BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – COMMENTING on the absence of the Opposition from the 2012 Budget Presentation and Debate, the Minister with responsibility for Tourism and International Transport, Senator Richard Skerritt, opined that the five members were being lazy in the face of a challenging budget debate.
He was at the time making his presentation on the second day of the Budget Debate and noted that the Opposition Members’ absence could also be seen and recorded as an irresponsible and childish behaviour.
“Mr. Speaker, it is nothing more than a petty political grandstanding by members opposite, who, in my opinion, are being intellectually lazy in the face of a challenging budget debate. And it is mainly because they have little factually or analytically to criticise following the IMF’s, I believe, surprise media conference on Monday afternoon.”
Skerritt opined that the members’ absence was a collaborated strategy used to divert the public’s attention from the IMF’s press conference, which indicated that the government had met all of its targets, and that the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Mark Brantley, was advised to be absent.
“The advice that the Honourable Leader of the Opposition is getting is questionable and regrettable, because his advisor instructed him to do quickly whatever is necessary to divert the attention of the public on the IMF’s unexpected endorsement, as I said. Mr. Speaker, they also analysed over how best to get the media attention away from the IMF press conference, how best to get the local media attention away from the Budget Address yesterday, and you know what has happened since.
“They have dominated the airwave on the local radio stations, locally and regionally, and they have put together a campaign to suggest that there is something wrong with this government. Mr. Speaker, I believe this morning there was a press conference. They prefer to go to the press conference than to come and do the people’s work.”
Also in his presentation, Senator Skerritt labelled Brantley as a man who wants to be famous and that he used his failure at tabling the Integrity in Public Life legislation as an excuse for his absence in Parliament.
“I know that the current Honourable Leader of the Opposition wants to be famous and fondly remembered as a successful Leader. He wants to be popular, but this strange move yesterday of using his failure to table the so-called Integrity in Public Life legislation as the collective excuse for not showing up at a totally un-related Budget Session is clearly nothing more than a political smoke screen which future historians are likely to look upon with grave suspicion.”
He told the House that Brantley, Vance Amory, Shawn Richards, Eugene Hamilton and Vincent Byron, Jr. chose to host a press conference yesterday (Dec. 14) rather than to “do the people’s work that they’re getting paid for in Parliament”.
Skerritt however stated that the nation should not be fooled by the Opposition Members’ act of blatant absenteeism, and that he knew one among the five was opposed to in principle.
“One of them said the people elected him to come here. And he done fix up his hair, get his jacket ready…he was ready to come because he feels that he needs to be here. And his colleagues and his leader imposed upon him that he has to tow the line.”
In continuance of denouncing Brantley’s absence, Skerritt declared that he (Brantley), despite difficulties and challenges, never missed a Budget Debate since appointed Leader of the Opposition, and that he was always well-prepared and combative on behalf of his constituents and the Concerned Citizens Party to which he belongs as its Deputy Leader.
“Mr. Speaker,” Skerritt continued, “I am not a historian so I can be corrected, but I suspect that yesterday might have become the first ever Budget Address in this Honourable Assembly where the Leader of the Opposition was absent for the entire presentation, whatever the reason.”
The 2011 Budget Presentation and Debate began on Tuesday (Dec. 13) and the five Opposition Members chose to boycott it, claiming that the St. Kitts-Nevis government was bent on preventing the passage of the Integrity in Public Life Bill 2011 into law.
They subsequently held a press conference yesterday in the Conference Room at the Credit Union Building, Bladen Development to inform the nation of their reasons for the boycott.
