PADARATH: KAZIM SHOULD ADVISE ROWLEY, YOU CAN RUN BUT YOU CANNOT HIDE

The Member of Parliament for Princes Town, Mr. Barry Padarath, MP
Photp Courtesy: Office of the Parliament.

Princes Town MP, Barry Padarath is calling on Prime Minister Keith Rowley to heed the advice of his cabinet colleague, Minister Kazim Hosein to make cellphone numbers and email addresses of elected representatives public including himself. Hosein who was speaking at a forum yesterday in San Fernando said, “Make yourself accessible to the people who put you in office”.
Padarath indicated that the Minister was suffering from a dose of double standards and hypocrisy since he stopped short in his address by not including the Prime Minister, Ministers of Government and Members of Parliament in his comment.

Today’s Trinidad Newsday reported Hosein as saying “in this way, the people who voted councillors and aldermen into office can have a direct line to them if they have a concern or complaint. Hosein said councillors and aldermen should not avoid interacting with people who voted for them until they need their vote once again”.

The Princes Town MP remained adamant that ALL elected representatives should not be afraid of interacting directly with the people who voted them in. He questioned whether the Prime Minister had lost touch with the population and whether he was afraid of dealing with the public backlash on several issues affecting the country.

Padarath said while the country was up in arms about the high murder rate, high unemployment and poor delivery of goods and services to the population, the Prime Minister and his government needed to be more responsive to the population.

The Princes Town MP said that the Prime Minister and government had become a law on to themselves and were refusing to answer legitimate questions inside and outside of the Parliament and therefore the public had a right to call upon their leaders and demand answers. He cautioned the Prime Minister that you can run but you cannot hide, reminding the Prime Minister sooner or later they would have to face the electorate.

Padarath stated that if one needed any evidence that Rowley was out of touch with the population, they just had to look at his Christmas party theme “Christmas at the castle with the Prime Minister”

Padarath who has been invited to the event said he will not be attending and will not “fete and drink on the heads of poor people while there is so much suffering in this country”. He added that for three years he has been clamoring for the construction of the Princes Town Presbyterian Primary School No.1 and up to today nothing has been done while the children continue to suffer. He said that the Prime Minister was about castles before schools.