Moonilal: PM Rowley guilty of introducing red herring of race and alleged PSC dishonesty into the debate of COP
Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley is guilty of introducing the red herring of race and alleged Police Service Commission (PSC) dishonesty into the debate over a new Commissioner of Police.
Dr. Rowley has done so while being reduced to a letter writer in an attempt to explain away the gross incompetence and startling ineptitude of his ruling regime.
The Prime Minister issued a spiel to the media suggesting deceit and duplicity by the PSC and bringing in race as an issue in the selection of a top cop.
But, as one of two Opposition members on the six-member Special Select Committee (SSC) of the House of Representatives, I wish to publicly indicate that these matters did not feature during the Committee’s deliberations or in the respective reports.
The Opposition members issued an Alternative Report.
Neither report speaks of mala-fides, fraud or scam of the PSC. Conduct of members of the Commission never arose in the deliberations of the SSC and is not to be found in either report.
Similarly, the SSC did not pursue any matter of ethnicity in the selection of a Police Commissioner.
The majority SSC report stated that there were major human resource management issues in the process utilised by the PSC and its selected auditing firm.
The Alternative Report, authored by member Ganga Singh and myself, said there were no fatal flaws that would render the recommendations defective.
Dr. Rowley is the first person to raise alleged PSC wrongdoing.
Of note is that the debate on the matter came to a shock and sudden end on the evening of June 6, 2018, even though Opposition member Dr. Tim Gopeesingh was prepared to rebut the Prime Minister’s wild assertions.
The physically imposing Dr. Gopeesingh failed to catch the Speaker’s eye.
As a result, Dr. Rowley’s unfortunate, incorrect and inflammatory declarations have been left uncontested in the parliamentary records.
That would have satisfied Government Members of Parliament and cronies who did not want a public revelation of the relevant truths.
Also, while I was a guest on the programme “Ten to One with Ken Ali” on 97.5 FM last Sunday, former SSC Chairman Fitzgerald Hinds called in and stated that none of the PSC’s recommendations will be accepted.
That means that the proposal for Mr. Harold Phillip to serve as Deputy Commissioner will also be rejected.
This is based on the Government’s contention that the procedure used by the PSC was faulty, arbitrary and lacked transparency.
For his part, Dr. Rowley remains confused, ill-informed and provocative in his new incarnation as letter writer to the media.
In his missive, he also mistook one Hindu leader for another, a rather disturbing matter for a Prime Minister.