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.