While COVID-19 inoculation is still voluntary, former prime minister Basdeo Panday is suggesting that lawmakers bring legislation to separate vaccinated people from those who are unvaccinated.
This comes as COVID-19 infections and deaths in the country have skyrocketed and amid calls for mandatory vaccinations.
Panday made the comment on the Aakash Vani 106.5 FM Morning Panchayat programme after he was asked what he would have done had he been prime minister during this pandemic.
He said, “I do not really know what the facts are but I would certainly try to have the entire country vaccinated…one two and three shots whatever is needed.”
However, he said in order to do that the law must be enforced.
“We have lots of regulations in the country today but the law is not enforced. You go around and you see the law being broken all over the place. So if people know that they are going to have to obey the law you going to have a different scenario. That’s the first thing. Also, they have not instituted although the country is high, what is called the separation of those who are vaccinated from those who are not. People say they are free not to be vaccinated, that may be true but they are not free to cause me to get it and die. So I will separate those from vaccinated, from those who are not, and laws to do that and enforce the law.”
Also addressing the crime situation, Panday said his administration had brought crime down to the lowest level the country had seen in about 30 years. As prime minister, he said, he provided the resources to the law enforcement agencies while he properly managed the resources and made sure people did what they were supposed to.
“I do not know if that is being done and I do not know what are the measures that have been taken in order to ensure first of all resources and secondly management,” Panday added.
Also commenting on how the country is being governed, he said the current state of politics is one of chaos “and it consists of nothing more than a naked struggle for power because once they have power they have control over the state resources and can do what they want to do.”
He said this problem occurs because of the constitutional arrangement of the government and the only way out of it is constitutional reform. “We cannot get out of the current problem if we do not change the political system. To change the political system you have to have fundamental constitutional reform,” he noted.