Apologise or resign, Panday tells gov't minister

Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday is demanding an apology from Legal Affairs Minister Peter Taylor for a statement Taylor made in the House of Representatives Monday during the debate on the property tax bills.

Taylor told the House persons in Trinidad and Tobago are "living of the fat of the land" and have become too comfortable.

In a statement Tuesday Panday called the minister's statement insensitive and inaccurate.

Panday, who is on holiday in England, said it is the government of Trinidad and Tobago that has pushed people into poverty so the minister if out of place to make such remarks.

"I want to remind the government and the public that the period in which the United National Congress held office, we did not raise a single tax and there wasn’t an oil boom.

"And, now the Minister has the audacity to say that the Manning administration should not have to make any excuse for wanting to introduce taxation since that is the business of the Government," Panday noted.

The former Prime Minister said, "The government’s business is to raise the standard of living of the citizenry, to protect them, to guarantee them affordable health care and infrastructure and this government has failed bitterly in every regard!"

He said Taylor lacks compassion and fails to realise that "he is a servant of these very people he heaps scorn on. It is taxpayers who pay his salary!"

Panday said Taylor's mindset is not appropriate for a government minister and "Minister Taylor should either apologise or resign."