Shamfa: Govt playing ‘spin the bottle’

Cudjoe raised the question in the Senate, however. Government Chief Whip Emmanuel George twice argued that the state of emergency was irrelevant to debate which was taking place on two motions to increase borrowing under the Guarantee of Loans Act and the Development Loans Act from $9 billion to $25 billion.

Cudjoe said the state of emergency has resulted in both local and foreign investors looking at this country with “a skeptic’s eye.” George questioned the relevance of the state of emergency to the debate. Senate Vice President Lyndira Oudit acknowledged George’s query and asked Cudjoe to confine her contribution to the motions at hand.

In response to Oudit’s ruling, Cudjoe said the state of emergency was relevant to the debate in so far as it “significantly affects” investments in the country. George again claimed the state of emergency was irrelevant to the debate but Oudit allowed Cudjoe to continue, stressing that she link her point to the matters before the Senate.

When Cudjoe questioned what the security forces could have achieved under the state of emergency that it could not have done under normal circumstances, Oudit advised Cudjoe and all senators that yesterday’s debate was not to consider “the merits of the state of emergency” and on Section 10 of the Constitution clearly stated role which the Senate played in such matters.

Noting that former government senator Patrick Watson and economist Indera Sagewan Alli have made certain observations about the effect which the state of emergency could have on the economy, Cudjoe said the government appeared to be oblivious to these kinds of comments.

“Somebody is playing spin the bottle in the government. That is not the way to run a country,” she quipped.

Cudjoe said while the Government was boasting about the stability of the economy, it failed to accept that it was the PNM which laid “a firm steady foundation” which has ensured the country’s fiscal integrity.

Noting the People’s Partnership coalition has been in office for over one year, Cudjoe asked government senators: “What have you done in the last year to maintain that fiscal integrity?”

Recalling that the theme of last year’s Budget was “turning the economy around,” Cudjoe claimed that because the Government had no plan on how to run the country, all it was doing was “turning the economy dizzy.”

She also charged that Government did not want to hear opposing points of view and was disregarding those views in “big yellow bulldozer style.” “We are not enjoying the ride,” Cudjoe quipped as Opposition senators thumped their desks in support.