Moonilal: Highway Halloween Witch-hunt

In the midst of the Halloween season, Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley has launched his most bizarre-yet witchhunt, an eerie wild goose chase into a 15-year-old project.

The Prime Minister used his Government’s parliamentary majority to get unlimited speaking time, which the Opposition anticipated he would have utilised to announce effective anti-crime operational measures and policies.

After all, the bloodletting is continuing, with mass murders, home invasions, bank robberies and various other brutal attacks on innocent citizens.

Instead, Dr. Rowley presented a longwinded unsigned and undated document, bizarrely termed a “saga,” into a highway project that has been subject to independent reviews for a decade and a half.

Indeed, Senator Dr. Carson Charles had earlier provided a thorough analysis of all aspects of the venture.

The PNM-appointed Commission of Enquiry into the construction of the highway has already cost taxpayers $11 million before holding a single sitting.

This latest shenanigan from Rowley is another dying gasp of a collapsed administration, which is tossing up freak shows while people perish at the hands of marauding criminals.

Now a Joint Select Committee (JSC) of the parliament will waste more time and money on another long lasting witch-hunt. More fees will be needed to pay legal and other professionals to represent persons and the committee itself. Some of the very same lawyers, well known to appear on behalf of the government will be called out to send in more bills to the parliament and the myriad of individuals and state and private organizations that may be involved. This coming on the heels of the highest ever annual legal fees paid out of $195 m from the office of the Attorney General alone in fiscal 2023.

On behalf of a besieged nation, the Opposition again appeals to the Prime Minister to deal with the critical and urgent issues of the day instead of engaging in Halloween masquerading.