HEALTH Minister Terrence Deyalsingh’s broadside against Kentucky Fried Chicken and other fast food franchises has led to widespread speculation that his political career is coming to a crashing end.
Deyalsingh raised eyebrows among his colleagues and in the business world by publicly criticising KFC and other fast food chains as a prime contributor to lifestyle diseases of hypertension and diabetes.
That was a direct attack on Prestige Holdings – franchise holder for KFC, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, Subway and TGI Fridays – which is 68 per cent owned by Christian Mouttet and his family.
Mouttet is seen as close to Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley and has served on Government-appointed committees.
He was the sole investigator in an inter-island ferry fiasco in 2017.
He was also a member of the Government’s post-Covid-19 Road to Recovery Committee.
He heads 10 private sector companies, including the highly profitable Agostini’s, which enjoys a virtual monopoly in the importation of pharmaceuticals.
He also chairs Superpharm Ltd., which has nine pharmacies in strategic locations.
Mouttet-led companies have been acquiring other businesses and reporting increased profits in recent years.
The business executive is considered to be extremely influential with the Rowley Government.
In 2020, Rowley said that “we have to allow the rich to get richer.”
Prestige Holdings reported a 56 per cent hike in year-to-year profit on the day of Deyalsingh’s stinging attack.
Some Government political insiders consider Deyalsingh’s criticism to be extremely politically risky because of Rowley’s close ties with Mouttet.
Deyalsingh’s criticism sparked sharp attacks from one Alex Mouttet, who wrote on social media: “At least KFC invests in infrastructure.
“The doubles man set up a $200 MDF board box with ice cream buckets of channa under a tent next to a dirty drain and saves (his) money for a bottle of puncheon or who knows what.”
Mouttet added: “How you have millionaire doubles man and not a single one has actually rented a structure or reinvested (his) profits to upgrading (his) business?
“Same with roti; Spanish come and start food business and have brand-new building, and roti sellers haven’t painted (their) building in 30 years, selling food out of a rat hole.”
There is no indication that those views are shared by Christian Mouttet.
Deyalsingh suggested that he spoke out because he had previously failed to convince fast food operators to market healthier meals.
There has been much talk that he is among several Government Members of Parliament who would not face the electorate as People’s National Movement candidates in the forthcoming general election.
He is currently MP for St. Joseph, which the United National Congress won in 2010.
There are reports that Rowley is looking for experts in the respective fields for the portfolios of health, trade and industry, and energy.
Mark Loquan, who is retiring as CEO of National Gas Company, is being eyed for the Energy Ministry if the PNM is re-elected, sources said.
Deyalsingh has been strongly criticised by the parliamentary opposition and certain stakeholders for the state of the public health sector, including shortages of valuable medicines and non-working equipment.
The opposition claimed that the minister mishandled the management of the Covid-19 crisis.
In June 2021, the House of Representatives debated an opposition motion of no confidence in Deyalsingh as Health Minister.
