AKASH SAMAROO
Parliament has begun debate on the No Confidence Motion brought against the Minister of National Security, Stuart Young MP, by the Opposition.
Starting off the debate was Opposition Leader, Kamla Persad-Bissessar SC MP, who said Minister Stuart Young has demonstrated that he is unable to execute his duties and deflects blame by calling people unpatriotic.
The Opposition Leader said her members will spend the debate scrutinising his portfolio and his performance.
However, she focused on the exemption process for returning citizens during COVID-19 regulations. Although the Siparia MP was cautioned that its constitutionality is before the courts, she ignored the House Speaker and declared that what Minister Young is doing was illegal.
“Those regulations are illegal under the Constitution; under the Common Law; under international law; and under rights given under the Immigration Act,” the Opposition Leader argued.
She added: “Those regulations have taken away fundamental rights of the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago!”
In his turn, Minister Young dismissed the debate as a waste of Parliamentary time and said it was a desperate attempt by the Opposition Leader to be relevant.
He also hinted as to why the Opposition appears so obsessed with him.
“I am in no one’s pocket! I do not owe anyone, anything,” the minister declared. “There is not a single financier in the world—not only Trinidad—a single contractor in the world; a single criminal in the world… There is no one that can say Stuart Young owes them anything, or that Stuart Young will do what they ask him to do.”
He added: "Everything I have done for the last six years I have been in office, I have done believing it was right for Trinidad and Tobago.”
Debate continues on the No Confidence Motion against the Minister of National Security brought by the Opposition.