(Trinidad Guardian) Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has said the Law Association has acted cowardly in the way it addressed the controversy involving the Vincent Nelson indemnity matter. She made the remarks in a statement issued Saturday.
“The council of the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago has wasted the opportunity to use their weight as protectors of the Rule of Law and promoters of the administration of justice to firmly call out those members of their own Bar who have been found wanting and to publicly denounce their conduct.
· Their long overdue statement, which had to be dragged out of them, was pusillanimous evasion and simply repeated what we already know.
· It was an exercise in cowardice in that it cunningly avoided calling to account PNM lawyers Douglas Mendes and Gilbert Peterson for their roles in this scandal. Douglas Mendes has previously led the PNM legal team while Gilbert Peterson is the personal attorney and Inez Gate neighbour of Keith Rowley.
· It was pointless in that it calls upon disgraced Reginald Armour to answer questions via a press release, without saying if they have written to him demanding answers.
· How can the LATT call on Reginald Armour to provide an unambiguous statement when he himself has been implicated in this scandal by Faris Al Rawi?
· What the LATT has stated can only be described as “independent” senator chatter – cowardly and sufficiently vague so as continue in the good graces of the state’s legal gravy train while simultaneously protecting self-interests and those of some of their colleagues.
· Despite the abundance of evidence, the Law Association has cunningly offered the disgraced members of Cabinet, Faris Al Rawi, Reginald Amour, Stuart Young, Fitzgerald Hinds, Renuka Sagramasingh as well as their PNM legal colleagues Douglas Mendes and Gilbert Peterson even more time – without any deadline – to politically manoeuvre and the opportunity to create spin and distraction.
This is a rogue, out-of-control, dictatorial regime which believes the Constitution or law does not apply to them and is only there to be used to secure their political and economic power.
It truly is a chilling moment for the democracy of Trinidad and Tobago when the LATT will not vigorously defend the constitutional rights of citizens from persecution.
The right-thinking citizens of our country today cry shame on the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago for their dishonourable cowardice in the face of the worst constitutional scandal in our country’s 60-year independent history.”
