ASK KAMLA
Manning says he does not have the grand piano; throws question back at AG:
By Carolyn Kissoon South Bureau
Story Created: Jan 13, 2011 at 11:47 PM ECT
Story Updated: Jan 13, 2011 at 11:47 PM ECT
Former prime minister, Patrick Manning, yesterday distanced himself from the disappearance of the Bosendorfer piano from the Prime Minister's Residence and Diplomatic Centre in St Ann's.
Manning said he didn't have the piano but would not be surprised if a search warrant was executed at his San Fernando home in search of it.
Manning called a press conference at his Fernando East constituency office, Coffee Street, yesterday to respond to Attorney General Anand Ramlogan's claims that the piano could not be found and Manning might know where to find it.
"It appears to me that the question the Attorney General put to the member for San Fernando East yesterday would have been more appropriately put to the member for Siparia," he said. Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar is the MP for Siparia.
Ramlogan said last night: "We will certainly chase up this lead and we're very grateful for his assistance but I wish to know why was the grand piano purchased for the PM's residence at such an exorbitant cost.
"Is it that he and Mrs Manning were learning to play the piano? What was the intention and for whose use?"
Ramlogan told Parliament on Wednesday that US$850,677 was spent to purchase ten Bosendorfer pianos from Las Vegas, USA, and one was now missing.
Manning said at the press conference that the grand piano was stored on the eastern side of the stage at the Diplomatic Centre when he moved out after losing the last year's general election, adding:
"I imagine the Attorney General couldn't recognise it because he thought it looked like a harmonium."
A harmonium is a reed organ with hand pump bellows used in Trinidad by Indian musicians in mainly classical singing and religious ceremonies such as yagnas.Manning said, "The grand piano was there for sometime after I left. What I do know is that when the new prime minister and her team came in, before she moved in, a lot of the equipment was moved out of that residence, including furniture. I have no idea where that furniture was sent. I rather suspect that if you go to a house on lower Phillipine, you might find some of it."
The former PM added: "Talking in the context of the dholak and the dhantal, the steelpan and so on, local instruments, it is clear to me and to us that the Attorney General's view of culture is a very restricted view. Our view is much wider than that and it includes instruments which, in addition to those that he mentioned, also incudes a wider range of instruments including the grand piano."
Manning said the People's National Movement's vision for the Diplomatic Centre at St Ann's was one in which there would have been recitals using, and exposing, some of the best talents in Trinidad and Tobago. "To the local and international communities a grand piano would have been an essential instrument and that is why the grand piano was placed there," he explained.
Manning said it would be no surprise to him if a warrant was issued to search his premises for the piano, which is valued at US$114,215. "Well let me make it clear from now on, there is no grand piano at my residence. I left the grand piano at the Diplomatic Centre where it properly belonged. And while that was our concept, it appears to me that the concept of the current administration, is to use it for party meetings and improperly so," he said.
And he added that it was impossible for him to leave the premises with the grand piano, as the Prime Minister's Residence was equipped with an efficient security system.
He claimed, however, that several cameras were removed since his departure. "I do know that they (the new occupants) have interfered with the security system, because there is a system where you can monitor the entire facility from one central location. I understand that they felt that they had no need for such monitoring and that they had no need for the cameras and much of that have been removed. The system as we left it at the residence no longer exists," he said.
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/ASK_KAMLA-113541389.htmldats right manning.......dat dotish coolie dunno what a piano looks like.
