00:00Yesterday, Prime Minister Kamala Passat-Bissessa labelled this country's independent senators as, quote,
00:05Satan's helpers and scumbags after they voted against the special operations bill in the Senate on Wednesday.
00:12Tonight, MSJ political leader David Abdullah is condemning these statements
00:16and says that better should be expected of the country's highest officeholder.
00:21The person who holds the position of prime minister has the most powerful executive position in the country.
00:28And that person, therefore, has to be held to a much higher standard than if it was an ordinary citizen.
00:37And that higher standard has to be that you do not engage in scurrilous personal attacks against persons who did
00:46not ask,
00:48did not apply for the position of independent senator.
00:52Abdullah says that it is the government's job to persuade the independent senators and the entire country
00:58that any legislation they aim to bring forth is for the benefit of the country.
01:02But when it comes to not just independent senators, but the country as a whole,
01:10the government has a responsibility to persuade people that their policies, their proposals,
01:18their legislative measures, which take the form of a bill that is laid in the parliament,
01:26that those things are the best things in the interests of the people of Trinidad and Tobago.
01:31And he maintains that resorting to insults in the parliament does not contribute to democracy.
01:37But when you get in the parliament, not any serious attempt to persuade,
01:44but rather the parliament becomes a forum to attack other people.
01:49And therefore there is more heat and noise than there is light.
01:55It does not help the people of Trinidad and Tobago and it does not contribute to the democracy.
02:02Dominic Ramroop, TV6 News.
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