PM: I AM NOT MY SISTER’S KEEPER

Prime Minister Patrick Manning is not his sister’s keeper. Responding to questions about whether criticisms made by his sister, Dr Petronella Manning-Alleyne of the health sector, amounted to an attack on his administration, Manning stated that Manning-Alleyne had a right to speak like everyone else. He was speaking at a post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall. “The fact that Dr Petronella Manning-Alleyne is my sister and my dearly beloved sister has absolutely nothing to do with the country’s governance,” he said. “She knows that if she breaks the law, I will ensure that she is locked up.

Equally she is assured that if she has a point of view to express in accordance with the country’s democracy, she is free to do so without interference from me or anybody else in the Government. What is good for the goose is good for the gander,” he said. Manning said he had no knowledge of Manning-Alleyne’s decision to criticise the health administration and “like everybody else, saw it on the television.” He also stressed that when he was sworn in he agreed to discharge his functions without fear or favour, affection or ill-well, stating: “There is a thing called integrity in public affairs and we try to operate according to that.”

Health Minister John Rahael said he was not uncomfortable with Manning-Alleyne’s statements, especially since in many instances she was quite right in her observations about the management of the health sector. “It leaves a lot to be desired,” he said, saying that there had been “tremendous neglect” at PoS General Hospital and St Ann’s. He said in the public health sector there were two streams of employees doing the same jobs with different lines of reporting — RHA and Public Service — and each refused to listen to supervisors if they did not belong to the same line of management.