Jensen La Vende

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley yes­ter­day called on the Op­po­si­tion to sup­port the Whistle­blow­er Pro­tec­tion Bill 2022 in its present form, or he will have it amend­ed and passed with a sim­ple ma­jor­i­ty.

Speak­ing in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day, Row­ley said cor­rup­tion is per­va­sive in the coun­try and the law is need­ed. He said he heard that the Op­po­si­tion was set to not sup­port it but asked that they do as “half a loaf is bet­ter than no bread.”

“The bot­tom line is cor­rup­tion in Trinidad and To­ba­go is not just ole talk. The con­cern about cor­rup­tion is not just ole talk. Al­le­ga­tions of cor­rup­tion are not just al­le­ga­tions. In many in­stances, they are sup­port­ed by dis­turb­ing pools of facts.”

With over two decades in Par­lia­ment, Row­ley said he is alarmed that the coun­try is yet to scratch the sur­face of the prob­lem.

He said cor­rup­tion is in every lay­er and facet of the coun­try in­clud­ing the cler­gy. He even re­called that a par­lia­men­tar­i­an was kicked out of a church for steal­ing mon­ey. Row­ley said it is the na­ture of hu­man be­ings to want more than they are al­lowed and get an ad­van­tage over oth­ers.

“We are fool­ing our­selves if we take that po­si­tion that we do not know that there is a need for this leg­is­la­tion in this coun­try,” he said.

The Prime Min­is­ter ar­gued that the Op­po­si­tion not sup­port­ing the leg­is­la­tion be­cause they do not view it as “good law” is a cop out. If the Op­po­si­tion can iden­ti­fy an is­sue, he said, then the Gov­ern­ment will ad­just the bill if need­ed.

“This bill, passed in­to law will not be a panacea, but it will con­tribute sig­nif­i­cant­ly to a se­ri­ous up-think by so­ci­ety to not just scratch the sur­face in treat­ing cor­rup­tion, but cre­at­ing an en­vi­ron­ment where cor­rup­tion will not be en­cour­aged and will not flour­ish.”

He added, that he was ready to ad­vise the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al to amend the bill to al­low it to be passed with a sim­ple ma­jor­i­ty if the Op­po­si­tion with­holds sup­port.

Re­spond­ing to Row­ley, Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Mooni­lal said rather than bring­ing leg­is­la­tion, the Gov­ern­ment should seek to strength­en pub­lic con­fi­dence in State in­sti­tu­tions.

“Who are you re­al­ly try­ing to fool? Is it be­cause elec­tion is 12 months away you try­ing to tick off a box when you go on a plat­form?” he asked.

Pound­ing his chest, Mooni­lal said the UNC is known for strength­en­ing in­sti­tu­tions as it was his po­lit­i­cal par­ty that brought leg­is­la­tions such as Ju­di­cial Re­view, the Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion Act, the Pro­ceeds of Crime Act and In­tegri­ty in Pub­lic Life Act, the lat­ter of which he ac­cused Row­ley of break­ing.

“This (bill) can­not deal with cor­rup­tion. This can­not deal with se­ri­ous is­sues of white-col­lar crime be­cause there is no con­fi­dence in our in­sti­tu­tions,” Mooni­lal added.

The Op­po­si­tion MP wrapped up his con­tri­bu­tion by crit­i­cis­ing Gov­ern­ment for bring­ing whistle­blow­er leg­is­la­tion but not men­tion­ing which con­trac­tor or busi­ness­man fi­nanced their po­lit­i­cal cam­paigns.

“What they are do­ing is leg­is­lat­ing mac­co­ing be­hav­iour,” Mooni­lal charged.

The House was ad­journed with­out a vote on the bill.