Former United National Congress (UNC) activist, attorney and trade unionist Dave Persad made a surprise debut on a People’s National Movement (PNM) platform in Couva on Monday night and pledged support for the PNM and Rowley as the next Prime Minister of T&T.
Persad, the former chairman of the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation, also criticised the leadership of the United National Congress (UNC) which he rebranded the Kamla United National Congress.
He told the audience, which filled the corner of Alexander Street and Couva Main Road, he had changed his mind because Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar had lost control of the Government in the last five years while Rowley stood up to his leader at the risk of almost losing his job.
He said Mahatma Gandhi once said if you take a position one time in life and circumstances change you are entitled to change your position.
“Many circumstances have taken place in the last five years and that is why I am here tonight,” Persad said.
Making allegations of corruption, nepotism and saying that all of the Cabinet Ministers who were fired and those who remained never stood up against corruption, Persad said that was why he was on the PNM platform. “It have a man called Keith Rowley who stood up against his own leader on the issue of corruption and mismanagement when he was in government. He was a minister and he lost his portfolio. He lost that power, he almost lost his seat in Diego Martin.
“He was sidelined by his leader, he was vilified by his own leader. He was a raging bull, he was a Rottweiler, he was all kinds of things but because of that courageous and noble stand, this very government is in power,” Persad added. He said at that time, Rowley was like an angel and a doll.
“He was a darling, he was the best thing and that is the evidence you have, you have here Dr Rowley standing against that and for that reason alone, I voting for the PNM. I voting for Dr Keith Rowley,” he added. He said he was waiting for the UNC to call him a nemakharan.
As the crowd hung on to his every word, laced with picong, Persad said in addition to ministers’ bank books getting bigger so to were their faces and bellies.
“You know how woman does tie their tube so they would not get pregnant, for their belly not to get big, well them tying their intestines for the same reason,” he said. As the crowd cheered, Persad wondered if the people of this country understood what the cancer of corruption really meant to the nation.
“One thing this country is united on... is the UNC is the most corrupt government ever to traverse this TT.” Referring to Persad-Bissessar being questioned about corruption in her government and her answer was there is corruption in the system of government, Persad asked: “What is that?” “There is corruption in the system, so the system taking your money in bribes, is the system thiefing, is the system banking your taxpayers’ money in banks all over the world, is the system buying Range Rover and Porche, is the system of governance on the certified copy?” He also challenged his former colleagues — Cabinet Ministers Dr Roodal Moonilal, Fazal Karim, Vasant Bharath and Dr Tim Gopeesingh — to tell him he was a liar as he recalled their scathing comments against Persad-Bissessar during her bid for leadership of the UNC.