DUBBED as a passionately expressed sentiment, Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman last evening reprimanded People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo for recent glaring acts of disrespect towards the Government.Trotman expressed his observation of both Jagdeo’s and the PPP’s posture in his presentation during the 2016 budget debates. He said that although the House was on Wednesday last lectured about respect and disrespect, he is of the conviction that it is his duty to highlight some “glaring examples,” not just for the sake of doing so, but to question how long they will continue in that manner.

Without hesitation, he pointed out that there was disrespect shown to the Government when the Opposition was invited to be part of joint committees but declined this offer. “In the past, when a similar invitation was issued, we respected the high office of the President and we attended,” he said, adding: “We may not have respected the personages but we always respected the Office of the President.”

He stressed that there has been disrespect shown by the PPP in failing to honour the Herdmanston process by not taking up its seats on State boards and committees.

And he said that the most recent episode of disrespect emerging from the western side of the House occurred while Finance Minister Winston Jordan was making his 2016 budget presentation, when Jagdeo, a former Finance Minister, opted to sit in the members’ lounge.

Moments after Jordan had concluded his presentation on January 29, Jagdeo proceeded to bash the Budget, deeming it “anti-poor and anti-development” in nature. “Neither Desmond Hoyte, Robert Corbin nor David Granger ever disrespected the PPP’s Finance Minister in such a manner,” Trotman, a former Speaker of the National Assembly, said.