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Tuesday, 05 January 2010
The majority of Opposition Members of Parliament and Senators descended on Gordon House on Tuesday afternoon demanding that the House of Representatives be convened to ventilate urgent economic issues facing the country.
They took their seats in Chambers claiming that they are reporting for work after getting word that the full Parliament will not get back to the nation's business until later this month.
It is not unusual that during hostile discourse during parliamentary debates, the opposition MPs would pack up and march out of Gordon House.
But after weeks of hammering the administration over its handling of the economy, Opposition Leader Portia Simpson-Miller and her team resorted to marching into Gordon House on Tuesday afternoon to take up their seats before empty chairs on the government side of the Chamber.
The opposition's move was an act of protest, and what some observers believe is an attempt to embarrass the administration.
<span style="font-weight: bold">"We have one message to deliver today. That message is that the Parliamentary Opposition is reporting to work</span>," Mrs. Simpson Miller said.
Mrs. Simpson-Miller described the government's treatment of the economic problems as cavalier and also noted that the expected date for parliament to reconvene later this month is unacceptable.
"We find it shocking that despite the expediency and immediacy of the challenges by which the society is confronted that the Prime Minister did not see it fit to resume parliament for us to have a debate to discuss and to develop the solutions of this national problem through dialogue in this parliament," she said.
In a statement delivered before her colleagues, Mrs. Simpson-Miller again condemned the government's $22 billion tax package.
She also pointed out that the tax measures will result in serious inflationary effects noting that her party's own estimate is that the rate of increase in the cost of goods and services will spike by 20% this year.
The opposition leader says the Golding government MUST reconvene the nation's parliament to develop solutions to the crisis facing the country.
<span style="font-weight: bold"> wat a way she late pon di job..18years later an she juss a come fi wuk...
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