Ganga takes on ‘The Lion'
OPPOSITION Chief Whip Ganga Singh yesterday made a veiled attack on Opposition Leader, Basdeo Panday, under the guise of attacking Prime Minister Patrick Manning. Making his contribution during yesterday’s debate in Parliament, on the amendment to the Students’ Revolving Loan Fund Act, Singh responded to a recent statement by Manning during the Caricom Heads of Government Conference at the Hilton Trinidad. Manning was reported as having said that the thriving illegal drugs and arms trade in the region had raised the level of crime in Caricom, and that the influence of insidious drug lords could spread to the legal and political fraternity. According to Singh, an absence of a common deadlock of shared principles and values within the political framework could easily give rise to politicians’ decisions to "sleep with the devil," adding that "slumber with the devil gives rise to a fruit that can be poison to the nation." This statement evoked an eruption of desk thumping and "Oos" from Government MPs. "When you understand if you sleep with the devil in order to win an election, you will release the evil stalking the land," Singh continued, and referred to the unprecedented murder toll as an example of such evil. This provoked loud laughter and cross-talk, which forced House Speaker Barry Sinanan to intervene. "Perhaps you are misunderstanding the member. Let the member make his contribution. I want to hear it too," the Speaker warned. Singh said the Prime Minister’s statement could have only been made by a politician without principle, because members of his Government had recently been accused of planting drugs and ammunition in the water tanks of an Opposition Senator, yet he (Manning) was unwilling to advise the President to appoint a Commission of Inquiry into the matter. "That is politics without principle. Politics might have a good morality for you and not for me. There must be politics of principle, otherwise you will have a disconnect in the society. There will be a disconnect with what you say and what you do. If you cannot align what you say with what you do, then there is an abandonment of politics with principle." What was needed in this country, he said, was an ethical framework in the communities and country for our young people to understand. He said the whole Vernon Paul issue demonstrated that politicians must stay away from the criminal elements of the society. "We have to engage the society and have a national conversation on the basis of ethics, truth, honesty, morality, character, respect, discipline, stability and not criminality," Singh concluded. He made a hasty exit moments later. Minister of Works and Transport, Colm Imbert, who rose to make his contribution shortly after, congratulated Singh on his courage in "taking on the lion." "I have never seen such a frontal and brutal attack on a political leader. I wish you luck," Imbert said. Panday, who had been reading during Singh’s contribution, only looked up and smiled.
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"Ganga takes on ‘The Lion’"