The deputy speaker of the House of Representatives on Friday turned down a request from Opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar to debate an upcoming CARICOM Summit on crime and security in Port of Spain. Persad-Bissessar revealed plans for the summit earlier in the week, calling it a "summit of distraction" and pointing out that it would be a waste of money.
She wondered why Prime Minister Patrick Manning was hosting such a meeting only days after a CARICOM summit in Dominica and two months ahead of the annual CARICOM summit and suggested that it was another attempt by Manning to distract citizens from the real national issues.
On Thursday, Foreign Affairs Minister Paula Goopee Scoon confirmed that the meeting will be held in June and that the Trinidad and Tobago government will pay for airfares and accommodation for the government leaders and key members of their delegations for the one-day gathering.
In reaction to that, Persad-Bissessar again slammed the government for what she called an unnecessary meeting.
"That excuse for an explanation by the Honourable Minister must be the most ridiculous initiative ever conceived in the context of the runaway crime that the Manning administration has contributed to and is now unable to curb.
"Remember, that the Summit on Crime has been called by Mr. Patrick Manning not by the other Caricom leaders who met only last week in Dominica and are now being asked to meet yet again in a few weeks," the opposition leader stated in a media release.
She added, "So, Mr. Manning cannot even deal with the crime situation here but he is calling a Summit to deal with the issue at a regional level? Can we expect him to follow up with a Summit on Corruption?
"We maintain that this amounts to nothing more than a Summit of Distraction which will fail miserably as the public looks on in anger at their very own Prime Minister calling his Caricom colleagues to deal with an issue that is proven to be well beyond him and his government."
The UNC leader said the money being squandered "on yet another pappyshow could have been better invested in alleviating the problems being endured by the people but this has never been Mr. Manning’s elitist focus."
Persad-Bissessar also commented on the artistic community's criticism of the National Academy for Performing Arts (NAPA).
She said instead of acknowledging a problem, "the government...proceeds to spend even more money in a feeble attempt to "sell" the failure to the people. So we now have a major ad campaign selling us the flawed NAPA which will go down in history as the most costly white elephant ever constructed, even by PNM standards."
The opposition leader said it seems all of Mr. Manning’s Ministers are following his cue of "attack and destroy" any and everyone who happens to disagree with them or seek justice.
"They accuse the media of “bribery”, they declare “war” on the construction sector, they denigrade the artistic community, even call “shame” upon the population. That is the type of arrogance we see on display by Mr. Manning and his cohorts," Persad-Bissessar said.
She also commented on the police investigation of the Abu Bakr affidavit alleging a deal between Manning and the Jamaat leader.
"We all recall the famous public declaration made by Mr. Manning that he would give land to the Jamaat and then after public outcry about this intention and rare objection from within his Cabinet, he was forced to call a news conference to announce his retraction of the promise.
"He would not though retract from the support given by Abu Bakr and the Jamaat saying instead he welcomed their support. And as we all know the PNM certainly got all that and more from Abu Bakr and the Jamaat in the general election," she said.
She said based on all these matters she has called for a debate of no confidence in the prime minister.
She said Manning "has lost all credibility and demonstrated that he is unable to govern this country. The people have lost faith in him and in any other part of the world he would have been forced to do the honourable thing and resign."
No comments:
Post a Comment