KAY-MARIE FLETCH­ER

Se­nior Re­porter

kay-marie.fletch­er@guardian.co.tt

Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath said he re­mains un­fazed af­ter Op­po­si­tion MPs walked out of Par­lia­ment dur­ing his con­tri­bu­tion to the de­bate on the Sup­ple­men­ta­tion and Vari­a­tion of Ap­pro­pri­a­tion for Fis­cal Year 2026 yes­ter­day, in­sist­ing the protest will not de­ter the Gov­ern­ment from ex­pos­ing the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM).

Op­po­si­tion MPs ex­it­ed the Cham­ber as Padarath rose to speak, cit­ing what they de­scribed as his “rep­re­hen­si­ble” treat­ment of par­lia­men­tary staff.

Padarath al­so took aim at Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les, crit­i­cis­ing her for not par­tic­i­pat­ing in the de­bate and de­scrib­ing her as “in­com­pe­tent, ab­sent and lazy”.

Re­spond­ing to the walk­out in a so­cial me­dia post yes­ter­day, Padarath dou­bled down on his crit­i­cism of the Op­po­si­tion and dis­missed the protest as in­con­se­quen­tial.

“The PNM is use­less in­side the Par­lia­ment as they are out­side the Par­lia­ment. They can walk out as of­ten as they wish; how­ev­er, that will not de­ter the UNC from ex­pos­ing them and their prox­ies. The Par­lia­ment sat from 10.30 am on Mon­day till 12.45 am on Tues­day on the mid-year re­view, and we still haven’t heard from the in­com­pe­tent, ab­sent and lazy Leader of the Op­po­si­tion. I will not be used by the PNM to dis­tract from their racist, di­vi­sive and dis­gust­ing at­tacks,” Padarath said.

He added, “They want­ed to know who I am at war with, well let’s make it clear to them, I am at war with the PNM and their waste, mis­man­age­ment and cor­rup­tion.”

But Op­po­si­tion Chief Whip Mar­vin Gon­za­les fired back yes­ter­day, ac­cus­ing Padarath of mis­lead­ing the pub­lic, call­ing him a “liar” and a “de­ceiv­er” as he re­ject­ed claims that Beck­les had no in­ten­tion of par­tic­i­pat­ing in the de­bate.

Ac­cord­ing to him, sev­er­al oth­er mem­bers of the Op­po­si­tion were pre­pared to de­bate, but the Gov­ern­ment end­ed it be­fore they had an op­por­tu­ni­ty to do so.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia, Gon­za­les said, “All of us were ready to par­tic­i­pate in the de­bate. The Leader of the Op­po­si­tion was in the Cham­ber. She was ready to par­tic­i­pate in the de­bate. Af­ter MP Scot­land con­tributed to the de­bate, the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance rose to wind up the de­bate. But the re­main­ing mem­bers on our team, in­clud­ing the Leader of the Op­po­si­tion, the Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for St Ann’s East, and we had three more mem­bers who were ready to par­tic­i­pate in the de­bate. So Mr Padarath is a liar. He’s a de­ceiv­er. He’s a mis­chief mak­er. All Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment on the Op­po­si­tion side were pre­pared to en­ter in­to the de­bate. It is the Gov­ern­ment that chose to wrap up the de­bate at 12.45 am this morn­ing.”

Point­ing fin­gers back at the Gov­ern­ment bench, he called out sev­er­al min­is­ters who, like Beck­les, did not con­tribute to the de­bate.

He added, “I want to ask the Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Util­i­ties why didn’t the Prime Min­is­ter, the Leader of the Gov­ern­ment, par­tic­i­pate in the de­bate yes­ter­day? Don’t be se­lec­tive in your po­lit­i­cal out­rage by at­tack­ing the Leader of the Op­po­si­tion. When you live in a glass house, you ought not to throw stones, as the old peo­ple said. The Prime Min­is­ter did not par­tic­i­pate in the de­bate. The Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty did not par­tic­i­pate in the de­bate. The Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion, the Min­is­ter of Hous­ing, the Min­is­ter of De­fence. All of these se­nior min­is­ters did not par­tic­i­pate in the de­bate. And there­fore, he is a po­lit­i­cal hyp­ocrite to call out the Leader of the Op­po­si­tion, with re­spect to her non-par­tic­i­pa­tion in the de­bate yes­ter­day.”

Gon­za­les al­so turned Padarath’s crit­i­cism back on the Gov­ern­ment, ar­gu­ing that if non-par­tic­i­pa­tion amount­ed to lazi­ness, then the Prime Min­is­ter should face the same crit­i­cism.

“And he shouldn’t be bold and out of place to call out the Leader of the Op­po­si­tion be­cause the Prime Min­is­ter as the Leader of the Gov­ern­ment, as head of the cab­i­net, did not par­tic­i­pate in the de­bate. So if you want to call any­one lazy, then the Prime Min­is­ter is head of the lazy ca­bal that he’s re­fer­ring to be­cause she re­fused to par­tic­i­pate in that the crit­i­cal de­bate yes­ter­day.”

Con­tact­ed for a com­ment yes­ter­day, Op­po­si­tion Leader Beck­les said, “No one is in­tim­i­dat­ed by Bar­ry Padarath, and I will not be dis­tract­ed by his fool­ish­ness or the­atrics. Par­lia­ment is not a stage for noise; it is a place for se­ri­ous de­bate and rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

Beck­les said she is not in any com­pe­ti­tion with the Leader of the House, who now refers to him­self as Deputy Prime Min­is­ter.

“The re­al ques­tion is not who spoke and who did not. The re­al ques­tion is why is the place so hard un­der this UNC ad­min­is­tra­tion?

“Cit­i­zens are con­cerned about the cost of liv­ing, crime and grow­ing pres­sures on every­day fam­i­lies. Those are the is­sues that tru­ly mat­ter,” she added.