UNC walkouts solve nothing

Where in our law books does a walkout act as a remedy for a debate? As political leader of the UNC and Leader of the Opposition, Kamla Persad- Bissessar has to come up with a better strategy to deal with the country’s business than these walkout tactics.

Stop the sore loser, sour grapes, spoiledchild approach. We need an opposition that will fight for its citizens as a gove r n m e n t wat chdog.

The UNC has many good debaters who can challenge the Government on issues and make a case for their points of view. The population is however cheated of proper representation when the Opposition is absent from the equation while conducting the business of the country.

This is where our country loses out on quality representation by this maximum leader style politics.

There is no way that all of the members of the Opposition can feel comfortable with stalling the FATCA legislation while our country is on its second extension.

The Opposition first walked out of a sitting, then it did a total boycott of a subsequent sitting to d e b a t e FATCA with a F e b - r u a r y deadline fast approaching.

The Sangre Grande Corporation installation saw the same walkout approach when things didn’t go in the UNC’s favour.

This is the same party which passed legislation for proportional representation in local government during its recent term in office. The PNM now wins the popular vote in a deadlock situation and the UNC walks out when the PNM chairman is installed.

Then we hear the UNC with a weak argument referencing the “spirit of the law”, ie, a law that speaks to proportional representation based on the number of votes.

We cannot continue like this. Kamla Persad-Bissessar has made some poor judgment calls while in office that have caused the UNC to lose consecutive elections, petitions and appeals. Now we are witnessing an outright “give us what we want or we walk out” approach which sets a bad precedent and example as leaders. This is another poor judgment call because it is counter productive and solves nothing.

I therefore urge Persad- Bissessar to stand up and debate the issues and stop walking out. Party politics should end with elections.

A government must represent all its citizens when assuming office in the same way an opposition has to represent all citizens while in office.

Ronald Huggins St Joseph