00:00The Prime Minister pilots the whistleblower protection bill in the lower house, saying
00:06inspiration came from the government of 2010 to 2015.
00:10It was a period of many decades of either knowing or having reason to believe that there
00:17was just too much corrupt practice in Trinidad and Tobago, but when it was made official
00:24and sanctioned and encouraged by the government of the day in the way that it was being done
00:29during that period, Madam Speaker, people had a right to see it as probably the number
00:35one issue in the election campaign.
00:37In public life for over 40 years, corruption, Dr. Rowley says, is everywhere.
00:43And as a country, we are fooling ourselves by thinking otherwise.
00:46It does not apply to any particular location, any particular category of person, any particular
00:55station of persons in the society, Madam Speaker, instances of corruption or indications
01:03of corrupt practice surface from every layer and every facet of Trinidad and Tobago, even
01:10the clergy.
01:12And there are persons, he believes, who know about such acts but are unwilling to speak.
01:18The law makes provision that if you've made a complaint and you want to know what has
01:24happened with your complaint, that the receiver should be able to give you a response.
01:31That's only reasonable.
01:34A whistleblowing reporting officer will be prohibited from revealing the identity of
01:41a whistleblower without his prior consent in writing.
01:46Dr. Rowley has got wind of unwillingness by the opposition to support the bill if it requires
01:52a special majority.
01:54In that case, he says, half a loaf is better than none.
01:57If it turns out that it does not mean, that it requires a special majority, and our colleagues
02:05on the other side would not support it, I will ask the Attorney General to make necessary
02:11adjustment and we'll pass what we can pass with the majority that we have, and that may
02:20not be the strongest position, that may not be the strongest position, that may not be
02:26the strongest position, but it will be a much stronger position than where we are at the
02:31moment.
02:33Quipping back from the opposition bench, Dr. Rudal Munilal says the bill has not changed
02:37since 2022, nor has his position.
02:41He says there have always been allegations of corruption in the country, the region and
02:46the world.
02:47The Prime Minister spoke a bit about history, and the history not only of the bill, but
02:52the history of issues of corruption in Trinidad and Tobago.
02:56The Prime Minister did not go as far back as the McDonnell-Douglas scandal, did not
03:03go far back as other matters under the Eric Williams administrations of the 1960s and
03:111970s, the Lock Joint scandal.
03:16Many of my colleagues opposite may not have been born during the scandals that took this
03:23country by storm, including former ministers of the party that they now proudly represent.
03:32Dr. Munilal advises the government to take note of why people are unwilling to say something
03:38when they see something.
03:40The reason people say nothing, the reason citizens say nothing, the reason the mother
03:44says nothing, the reason the witness says nothing, the reason the person in the corporate
03:49sector says nothing, is because they have no confidence in public institutions.
03:54They have no confidence.
03:55Whether it is the police, whether it is an institution in the government, they have no
04:00confidence.
04:02And your first task is to build or rebuild confidence.
04:06Debate continues in the Lua House.
04:09Arvishi Tamwari, Rupanarayan, TV6 News.
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