MINISTER of Rural Development and Local Government Faris Al-Rawi is paying no mind to calls by Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar for his resignation. He said she has been asking him to do so for the last 13 years.

He was speaking at a virtual press conference on Wednesday morning.

Persad-Bissessar called for Al-Rawi's resignation on Tuesday while discussing the collapse of criminal charges against former attorney general Anand Ramlogan and ex-UNC senator Gerald Ramdeen, who were accused of collecting kickbacks from Jamaican-born King’s Counsel Vincent Nelson.

In 2017, Al-Rawi signed an indemnity agreement, purportedly on behalf of the government, for Nelson.

Persad-Bissessar said Al-Rawi should either be fired or resign.

But she added that she was not running a “get Faris campaign,” but rather, standing for the people of the country.

“I have no interest to get Faris. Where there is wrongdoing, I will expose it. That is my job as leader of the Opposition.”

Asked by Newsday for his response to this call, Al-Rawi said, "I've often jokingly said – and I mean this with greatest respect to a lady – I've often said, 'Kamla, I don't want your crush.'

"She's been calling for my resignation for 13 years straight. "The day Mrs Persad-Bissessar didn't call for my resignation, I think she'd be ill."

He said he knew her mission was to try to unseat her political opponents, and he understood her entitlement to freedom of political expression, but "Mrs Persad-Bissessar has been calling for my head for 13 years straight."

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