Warner: I’m going after Bas

(Trinidad Express) There will be change in the United National Congress, Chaguanas MP Jack Warner said on Monday. And if political leader, Basdeo Panday, refuses to allow that change to happen, it will come from below him, he said.

Warner made the comment as he asserted that the removal of Suruj Rambachan as Chaguanas Mayor was the first in many changes to occur in the party. “Panday could do what he wants, change will come in the UNC. If not from above then it will come from below. And the change that will come would envelop Panday and (Dr) Tim Gopeesingh,” Warner said.

Warner, leader of the Platform for Change in the UNC, said he had crossed a major hurdle with the removal of Rambachan, who was voted out in the election of mayor and aldermen at the Chaguanas Borough Corporation.

He said: “The next hurdle is Panday and I will go after him. The UNC has to accept change. I have begun the struggle for change and there will be no let up.”

Warner said he was also prepared to go before the party’s disciplinary committee. Panday said at the party’s executive meeting last week that the deputy political leader would be dealt with.

Panday said Warner was referred to the committee on two matters – voting with the Government on the Securities Bill, which allowed the Manning administration to have the three fifths majority it needed for the legislation to pass, and not yet accounting to the party over his (Warner) TT$30 million account to fund the party’s campaign at the last General Election.

On this, Warner said: “Why would someone give me TT$30 million and not the leader of the party? Many parliamentarians whisper and mutter under their breaths but they tremble when they see Panday. It is a strategy to prevent me from fighting the next general elections. But I will make his case look like child’s play.”