{"id":2639,"date":"2010-03-08T19:13:55","date_gmt":"2010-03-08T23:13:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=2639"},"modified":"2010-03-11T09:49:30","modified_gmt":"2010-03-11T13:49:30","slug":"hart%e2%80%99s-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=2639","title":{"rendered":"Hart\u2019s flight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newsday Editorial
\nMarch 08, 2010 – newsday.co.tt<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

PM Patrick Manning and Calder Hart<\/a>Weren\u2019t you surprised? That was the question put to Newsday by Acting Prime Minister and Acting Head of the Cabinet, Dr Lenny Saith on Saturday evening. He was referring to the flight earlier on Saturday by Calder Hart before he could answer the many questions about his role in Udecott.
\n
\nNews of Hart\u2019s resignation from Udecott and other State Boards had just been released via an unsigned announcement from Udecott, faxed to media houses. Some in Cabinet tried to weave a story about how Cabinet had decided to call on the Prime Minister to demand Hart\u2019s resignation. This was probably the reason for announcing that a media conference in the offices of Information Minister Neil Parsanal was cancelled shortly after it was announced. People had to get their \u201cstories\u201d coordinated.<\/p>\n

But it was Acting Prime Minister, Dr Lenny Saith, who scotched any notion that there was a Cabinet input into Hart\u2019s sudden resignation and flight from Trinidad. Saith told Newsday: \u201cThe gentleman has done his job, he\u2019s resigned.\u201d He said that Hart\u2019s resignation \u201chas come as a surprise\u201d, adding \u2014 \u201cWeren\u2019t you surprised?\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, if Cabinet had called on Manning to demand Hart\u2019s resignation, how could Saith have been surprised. And to answer Saith\u2019s question to us we say, No. We are not surprised. And since when has Manning taken any advice from anyone except perhaps his Spiritual Adviser?<\/p>\n

Once Madame Justice Mira Dean-Armorer\u2019s ruling shot down Udecott\u2019s and Hart\u2019s last desperate attempt to sabotage the Uff Commission of Inquiry, and the publication by Newsday and others of birth and marriage certificates showing direct links between Hart and the company to which he gave a multi-million dollar contract, we were on the lookout for Hart\u2019s flight from Trinidad, and from justice. And indeed, the authorities should also have been on the lookout for this.<\/p>\n

While many may be breathing sighs of relief, and even cheering that this man has resigned and fled pending the presentation of the Uff Report, we caution all to remember that Hart\u2019s actions are really only the beginning of the long process of exposing much of the corruption and incompetence which occurred under his watch. The presentation of the Uff Report to President Maxwell Richards carries no assurance that it will ever be made public, and there is considerable precedent for that with Manning\u2019s government.<\/p>\n

Whether we can persuade the DPP and the Commissioner of Police to act upon recent revelations alone remains to be seen. They may well stall, saying they need to see the Uff Report\u2019s confirmation of what we already know, and Manning may well keep the Report hidden. After all, can we forget that Manning went so far as to fire a senior Cabinet Minister and PNM stalwart in order to protect Hart?<\/p>\n

But Keith Rowley, Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, the Contractors\u2019 Association and JCC, as well as the local branch of Transparency International can all feel duly vindicated in advance of seeing the Uff Report. Hart\u2019s flight, on a reported one-way ticket on Saturday lays bare all of his denials and all of the preposterous praises Manning, Colm Imbert and others bestowed upon him.<\/p>\n

We in the media claim no sense of vindication. We faithfully followed up on the revelations of Rowley and Maharaj, and we kept this story in the public domain, even when threatened with loss of government advertising, and even when Manning spuriously and self-righteously claimed that it was not \u201cCalder Hart they are after, it is the Prime Minister\u201d. Manning has abused the media over this issue, but as we stated in a recent editorial, we are reflecting the concerns of the people \u2014 and Manning cannot pretend that the people hold different opinions than the media on this issue.<\/p>\n

He too, has \u201cfled\u201d, albeit temporarily, to attend prayers with the Queen of England. We ask, and not frivolously, if he has taken his Spiritual Adviser along? For his sake, we hope so for he has some serious explanations to provide upon his return, and the media have more questions to ask \u2014 such as, will Manning accept responsibility for Hart\u2019s actions?<\/p>\n

www.newsday.co.tt\/editorial\/0,116956.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Newsday Editorial March 08, 2010 – newsday.co.tt Weren\u2019t you surprised? That was the question put to Newsday by Acting Prime Minister and Acting Head of the Cabinet, Dr Lenny Saith on Saturday evening. He was referring to the flight earlier on Saturday by Calder Hart before he could answer the many questions about his role … Continue reading Hart\u2019s flight<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,37,29,30,7,26],"tags":[48,60,82,49,1020],"class_list":["post-2639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-complaints","category-corruption","category-finance","category-pnm","category-politics","category-udecott","tag-calder-hart","tag-keith-rowley","tag-patrick-manning","tag-tt-govt","tag-udecott"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2639"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2650,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2639\/revisions\/2650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}