Minister of Public Utilities and Leader of Government Business in the Lower House, Barry Padarath is standing by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s criticism of President-appointed senators over their positions on the proposed Special Operations Bill.
“Some, not necessarily all, some of the president’s picks have their own self-serving interests. When you have persons sitting on the bench, hand-selected by the president, receiving state briefs, receiving board appointments, and I can point you to at least two of the sitting senators of the president’s picks sitting on that bench, receiving those state briefs, receiving those state board appointments, and other, some may call it inducement, I will not call it inducement, but I will allow Trinidad and Tobago to judge for themselves.”
Minister Padarath has accused some independent senators of pursuing personal or political interests instead of providing what he describes as an independent voice.
“What we have seen is personal aggrandizement from some of them, some of them utilizing their positions, as the Prime Minister has indicated in the past, for self-serving purposes, and also to demonstrate very quietly sometimes their own political bias, as opposed to doing what is in the best interest of the people of Trinidad and Tobago. And to those senators, I say Trinidad and Tobago is looking on. They require you to provide them with a voice. All you have heard is excuse after excuse for why some of these provisions should not be put in place.”
He also defended the casting vote used by the President of the Senate Wade Mark, amid public debate over the decision.
“I want to make it abundantly clear that the Constitution does not provide, the Trinidad and Tobago Constitution does not provide any guidance with how the President of the Senate, who is the presiding officer, is to vote.
All it provides is a discretion for a tie to be broken by the presiding officer, whether it is in the House of Representatives or it is in the Senate of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. And therefore, the onus is on the presiding officer, in his or her wisdom, to break the tie. And what you saw occur in the Senate is not unique.”
He pointed to three instances in the House of Representatives under a PNM administration, when the then-Speaker used her vote to break ties.
“There were three instances in the House of Representatives under the People’s National Movement, House Speaker Bridgid Annisette-George, who voted with the then government, the People’s National Movement government, to break the tie in the House of Representatives. So all this noise in the public space and semantics by the opposition, referring to the government as hypocrites and calling the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate by all sorts of names, all of those things will not change facts. And you know, former Prime Minister Mr. Manning used to say, facts are a stubborn thing.”
Minister Padarath says the government will continue to push for and support initiatives and efforts to strengthen the response to crime.