Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has dismissed the ongoing battle between Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, members Government and former United National Congress (UNC) minister Devant Maharaj.
Maharaj has been unapologetically sharing private cell numbers of the PM and other Government ministers, including National Security Minister Stuart Young and Education Minister Anthony Garcia over the last three days.
This has been condemned by Rowley, the affected ministers and the People’s National Movement.
But yesterday, Persad-Bissessar called on the Government to “grow up.”
“The country is in a mess with increasing murders, mass unemployment, a shrinking economy, collapsed health care, crumbling infrastructure, dysfunctional seabridge, homelessness and extreme poverty and 2019 is projected to be worse,” Persad-Bissessar said in a media release.
She called on the Government to focus instead on dealing with those issues instead of fighting with Maharaj over phone numbers.
“They have spent four days fighting with Devant Maharaj about phone numbers! Where are their priorities?” she said.
“Their behaviour is puerile and immature.”
Persad-Bissessar said the governance of the country was a serious business.
“People’s lives and livelihood are at stake,” she added.
This admonition from Persad-Bissessar came after Maharaj revealed Rowley’s cell number over the weekend and encouraged people to call him to complain about the faltering seabridge. Rowley subsequently said he was forced to change his number after he received abusive and threatening messages.
Maharaj has since revealed cell numbers for Young and Garcia. Young, as Minister of Communication, issued a statement Saturday chastising Maharaj, but by yesterday said he would now ignore him.