Gov­ern­ment’s plan to make Par­lia­ment a safe zone for on­ly vac­ci­nat­ed work­ers needs more “mean­ing­ful, gen­uine con­sul­ta­tions.”

In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor Paul Richards yes­ter­day re­spond­ed to ques­tions from Guardian Me­dia about the move by the Gov­ern­ment to make Par­lia­ment a safe zone as sig­nalled by At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Faris Al-Rawi on Tues­day.

“There should be mean­ing­ful, gen­uine con­sul­ta­tions with key stake­hold­ers on this crit­i­cal mat­ter be­fore any fi­nal de­ci­sion is made,” Richards said.

Richards said that lev­el of en­gage­ment is need­ed not just for Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans but should be used across the na­tion.

“Not on­ly for Par­lia­ment but na­tion­al­ly,” he said.

But while Richards wants more dis­cus­sion, the Op­po­si­tion does not want any more talk on the mat­ter.

Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Wade Mark yes­ter­day said that the Gov­ern­ment’s in­ten­tion to make Par­lia­ment a safe zone for on­ly the vac­ci­nat­ed would fail.

“Clear­ly, the AG must be jok­ing. He just can­not be se­ri­ous,” Mark said.

At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Faris Al-Rawi said Tues­day the in­ten­tion was to have all Gov­ern­ment spaces in­to safe zones and on­ly vac­ci­nat­ed em­ploy­ees would be al­lowed in and that in­cludes the Red House.

While the Gov­ern­ment has made it clear that all its mem­bers are vac­ci­nat­ed, there has been no blan­ket in­for­ma­tion on all Op­po­si­tion MPs or sen­a­tors.

“The At­tor­ney Gen­er­al is not the em­ploy­er of MPs and Sen­a­tors,” Mark said.

“There ex­ists an in­de­pen­dent body known as the Salaries Re­view Com­mis­sion. Terms and con­di­tions are set by this in­de­pen­dent Com­mis­sion, not by Faris Al Wari (sic) which is en­trenched in the na­tion’s Con­sti­tu­tion,” Mark said.

“Fur­ther, there is the well-es­tab­lished prin­ci­ple known as the Sep­a­ra­tion of Pow­ers. The par­lia­ment, the Ex­ec­u­tive and the ju­di­cia­ry are the three or­gans of State and are in­de­pen­dent of each oth­er,” Mark said.

“No one can or is al­lowed to im­pose its will up­on the oth­er with­out dire con­se­quences for the very fab­ric of the State,” Mark added.

He said that the AG should be “well aware of this well-en­trenched prin­ci­ple which is deeply root­ed in our na­tion’s Con­sti­tu­tion.”

“There is a say­ing that those whom the Gods wish to de­stroy they first make mad, I think the AG has gone berserk and ap­pear to be in ur­gent need of psy­chi­atric help or treat­ment,” he said.

“Just as how the gov­ern­ment can­not use the brute force of the State to im­pose its will on pub­lic of­fi­cers, statu­to­ry au­thor­i­ty work­ers and those em­ployed in state en­ter­pris­es so too the AG just can­not uni­lat­er­al­ly im­pose his will on an in­de­pen­dent or­gan of the state. The last time I checked this coun­try is still a sov­er­eign de­mo­c­ra­t­ic state and not an au­to­crat­ic, au­thor­i­tar­i­an and to­tal­i­tar­i­an fas­cist State led by a well-known klep­to­crat,” Mark said.

Mark al­so not­ed that a de­c­la­ra­tion of vac­ci­na­tion sta­tus to the Prime Min­is­ter and the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al is not part of the agreed terms and con­di­tions for em­ploy­ment in Par­lia­ment.

“Apart from well es­tab­lished med­ical pro­to­cols and prac­tices, one’s med­ical sta­tus is high­ly con­fi­den­tial un­less one de­cides to vol­un­tar­i­ly re­lease the same,” he said.

When asked how the un­vac­ci­nat­ed Op­po­si­tion mem­bers in­tend­ed to work if they are not al­lowed in the build­ing, Mark said that the AG just can­not im­pose a safe zone on the par­lia­ment “just like that.”

“Let us wait and see where this is go­ing. It may be go­ing nowhere,” he said.

Mark ac­cused Al-Rawi of in­ter­fer­ing with the rights, terms and con­di­tions of em­ploy­ment.

“Par­lia­ment is not a bar or a restau­rant. Par­lia­ment as an or­gan of the state is deeply en­trenched in the very fab­ric of our Con­sti­tu­tion which has an en­trenched Bill of Rights in sec­tions 4 & 5 of the Con­sti­tu­tion,” he said.

Mean­while, fel­low Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Anil Roberts was al­so vo­cal about the in­tend­ed safe zone.

“A safe zone? The Par­lia­ment? The par­lia­ment could nev­er be a safe zone be­cause the num­ber one vari­ant killing our cit­i­zens, over 2,600 is the PNM vari­ant,” Roberts said.

Roberts said the Par­lia­ment is full of this “PNM vari­ant.”

Roberts said Trinidad and To­ba­go should have been in a safe zone “bub­ble” since the on­set of the virus.

“The PNM un­der (Prime Min­is­ter Dr) Kei­th Row­ley should have kept T&T a safe zone had they pro­tect­ed the bor­ders, had they pro­vid­ed the Coast Guard with diesel and main­te­nance parts,” he said.