FNM POLICY ON STAYING AT HOME MIXED UP LIKE CONCH SALAD
Photo of long lines of people seeking to pay their BPL bills before the announced disconnections to begin on 1 April 2020. The FNM government later changed its mind.
From the time the state of public emergency was declared by the Governor General on 17 March 2020, the Government has shown that it is manifestly incompetent. The Leader of the Opposition Philip Davis gave a press conference the next day and told the country how the Government was simply overreaching and the orders themselves were filled with inconsistencies. The sun had not set on the day of the order when in fact that the Prime Minister had to issue one of a number of exemptions. The order itself which was known as Covid 19 Order Number one was quickly replaced by Covid 19 Order No 2 and well we think it actually has gotten to Covid number so many, that they started saying Covid Special provisions. Now they have set all of that aside and said everyone is locked up in their houses for the period over this last weekend. In his talks with the Leader of the Opposition Hubert Minnis said that the professionals wanted to extend the time to 30 days. He wanted eight days. The Leader of the Opposition thought 14 days from the first expiry . The Opposition thought it had a deal. Next thing the PLP knew it was in fact 8 days. So it isn’t the professional advice that the Prime Minister is following. He is operating by some other measure and we believe that measure is pure politics. You can see it. Every time he gets on the public stage , this man who barely had a word to say about God before is now appealing for prayer. It looks as phony as those tears cried for the people of Dominica in the House of Assembly after the hurricane there. Our point is why not just put the orders in place and leave them alone so that the population can have a chance to change their behavior and to allow them to work. This is not China. The population does not work like that. But you know everyone thinks of themselves as great commanders in this, taking after the noodle who leads the country up to the north. They can see how America has made a mess. Why would we want to follow that pattern? If you read all the speeches of all the leaders in the Caribbean when they made these declarations of public emergency, they spoke in terms ex cathedra and grave tones and as if they commanded great field armies. Look these are just a couple of people in the sight of the world. Yes we have to get organized to save ourselves but let’s not get carried away and take this thing too far.