FOREIGN and Caricom Affairs Minister Dr Amery Browne said the behaviour of the Opposition during the sitting of the Electoral College in October, should trigger revulsion by all right thinking citizens in Trinidad and Tobago.
Speaking in the Senate on Tuesday during debate on a motion to censure opposition senators, Browne said, "We are defined not just by the differences we might have across the aisle but by the manner we seek to prosecute and resolve those differences.'
People who have something good to offer TT are characterised by traits such as respect, courtesy and the ability to listen even to views which are disagreeable.
But Browne said, "Those who have nothing good to offer this nation will be characterised by disrespect, disregard, discourtesy, a propensity for shouting down others, mockery instead of engagement, abuse instead of tolerance, lack of discipline, day after day, sitting after sitting."
He asked senators who were the people whose behaviour fit those descriptions.
Browne argued the actions of the Opposition last October bordered on thuggery and protect democracy by undermining it. In this regard, Browne argued that similarities could be drawn between those actions and the attempted coup of July 27, 1990.
While he has disagreed with the views of independent senators on different occasions, Browne said neither he nor the PNM would ever disrespect them. "I will defend their right to be wrong." Browne disagreed with a previous contribution by Independent Senator Paul Richards that the PNM and UNC display similar behaviour patterns
He said the Parliament's record of the events of October 21, showed that "only one side behaved in this manner."
Browne slammed Opposition Senator Jearlean John for using TT's First People and former prime minister Arthur NR Robinson (deceased) to justify the UNC's actions.
In the former, Browne said the First People "knew what was sacred and what was not. Describing Robinson as a courageous leader whose famous "attack with full force" statement in July 1990 was a battle cry against thuggery, Browne told John, "You are no ANR Robinson. Please leave him out."
Social Development Minister Donna Cox supported Browne.
"They behave like petulant children who hurl insults as they snatch up their marbles and leave when the game does not go their way." She said this immature, infantile political behaviour is negatively affecting the morals and mind-sets that young people are being raised with."
The post Browne, Cox: UNC misconduct unacceptable appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.
