The PNM’s PR

THE EDITOR: The Government’s full-page advertisement with the headline, “Government Offered Amendments” published in the three daily newspapers which purports to explain the defeat of the Police Reform Bills in Parliament is shaped in iniquity. The ad says in the second paragraph, “These amendments were circulated to the Opposition and the Government before the debate and were to have been introduced at Committee stage.” That is not true at all. It is a misrepresentation of what took place in Parliament. The fact is, some amendments were given to the Opposition during a meeting with Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday outside of Parliament.

That was not the complete list of amendments. The complete list of amendments was not circulated until the day after the debate started. Indeed, it was only after an Opposition MP questioned whether amendments were being proposed, that the Leader of Government Business Ken Valley became  embarassingly aware that the full list of amendments was not circulated. Therefore the text of the ad is misleading and inaccurate and designed, in typical PNM style, to use expensive public relations to hide behind its inefficiency and ulterior motives. The PNM continues its lies, innuendos and half-truths to bring the UNC into public disrepute. That is why we do not trust the PNM.

HARRY PARTAP
MP, Nariva