In spite of their sometimes strong stance against the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen, nearly every political party has, at one time or the other, played games with Yasin Abu Bakr's group of former coup-makers.
A special report by Camini MarajhA detailed probe of Bakr's relationship with major political figures of every stripe has turned up a decades-old affair of behind-the-scenes political wheeling and dealing, private meetings and secret pacts related to the containment of certain situations and the securing of Muslimeen support.
Long before Bakr and his group of insurgents shot their way into public notoriety by using murder, mayhem and terrorism in their attempt to overthrow a properly elected government, the self-styled imam was reported to have met with key figures of the then National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) party in the run-up to the December 1986 general elections.
Sources, who spoke on condition that their names not be used, identified a former mid-level NAR official in a gun distribution scheme aimed at buying protection for candidates and other party officials on the ground. The official (name given), is said to have handed over some 13 handguns to Mark Guerra in what sources say, was an initiative to provide safe passage for NAR candidates in what was expected to be a keenly contested, if not violent, election. Guerra, a gangland boss and then a top lieutenant of the Muslimeen leader, was shot dead last year.
Sources say the gun amnesty offered by the NAR Government in early 1987 was not unrelated to the distribution of guns to so-called bad boys in the run-up to the 1986 polls or the tacit support of Muslimeen "soldiers" waiting in the wings, in the event of a NAR victory and the PNM's refusal to hand over the reins of power after a 30-year stranglehold on government.
"The idea then was the PNM was the problem," said one source, who pointed to the protracted legal wrangling between the Muslimeen and the PNM-controlled Port of Spain City Corporation over the disputed lands at No.1 Mucurapo Road.
Disclosing that relations were warm between Bakr and key figures in the NAR party before the 1986 elections, the source said a legal luminary actually went to the Muslimeen's aid during the public stand-off between No.1 Mucurapo Road and then Port of Spain mayor Stevenson Sarjeant.
The leading luminary and former top ranking NAR politician is said to have produced an official copy of a memo of authorisation signed by the then economic adviser in the Eric Williams government, Dr Eugenio Moore, supporting the Muslimeen's claim to occupy the disputed city council lands.
The then PNM government had sought to stop Bakr from occupying the lands amid bitter protests from several Muslim groups, among them, the Anjuman Sunnat-ul-Jamaat Association (ASJA), that Bakr and his group were not "real Muslims".
In his skirmishes with Townhall, Bakr had named Karl Hudson-Phillips as an attorney who had offered to represent him on the land dispute matter free of charge, a claim Hudson-Phillips would later deny.
But Bakr, who cleverly worked on his image as an underdog against the establishment, would meet with other top NAR officials, including deputy political leader, Basdeo Panday, according to sources. It's a charge Panday yesterday denied, describing suggestions that he met privately with Bakr as "a fabrication somebody made up".
A source, however, reported that Panday did make the request, allegedly at the behest of ANR Robinson, the then political leader of the NAR. Yesterday, Panday insisted: "That is not true."
Robinson said he had no knowledge of the meeting, if there was one. "I have never heard of it and I certainly would not be engaged in any such plot," he told the Sunday Express. Robinson, who was shot and hog-tied during the Bakr-led attempted coup of 1990, said he did not recall the specifics of the 1987 gun amnesty but "I think it would have been an attempt to bring the guns in". The gun amnesty was offered by then national security minister Herbert Atwell, now an adviser on national security matters in the Office of the Prime Minister.
Panday, who said he may have met Bakr at the law offices of his former attorney general Ramesh Maharaj, the Muslimeen's attorney in 1990, said: "Nobody introduced me to Abu Bakr. The only relationship I had with Abu Bakr was when I became prime minister."
He has also denied reports of private meetings between himself and Bakr, Maharaj and former US Congressman and UNC supporter Mervyn Dymally in the weeks preceding the 1995 elections. "That is totally incorrect," he said yesterday.
Yesterday, Panday insisted that Manning got it wrong. "I cannot remember a single occasion when Mr Dymally and I met with Abu Bakr." On the fact that Bakr and his lieutenants were the first official guests of his government, Panday said he had given early indications that "we were going to treat people equally and fairly and would meet with as many groups that wanted to meet with us".
"I officially met Abu Bakr among several groups soon after I became prime minister," he said, declaring that "that is the only relationship I have had." As to Bakr's claim that Panday gave him $3,000 after he was released from prison on treason and murder charges in 1992, Panday said: "What happened was he was in prison. As I recall, his wife Annisa Abu Bakr made a plea for assistance as she was down and out and I made a donation towards her."
He denies suggestions that his party ever courted the Muslimeen or used the group to gain political control of the east-west corridor in the 1995 poll. "There was no Muslimeen help in the 1995 poll. They were fighting us as far as I am aware," he said, dismissing Bakr's king-maker claims that it was Muslimeen support that won the UNC the 1995 election.
But the blunt facts, as reported by this newspaper, are that the country's two main parties, at different intervals, have used the Muslimeen to raise voter support in critical swing seats. Both parties have allowed Muslimeen tentacles to reach large blocks of public-funded works. Both sides have paid damages to the Muslimeen for destruction to property at No.1 Mucurapo Road during an army conducted raid for weapons and coup-plotters.
Panday maintains that: "Abu Bakr claims associations with people to ingratiate himself." Bakr, at different points, in different campaigns, has accused both Panday and Manning of having prior knowledge of the events of July 27, 1990.
His story changes as often as his political alliances. But he has won from his political courtships, extending his tentacles into more State funded projects and questionable quarry deals, which insiders report, was a payback for the Muslimeen's help in securing votes in the December 2001 general elections.
Bakr, who is before the courts on a conspiracy to murder charge, has emerged, as a man beyond reach. The political deals struck with his group of insurrectionists has compromised the State's security apparatus. Until recently, he enjoyed private tete-a-tetes with Community Development Minister Joan Yuille-Williams, one of Manning's most trusted ministers and the woman who has held the Prime Minister's chair on at least ten occasions.
In a country where politicians are prepared to say and do almost anything to get votes, Yuille-Williams has remained mum on the exact nature of her relationship with Bakr. Party insiders, however, identify her as a major figure in a secretly brokered PNM-deal in September 2002 to gave Bakr adjacent lands to his Mucurapo mosque.
Manning would defend the land grant to the Muslimeen on the eve of the 2002 polls, insisting it was no terrorist deal but a remedy to "a long source of confrontation and unease between the Muslimeen and the State".
But a public uproar to what was considered an unsavoury political deal forced him to rescind the gift a few days later. In his about-face at a hastily convened press conference at his official residence, Manning said he had changed his mind about giving state lands to the Muslimeen. No other explanation was forthcoming.
And, while the Manning Government has continued its sabre-rattling about criminals crossing the line, the blunt truth is that law enforcement authorities are nowhere closer to arresting the out-of-control crime situation notwithstanding the creation of elite new units headed by military top brass.
