OT­TO CAR­RING­TON

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment Dr Rai Rag­bir says while he has had no dis­cus­sions with the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) about se­cur­ing a po­si­tion with­in the par­ty, he re­mains open to serv­ing the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go in any ca­pac­i­ty, re­gard­less of po­lit­i­cal af­fil­i­a­tion.

“I have to talk to God and my fam­i­ly. I am fam­i­ly-ori­ent­ed and God-fear­ing,” Rag­bir shared.

Ques­tioned by re­porters af­ter he de­liv­ered re­marks fol­low­ing the sod-turn­ing cer­e­mo­ny for the Gua­napo/North Oropouche Wa­ter Treat­ment Plant, which would boost the wa­ter sup­ply to his con­stituents, Rag­bir was asked about his po­lit­i­cal fu­ture af­ter he bowed out of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress’ screen­ing process for the seat he now holds.

As his son pre­pares to cel­e­brate his 18th birth­day this month, Rag­bir al­so re­flect­ed on his per­son­al jour­ney of bal­anc­ing pub­lic ser­vice with fam­i­ly and health con­sid­er­a­tions.

“To­mor­row is not promised to any­one,” he said, “But I am ready to serve.”

When pressed about any pos­si­bil­i­ty of him join­ing forces with the PNM, Rag­bir said, “It is a con­sid­er­a­tion. Once I get the op­por­tu­ni­ty to serve in any ca­pac­i­ty, re­gard­less of par­ty, and they find me cred­i­ble, I will serve.”

Re­spond­ing to Rag­bir’s seem­ing will­ing­ness to work with the PNM, Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter and Lopinot/Bon Air West MP Mar­vin Gon­za­les not­ed, “We have had nu­mer­ous oc­ca­sions where per­sons have left the UNC. We can point to many in­stances where in­di­vid­u­als have left the UNC and joined the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment.”

Gon­za­les al­so said he was con­cerned about Rag­bir’s safe­ty.

“If Dr Rai Rag­bir feels as though the PNM is a safer space for him, I am sure the Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary (Fos­ter Cum­mings) who was sit­ting in the au­di­ence, would have tak­en note of my com­ments and would en­ter­tain and act up­on such an ap­pli­ca­tion by the doc­tor. I feel very con­cerned about Dr Rai Rag­bir’s safe­ty be­cause I re­alise that the crit­i­cisms com­ing his way, where some of his col­leagues are call­ing up­on their mem­bers to open­ly dis­re­spect those Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment.”

Rag­bir an­nounced on Feb­ru­ary 13, that he would not be seek­ing re-elec­tion in the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion with the UNC.

He ex­pressed deep dis­ap­point­ment with the UNC, stat­ing that he could no longer align him­self with a par­ty that has, “aban­doned its prin­ci­ples, re­wards medi­oc­rity, shields those ac­cused of wrong­do­ing, and pun­ish­es in­tegri­ty.”

Af­ter his an­nounce­ment, UNC po­lit­i­cal leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­spond­ed, “No one cares.”