Padarath: PM should heed Kazim's advice

PRINCES Town MP Barry Padarath is calling on Prime Minister Keith Rowley to heed the advice of his Cabinet colleague Kazim Hosein to make cellphone numbers and e-mail addresses of elected representatives public, including his.

At a Ministry of Rural Development and Local Government forum in San Fernando last week, Hosein told local government representatives to make themselves accessible to people who elected them by making available their cellphone numbers and e-mail addresses.

He was speaking in the context of local government reform and the fact that executive councils and full-time councillors will become reality when legislation goes to Parliament in the new year. Hosein chided councillors who were advocating for full-time positions but failed to report to meetings because they had to work.

He said he was also told many of them did not even go to the offices provided for them by the government. He called on mayors and chairmen of the various regions to ensure councillors went to their offices and made their phone numbers and e-mail addresses available to the people who put them in office.

Reminding them that 2019 was Local Govt election year, he advised councillors not to wait until election time to interact with the electorate, and suggested they have an office day so people who have concerns can come and make complaints.

His advice came after Opposition activist Devant Maharaj released the personal cellphone numbers of Rowley and other senior Cabinet ministers, for which Maharaj was severely criticised and even threatened with charges of sedition.

Padarath accused Hosein of exercising double standards by not addressing the Rowley aspect of the issue when he made the call for regional corporation heads to make their numbers and email addresses public. “Kazim should tell that to Rowley,” Padarath said

Referring to Hosein’s statement that elected officials should not wait until they needed votes to interact with voters, Padarath said no representative should be afraid of interacting directly with the people who voted them in. He questioned whether Rowley had lost touch with the population and was afraid of dealing with public backlash on several issues.

“Even as the country is up in arms about the high murder rate, high unemployment and poor delivery of goods and services to the population, the prime minister and his government needs to be more responsive to the population."

Accusing Rowley and his government of being a law unto themselves and refusing to answer legitimate questions inside and outside Parliament, Padarath argued that “the public has a right to call upon their leaders and demand answers.”

“You can run but you cannot hide,” he reminded Rowley, saying sooner or later the PNM would have to face the electorate.