Following the Opening of Parliament, Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar, commenting on the Opposition Bench, says it shows the "One Percent" is still in charge.
00:00Prime Minister Kamala Pusat-Busasa greets supporters before and after the ceremonial opening of the 13th Parliament.
00:09She calls today a good day and shares her thoughts on the President's address.
00:14I thought it was a very balanced and measured speech.
00:17At times I felt that she might have been reading our manifesto because the points that we have been pressing,
00:24they were all echoed by her, the fight against crime, the economy, the AI, and all the others.
00:31About five areas that she touched, so pushing through an open door, I would say.
00:35The President, who tragically lost her brother, 57-year-old Appeal Court Justice Wendell Kangaloo,
00:42in a vehicular accident in 2013, cited the UNC government's intention to do away with the demerit points system.
00:51He never said she was against the system.
00:54What she, well, if I remember correctly, she talked about it and she didn't actually come out to say she was against him.
01:02But she said we should put health and safety measures in place, which is a good thing to do.
01:07Pusat-Busasa was asked about the absence of Prakash Ramadar,
01:11political leader of the Congress of the People in this Parliament.
01:15Those are party matters to be dealt with at a party level.
01:18And what about former UNC Senator Jayanti Lachmedyal Ramdyal?
01:23There will be a space and place for her.
01:26Pusat-Busasa shared her thought process in selecting Jack Dale Singh, attorney at law, senior counsel,
01:32as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
01:35He's very learned in law.
01:38And on that basis, I think he'd make an excellent speaker.
01:43He's committed to helping people.
01:44He's done it in his practice.
01:46New persons on the side of the government bench, but the opposition bench in the Senate has some of the same faces.
01:55It points to me where the opposition is now going.
01:59They're bringing back persons who have been rejected.
02:01Of course, that's okay to bring back in the Senate legally.
02:04But they were there for nine years.
02:07And all the policies and programs they presided over did not help the people of Trinidad and Tobago.
02:13So being in the Senate, I can't see that giving them and their party any great lift.
02:17In other words, it is clear that the 1% is still in charge when you look at some of the members of the PNM senator's bench.
02:27Pusat-Busasa says she is, however, willing to work with them.
02:32I look forward to that.
02:33The country desperately needs healing.
02:35And I look forward to that kind of healing.
02:37However, given the disclosure about the entire, it has returned.
02:44It has returned.
02:45Every PNM member is back.
02:47They discarded it and now they feel it's necessary.
02:49So we wait to see.
02:51And given the content of the speech of the leader of the opposition, our leader, again, it was everything PNM, PNF, PNF.
02:58So we wait to see if there will be PNM forever.
03:02We asked her about state boards who have refused to resign.
03:05People live according to their standards, but the practice and the principle has always been that when the government changes, that they would move.
03:14A lot of them have done so.
03:15Some have not, but we will deal with that.
03:17We have already begun last week when you were not here.
03:20You were here.
03:20You were here.
03:21And we've already appointed several state boards and we will continue that process.
03:25The boards are very important.
03:27Pusat-Busasa says there are so many boards that consideration will be given as to whether they are all necessary.
03:34We may have to consider we want to keep all of these boards.
03:37Do we want to keep all of these state entities?
03:41So where some are not really functioning or where their functions may have ceased, maybe back in the day they were felt to be important to governance and helping people.
03:50But some we have to review and some may definitely have to go.
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