"PNM must accept responsibility, stop blaming citizens and manage this crisis better"

Trinidad and Tobago: United National Congress on Sunday accused Health Minister Terrance Deyalsingh and Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley of blaming opposition and people of Trinidad and Tobago for government failures.

"Terrence Deyalsingh and Keith Rowley continue the tactic of sowing division and spreading fear, by blaming the residents of Caroni for the spread of covid," said UNC in a statement released late Sunday.

Click here to read statement by Health Minister Terrance Deyalsingh

Is this what Deyalsingh means by "closing ranks"?

"Where is the evidence for this allegation? Where is the science? The evidence that we have been given is that the P1 variant came from an illegal Venezuelan migrant. The Government covered this fact up for weeks, despite question after question from the media and the Opposition."

It is also a fact that the current wave occurred over Easter Weekend. This is when Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said, "Tobago was almost full and overflowing -- the place to be is in Tobago. And I tell you, the best vacation you can have at home in Trinidad and Tobago is in Tobago."

That very weekend, PM Rowley caught COVID-19 and 35 of his contacts were placed under quarantine.

"Yet the PNM continues to be hypocritical about following its own guidelines."

PM Keith Rowley ignores his own mask rules and wears it as a chin strap. The funeral of Franklin Khan brazenly flouted the health regulations, in the presence of police and security forces. No one was arrested or fined.

"Even the rules for entering the country were conveniently bent for the funeral. The wedding of a prominent PNM financier in St. Clair, with Cabinet Ministers in attendance, also displayed their blatant disregard for the regulations, about which Deyalsingh and Rowley constantly rebuke the rest of the population," said UNC.

The UNC pushes back against Deyalsingh and Rowley for blaming the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, instead of owning up to their own alleged failure to prepare enough beds in the parallel health system, their inability to test, their flip-flopping on whether covid was severe or not, their flip-flopping on wearing masks, their failure to secure enough vaccines on time, their failure to act quickly in this matter since January 2020, and to their failure to plan ahead.

"The PNM must accept responsibility, stop blaming citizens or the Opposition, and manage this crisis better."

UNC said that they called on the Government to treat this as a matter of urgent public importance, met with the Prime Minister to offer support for a collaborative approach to the coming crisis, was the first organization in this country to provide free masks to citizens, and was the largest organization in the nation providing relief to citizens hurt by the lockdown by giving free meals throughout the country.

The opposition leader first wrote to a foreign head of Government to request a donation of vaccines. "It is the UNC who are now calling for border security, for loan deferrals and for "economic booster shots" to ensure that our country is not devastated by Rowley's economic, social and health mismanagement. The UNC continues to call for a united front to work on the crisis, rather than to blame citizens for Government mismanagement."