NEWSDAY MARCH 27, 2K14 Penny: Firing no surprise By Richardson Dhalai Thursday, March 27 2014 Challenger to the post of PNM political leader, Pennelope Beckles-Robinson, has described Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s firing of Caroni Central MP, Dr Glenn Ramadharsingh, as in keeping with Government’s reelection campaign. Speaking to reporters prior to a cottage meeting at B’s Complex, St Mary’s Village, Moruga on Tuesday night, Beckles-Robinson said Ramadharsingh’s dismissal had “not surprised” her as she had made a bet concerning the outcome of the matter saying Persad-Bissessar had used the opportunity to dispel the belief that she was not a strong leader. “I am not surprised. As a matter of fact, I took a bet with someone because I believe that having regard to the fact there is a 2015 election, there is a lot of accusations going around in terms of a cabal, and accusations of her not being strong enough as a leader so I think she capitalised on the opportunity to be able to make a statement,” she said. “A year in politics is a very long time, if you did a poll after the people may give the Prime Minister credit but I don’t know if that is sufficient for them to consider her as worthy of a second term, I am of the view the People’s Partnership is not deserving of a second,” she added. Beckles-Robinson however pointed out that the allegation of misconduct against Ramadharsingh by a Caribbean Airlines flight attendant was a “serious matter” saying there are two aspects of it. “One is the accusations of the harassment and the other one is the fact that you had the complaints in terms of him not complying with requests of the persons on the airline and then you had statements from persons who were around, who witnessed what actually (took place) on the airline,” she said. “I think further to that was his apparent admission of something going wrong by apologising for what had happened as indicating that fatigue took place,” she added. “So if you simply accept even his version of the story, he seems to be admitting that he did not do what was expected of him as a minister.” Asked her opinion about the number of persons who have been dismissed from the People’s Partnership Administration, she said this was evidence that the ruling coalition’s members did not understand their roles and functions as ministers of government. “The fact that so many ministers have been fired clearly means that they have not kept up with what are the expectations in terms of leadership within the Cabinet and expectations in terms of what society would expect of ministers,” she said. “I think the Prime Minister has been put in a very funny position from time to time where pressure has been brought on her to do that and I think that in itself is an indication of this Government not having selected the kinds of persons who would have proved themselves worthy of being ministers in the Government. She also expressed concern about the number of women fired over the past four years saying apart from the Prime Minister herself, the only other women in the Cabinet were Local Government Minister Marlene Coudray and Public Administration Minister Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan
Posted on: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 10:04:19 +0000
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