin constituent during his "Street Talk" session

Prakash Ramadhar said Saturday Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar is taking concrete steps to stamp out corruption and suggested that Opposition Leader Keith Rowley is not doing anything to help.

The leader of the Congress of the People (COP) made the comments in Point Fortin during his party’s "Street Talk" session, aimed at meeting constituents during a walkabout.

Rowley has filed a no confidence motion against the Prime Minister, which is to be debated on Friday.

Persad-Bissessar has already denounced it as “frivolous, vexatious and totally without merit.” 

Ramadhar said the motion is unwarranted, especially as the Opposition People’s National Movement had pulled out of participating in the select committee on procurement legislation.

“For the first time, there is a real effort by a government to bring legislation to deal with the acquisition of government properties. But of course Mr Rowley had decided that they were not going to partake in the Joint Select Committee, of which I am a member," Ramadhar told the Guardian newspaper.

"It is critically important to bring the legislation before the Parliament to deal with all the issues of corruption... 

"The (corrupt) systems that we have inherited as a government have continued and that is why it is necessary to bring that kind of legislation,” he added.

Ramadhar said COP is taking the motion very seriously, noting that some politicians are doing all they can to try to destroy the social fabric of the nation for “unhealthy reasons.” 

He called the motion "a dangerous thing" and said he expects that it is treated responsibly and not frivolously. So we will wait until Friday to see on what basis this has really been brought,” he said.

Ramadhar disagreed that there is a similarity between Rowley's motion and the one filed by the UNC opposition in 2010 against Patrick Manning and his PNM government.

He said that motion was a result of just cause, due to the issues surrounding former UDeCOTT chairman Calder Hart and the use of government funds. The motion was never debated. Manning dissolved Parliament on the eve of the matter and called the general election which he lost.