Opposition MP Dr Roodal Moonilal says the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) is a very strange party as it has “put a losing candidate in the Cabinet (Clarence Rambharat) and thrown out a winning candidate (Rushton Paray).”
He was responding to the party’s decision to oust MP for Mayaro Rushton Paray from its membership. Paray said yesterday that he was never a member of the PNM. His claims were challenged by PNM chairman Franklin Khan who produced the party’s records to support the claim on Saturday.
Khan announced to the media, following a general council meeting, on Saturday, that Paray was automatically expelled from the party because he contested the polls for the United National Congress. Three other activists—Christine “Twiggy” Levia, also known as Twiggy, talk shot host Ricardo “Gladiator” Welch and Barry Garcia—were suspended pending a disciplinary hearing relating to their behaviour during the recently concluded general election campaign.
Paray said yesterday during the election campaign the PNM “produced a card saying that he was a member of the party and that he was financing the PNM.”
He insisted yesterday such claims were false. “I have never been a member of the PNM.” He said the allegation was “pure political picong during the campaign, so I accepted that in the nature of what it was.”
He said, however, that he was surprised that the allegation was taken to a higher level, resulting in his so-called expulsion.
He insisted that he had “never been a member of the PNM and I have never had an interest to be a member of the PNM.”
He said the campaign had ended and it was now time for the PNM to move on.
“It is nonsense. What relevance is it (my expulsion) to the economy, what relevance is it to the {23 murders that we have had in the last 13 days,} what relevance that has for governing a country in a tight economic time,” he asked.
He said he was mindful that the PNM was hurting as it did not win the Mayaro seat, adding that when people hurt they lash out.
Saying that the matter was of no relevance or consequence to him, Paray said: “If there was any truth to it, so what? Does that impair my ability to deliver to my constituents, does it impair my ability to form new ideas and systems to move the constituency forward? It has no relevance, it is garbage as far as I am concerned.”
Paray said the people of Mayaro had concerns about their representation in the previous term as the then MP, former community development minister Winston Peters, they said was never available in the constituency.
Paray, a telecommunications specialist, said he intended to use social media, video conferences and telecommunications to bridge that human gap that is missing in Mayaro.
Paray said he was hoping to work with Khan, who is the Rural Development and Local Government Minister and Rambharat, the Agriculture Minister, to ensure his constituents get the required improvement in services over the next five years.
He said based on the existing world economics “it would be difficult for any administration to be the engine for job creation,” adding that there was a special need for public/private partnerships to achieve that objective.
Paray said tourism and agro-processing were two areas in which such an arrangement can help the people of Mayaro, insisting the private sector must play a big role in that regard.