MOVEMENT for Social Justice (MSJ) leader David Abdulah said on Tuesday that the Government and Opposition disappointed the population again with their respective contributions to debate on motions in the House of Representatives to acknowledge the state of emergency (SoE).
THe SoE was called on May 15 because of rising covid19 cases. The House voted to extend it by three months, from May 30 to August 30.
The Government can summon the House at any time during this period to vote to end the SoE.
In a statement, Abdulah said Monday should have been a day "when the entire country felt positive, united and hopeful about our future."
Instead, he lamented that the Government and Opposition squandered yet another opportunity to show "they could rise above narrow party interests and turn the words, 'We are all in this together,' into some form of reality."
Instead, he said, "We got more of the old – blame the other for the problem; and worse accusations about who is sabotaging the country and who caused the recent surge in cases and deaths."
He added, "The Prime Minister’s outburst about vigils for the late Andrea Bharatt was not only in extremely poor taste but it lacked any basis in fact."
Rather, Abdulah, said, "Those vigils were held when the covid19 health regulations restricted the number of people gathering. At no time was there any attempt to enforce the regulations, nor were there warnings from the Government that these vigils could cause a spike in cases and should not be held."
He also said whether or not they were funded or organised by the UNC was not the point.
"All the Prime Minister’s statement has done is to exacerbate the divisions in society and will result in growing racial tensions, as the social media posts on both sides will amplify the comments many times over."
Abdulah said the Opposition's contributions to debate on both motions were equally deplorable and must be condemned with equal vigour.
"The UNC has put many a foot wrong in their responses to the covid pandemic so they have little moral authority to criticise or condemn the PNM. We need not cite all of these here as they are well known to all but the diehard UNC supporters."
Abdulah said neither the Government nor the Opposition focused on the very real problems created by the pandemic.
He said these included "an economy that is in need of fundamental transformation; a society that is deeply fragmented and in which there is great inequality of income, wealth and opportunity and where serious problems exists such as gender-based violence; and where our national institutions are, if not broken, in need of significant fixing."
He added that thousands of people who are in pain "needed to hear a unified message of hope for the future.
"That did not happen."
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