Op­po­si­tion Chief Whip Dr David Lee MP is call­ing on the na­tion to stand up and ex­press out­rage over the cur­rent im­broglio in­volv­ing King’s Coun­sel Vin­cent Nel­son re­fus­ing to con­tin­ue as a State wit­ness in the now col­lapsed case against a for­mer at­tor­ney gen­er­al and a for­mer Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor.

The Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Pointe-a-Pierre says the coun­try is fac­ing “the gravest as­sault on our Con­sti­tu­tion and lib­er­ty by a sit­ting gov­ern­ment, one which has caused mil­lions of tax­pay­ers’ dol­lars to be wast­ed”, but there is si­lence from the pub­lic on the mat­ter.

In an of­fi­cial state­ment, the Op­po­si­tion Chief Whip asked:

“Where is the out­rage from ‘voic­es’ over Nel­son-gate? Where are the voic­es that stood strong against sec­tion 34 but are now sub­dued as mem­bers of the Gov­ern­ment make back­room deals with mil­lions of their tax dol­lars?”

Ac­cord­ing to MP Lee, the Op­po­si­tion Leader and Op­po­si­tion bench­es ap­pear to be the on­ly ones speak­ing up for democ­ra­cy in this coun­try.

“The rev­e­la­tions over the past two weeks sur­round­ing “Nel­son-Gate” are proof that Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad Bisses­sar con­tin­ues to be this na­tion’s ma­jor de­ter­mined de­fence against a gov­ern­ment in­tent on de­rail­ing our con­sti­tu­tion,” he said, “as it was she who first raised the con­cerns on Vin­cent Nel­son’s in­dem­ni­ty al­most one year ago in Oc­to­ber 2021.”

He added: “The Leader of the Op­po­si­tion must be com­mend­ed for her strength of pur­pose to pro­tect the laws of this na­tion be­cause in Oc­to­ber 2021, de­spite be­ing chas­tised for rais­ing these con­cerns by the then-At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, she per­sist­ed to write the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of the Unit­ed King­dom on this mat­ter giv­en the se­ri­ous al­le­ga­tions. The ev­i­dence in the pub­lic do­main with­in the last few days shows the Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Siparia did noth­ing but act in the na­tion’s best in­ter­est.”

The Op­po­si­tion Chief Whip ar­gues that the Op­po­si­tion con­tin­ues to seek the na­tion­al in­ter­est.

“The pub­lic must re­mem­ber it was the Op­po­si­tion Leader who in Ju­ly stood for tax­pay­ers as she con­demned the “eat ah food con­duct” be­tween some at­tor­neys and the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al. Back then she was crit­i­cized by some se­nior com­men­ta­tors who called for her to re­turn her silk, but the facts now show, the Leader of the Op­po­si­tion was be­ing vig­i­lant on be­half of cit­i­zens,” MP Lee said.

“The con­sis­tent ques­tions, warn­ings, and de­mands for ac­count­abil­i­ty on the Vin­cent Nel­son mat­ter by the Leader of the Op­po­si­tion as well as the Op­po­si­tion are ev­i­dence that this coun­try has a strong Op­po­si­tion that is proac­tive, con­sis­tent­ly stand­ing for cit­i­zens’ rights and al­ways un­mask­ing the il­lic­it moves by this Gov­ern­ment,” he stat­ed.

The Pointe-a-Pierre MP is urg­ing the pub­lic “to pay greater at­ten­tion to the Op­po­si­tion and ig­nore the calls of those who dis­miss our po­si­tions be­cause they don’t agree with them. Day af­ter day Op­po­si­tion Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment are fight­ing for the re­al is­sues which pose a dan­ger to our coun­try, from the bud­get against the poor to this po­lit­i­cal witch hunt.”

“The Op­po­si­tion is stand­ing for the coun­try, but the coun­try must al­so stand up,” he said.