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  • 1 year ago
Minister Dr Keith Rowley has called on Chief Secretary Farley Augustine to stop taking Tobagonians for fools. His comments comes as the Chief Secretary Farley Augustine previously stated his disappointment that the Prime Minister would soon demit office and Tobago's autonomy has not moved forward positively. More in this Elizabeth Williams report.
Transcript
00:00I don't want to be too harsh on the Chief Secretary but I want to ask him to
00:06stop taking to begonians for fools. How many times do we have to tell the Chief
00:13Secretary that it takes three quarters of the votes of the Parliament to amend
00:23the section of the Constitution that will provide this autonomy that he's
00:29talking about. He's not a member of Parliament so maybe he doesn't know
00:33what he's talking about. The Prime Minister is calling on the Chief
00:36Secretary Farley Augustine to stop attacks against the process. He's not a
00:41member of Parliament so maybe he doesn't know what he's talking about but I give
00:45him the benefit of the doubt that if you are so invested in attacking people
00:49relentlessly and making personal attacks on people at least find out what
00:55you're talking about. He knows that the PNM only has 22 seats in Parliament. He
01:01knows that the PNM has not had three quarters majority in the Parliament. He
01:07knows that when the bills came to the Parliament even if those bills were
01:13going to be passed into government he knows that he has said that that is not
01:17what he wants. The majority of people in the Parliament said this is
01:22documented for the Parliament we vote on it. The majority of people in the
01:26Parliament which are PNM people voted for it. The Prime Minister said the Chief
01:31Secretary needs to speak about the opposition voting against the Tobago
01:35autonomy bill. But that is not enough to bring about the change. If he wants to
01:42engage the issue you notice he stays very far from talking about those who
01:49did not support it because those are his friends. His friends in the UNC vote
01:54against it. He's not talking to and about them but he's talking to and about the
02:00PNM that voted for it. Imagine those bills had in there a
02:06commitment to give the Tobago House of Assembly additional responsibilities
02:11and significant additional funding and they vote against it. And he cheers
02:20himself by saying he's glad that the bills were voted down and now he's
02:24wasting your time and my time talking about me not giving him and Tobago
02:30autonomy. I cannot give you what I don't have.
02:32Elizabeth Williams TV6 News
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