NAPARIMA MP Rodney Charles is urging the Prime Minister to reconsider his approach to communicating with the public, referring to Dr Rowley's covid19 media briefings which he said were a "waste of time."
Charles said the information out of these press briefings can be summarised in a press release.
Speaking during the UNC's weekly media briefing at the Office of the Opposition Leader on Charles Street, Port of Spain on Sunday, Charles said the PM's briefings did not build public confidence in the leadership of the government and he compared Rowley's behaviour at these meetings to that of a "badjohn."
Referring to Rowley's media briefing last Saturday, Charles said no new information on government's public information campaign on vaccination was made available and he accused the PM of bullying the public to get vaccinated.
"It is yet to dawn on Dr Rowley that his covid policies have failed miserably. His policies buffing citizens, blaming everyone, weekly political posturing while providing little to no useful information are not building the trust needed for success.
"You (Rowley) are our first badjohn Prime Minister and hopefully our last. Your tedious weekly news conferences are a colossal waste of state resources, viewers' time and tax payer money.
"A simple news release telling us the number of deaths, those testing positive, those rehabilitated and the vaccine roll out plan would suffice," Charles said.
He also accused Rowley of blurring the lines between public service and partisan politics by involving permanent secretaries and technical officials in the ministries while he made political attacks.
He said while the Opposition is in full support of vaccinations against the coronavirus, he felt the public was entitled to choose whether to vaccinate or not.
He said the government did not properly address the concerns of people who were hesitant to accept the vaccine and urged businesses not to follow government's mantra of forcing employees to take the vaccine..
"What we would ask of the private sector is do not fall for the strategy of coercion rather than consensus building. We feel forcing employees to take the vaccine is a last resort and not the best initiative.
"I think the time has come for the business sector to work with the trade union movement, the Churches and the non-governmental organisations to come up with a collaborative development processes."
Citing a recent job advertisement for the Parliament which stipulated applicants should be vaccinated beforehand, Charles said this and other reports where employers put pressure on employees to get vaccinated was "uncomfortable" and unnecessary.
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