{"id":7478,"date":"2013-04-20T02:17:43","date_gmt":"2013-04-20T06:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=7478"},"modified":"2013-04-20T02:17:43","modified_gmt":"2013-04-20T06:17:43","slug":"analysts-put-the-warner-ball-in-pms-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=7478","title":{"rendered":"Analysts put the Warner ball in PM\u2019s court"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Yvonne Baboolal
\nApril 20, 2013 – guardian.co.tt<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar<\/a>Political scientists\/analysts are divided on the issue of whether Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar should ask National Security Minister Jack Warner to step down based only on allegations in the media, especially in media which have lost credibility with the Government. Some said they did not expect the PM to ask Warner to step down based only on allegations in the media.
\n
\nJack Warner<\/a>One felt Warner should resign, not because of allegations swirling around him, but because he was distressing the national psyche. The Opposition PNM has filed an April 26 motion in Parliament calling on the Prime Minister to deal with the allegations surrounding Warner, former Fifa vice-president.<\/p>\n

Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley, at a political meeting in Embacadere last Tuesday night, announced that the upcoming motion would deal specifically with the unanswered allegations surrounding Warner in his capacity as a person in public life and as a representative of the Government of T&T.<\/p>\n

Former head of the public service Reginald Dumas<\/b>
\nReginald Dumas, former head of the public service, who worked closely with former prime minister Arthur NR Robinson, felt the PM should wait to make a decision on Warner until a Concacaf Integrity Committee reveals the findings of a forensic audit into Concacaf (supposed to have been yesterday). <\/p>\n

Political scientist Dr Bishnu Ragoonath<\/b>
\nPolitical scientist Dr Bishnu Ragoonath is not too hopeful Persad-Bissessar would ask Warner to step down based only on allegations reported in the local media which have lost credibility points with the Government. \u201cAllegations are made all the time but there\u2019s nothing to certify that Fifa is going to say Warner committed any wrongdoing. \u201cMy position is let there be something more concrete than allegations in the media and then we\u2019ll work on him (Warner).\u201d <\/p>\n

Ragoonath said the onus is on Warner. \u201cHe keeps saying people are only talking and the Prime Minister cannot confirm the allegations. \u201cI don\u2019t see the Prime Minister asking Warner to step down unless she has evidence to corroborate what the media is saying.\u201d <\/p>\n

Political scientist Dr Indira Rampersad<\/b>
\nPolitical scientist Dr Indira Rampersad said the evidence has to be really concrete for the PM to ask Warner to step down. \u201cHe is a valued member of the Government. He holds the very important portfolio of National Security Minister; he is chairman of the UNC and MP for Chaguanas West. \u201cWarner wielded significant power and popularity nationwide and some level of popularity still exists even with the allegations. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe question for the Prime Minister is whether she is going to go with the allegations and ask Warner to step down based only on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Political analyst Dr Winford James<\/b>
\nTobago-based political analyst, Dr Winford James felt the PM should ask the President to revoke Warner\u2019s appointment, tantamount to firing him, he said. \u201cAnd the reasons are different from the normal ones.\u201d More critical than the allegations surrounding Warner are the distress he\u2019s causing the national psyche and the distractions from its duties he\u2019s causing the Government, James said.<\/p>\n

Source: www.guardian.co.tt\/news\/2013-04-20\/analysts-put-warner-ball-pm%E2%80%99s-court<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Yvonne Baboolal April 20, 2013 – guardian.co.tt Political scientists\/analysts are divided on the issue of whether Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar should ask National Security Minister Jack Warner to step down based only on allegations in the media, especially in media which have lost credibility with the Government. Some said they did not expect the … Continue reading Analysts put the Warner ball in PM\u2019s court<\/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":[1,5,186,638,396,30,7,160,27,142],"tags":[85,416,147,144,60,49],"class_list":["post-7478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-tt","category-international","category-law","category-money-laundering","category-peoples-partnership","category-pnm","category-politics","category-security","category-sports","category-unc","tag-abuse","tag-fifa","tag-jack-warner","tag-kamla-persad-bissessar","tag-keith-rowley","tag-tt-govt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7478","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=7478"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7479,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7478\/revisions\/7479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}