Government wants a news-carrying society says Opposition Leader

THE Opposition Leader has likened the Whistleblower Protection Bill (2018) to that of Nazi Germany and accused the Government of trying to make this country into "a news-carrying society."

Kamla Persad-Bissessar said the Government wants people to carry news on one another.

"This reminds me of Nazi Germany. Suppose you and your wife are having some hard times, you are not getting along, would you become a whistleblower? They want to make us into a news-carrying society, breaching all fundamental rights. We will not stand for it," said the leader.

She was delivering the feature address on Saturday night at a Mother's Day gala dinner hosted by the National Women's Arm of the United National Congress (UNC) held at Passage to Asia Restaurant at Chaguanas.

"Let not your heart be trouble we are committed to the rule of law, committed to the protection of the law for the fundamental rights of all citizens."

The Government, via the bill, is saying that everybody who employs people must set up a whistleblower person in the business.

"So if you are hiring a driver, a housekeeper, whatever it is, you have to put a whistleblower and you have to pay them. How can that be right?" Persad-Bissessar said.

This bill requires a three-fifths majority to be passed.

She said UNC members as representatives in the Parliament have been trying to ensure the Government passes good law accusing the PNM of the most draconian pieces of law in the past four years.

"And then they say we are obstructionists. They say we are afraid, but now I am really of this Government, of its draconian intentions. I am afraid for you, for our children in this country.

As supporters cheered on, Persad-Bissessar said: "They could say what they want, they can do what they want, we will stand for you in the Parliament and outside the Parliament."

Speaking on the importance of mothers, the political leader said she cherishes her deceased mother who was a great influence in her life.

She shared personal childhood experiences saying when she wanted to further her studies abroad her father, a "Hindu Brahmin gentleman of that era", and his brother were reluctant about the idea.

Her uncle, she said, told her father: "She is a girl she has to get married and have children. Don’t waste money to send Kamla abroad."

"It was my mother who insisted. She wanted to ensure that I did not have the same life as she did."

She referred to mothers as pillars of strength, teachers, cheerleaders, counsellors among other titles.