Opposition Parliamentarian from the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP), Lennox Shuman says that if the Parliamentary Opposition truly desires to hold the government accountable, it must up it’s game.
“To my colleagues on this side of the House, I implore you: we have to up our game – you have to up your game! You cannot accept the bangles, bracelets, and bedsheets and be expected to be taken seriously. We must conduct ourselves with integrity if we are to ensure that the people are the primary beneficiaries of the budget,” Shuman told the assembly yesterday during the budget debate at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Liliendaal.
Shuman, who also serves as the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, said that the Opposition cannot afford to take a “hard-headed, do-fuh-do-nuh-obeah” approach in dealing with the government and addressing issues that matter to the citizenry.
“People will always end up being the losers in that system…They are the government, and we are the Opposition, and as the Opposition, if we do not want our slip to show, we cannot slip,” he said, right before asking his fellow Opposition MP and former Public Infrastructure Minister, David Patterson to resign as the Chairman of the Public Account Committee (PAC). Shuman opined that the post must be given to a “member of a kind of integrity to keep the government accountable, and to ensure that the government delivers what it has committed to.”
