Kamal: I still control the Muslim vote
Independent
Kamaluddin Mohammed
December 19, 2000
By IRENE MEDINA
KAMALUDDIN Mohammed, the respected patriarch of one of San Juan’s largest Muslim families, says he still controls the Muslim votes in this country.
And last Monday he took those votes straight into the camp of the sitting United National Congress government.
"The Muslims overwhelmingly supported the Prime Minister and the party. They felt that the party had performed well. You know the Prime Minister has given the Muslim community six schools. They have benefited a great deal with the government."
Mohammed, a former PNM deputy political leader and acting Prime Minister under the Eric Williams regime, said his niece Nafeesa, who faced open condemnation by her family for running for the PNM in San Juan/Barataria, "never stood a chance of winning.
"We all knew Nafeesa never had a chance.
According to him, the balance of power was the Muslim community.
"And in the end the Muslims were loyal to me and Mr Panday."
The Caricom Ambassador told the Independent on Tuesday last that he was "praying" that once the President got the official election results from the Elections and Boundaries Commission he would re-appoint Panday as Prime Minister.
"The waiting has been a bit long."
Mohammed also knocked the Opposition PNM, saying he felt it was inappropriate for the party to write to the President to ask him not to do his job.
"I think it was inappropriate that the PNM should write the President and ask him not to do his job. I think they were wrong. I think Mr Manning is panicking, he ought to tone down. The UNC has got the seats".
About the voter padding issue, Mohammed says he thinks the matter is "exaggerated".
He said he had the same charges levelled against him when he fought the St. Joseph seat in 1956 and won against the Independent candidate Chanka Maharaj.
" I won the election by 109 votes and he challenged the results in court but I won the petition.
"In every elections people always say they have been cheated...."
Mohammed, who admitted he is still not a member of the UNC, complained too that one of his sons, an attorney, was investigated by the police in voter padding charges.
"My son is a prominent lawyer and he was born and bred in El Socorro, but never moved his name to Valsayn. You know he was investigated by the police!"
The former PNM Cabinet Minister has dismissed the PNM’s charges of voter padding and "green band maxi taxis" as figments of peoples’ imagination. He accused PNM of creating tensions and defended the EBC as an independent body.
"For better or for worse they do a reasonably good job. The Commonwealth also sent a team and they reported that everything went well. I believe the Opposition lost the elections and should take it graciously."
And while he calls for a healing in the nation, the great "Uncle" says the Mohammed family will also work toward reuniting all family members.
He said niece Nafeesa is a favourite who is liked by everybody.
"Even the Prime Minister advised his campaigners not to say a word against her."
Still, he said, the PNM Senator was told not to go up for elections.
"The family felt win or lose she will still be made a senator but she went against that and threw her hat in the ring unlike her brother Jamal who knew how her father was treated by the PNM.
"Having regard to this and the fact that I was an Ambassador, you know ...."
Kamal said his loyalty is however to Panday.
"Leave Dr. Williams out of this but Mr. Panday is superior to all of the other leaders.... I think one must realise too it was he who proposed Mr Robinson for President while the Opposition opposed and put forward a judge.
Kamal who described himself as a former "top" man in the Islamic Association has called on the PNM to help the UNC form a government of national unity and to "drop all these frivolous charges."
He defended his appearance at a Muslim press conference where some Muslim leaders chastised Manning for dragging their religion into the political fray, after Manning attacked the government for calling elections in the Holy Month of Ramadan.
"I was only there because I was a member of the delegation that spoke with the Prime Minister about the issue and he received the fullest support of the Muslim community."
