Panton Calls Home Affairs Reshuffle ‘Purely Cosmetic’

Leader of the Opposition, Tracy Taegar-Panton, is calling out the Briceño Administration on its recent shuffling of the cabinet. Panton argues that the reappointments are a sign of trouble brewing within the administration and maintains that Kareem Musa’s removal and Henry Charles Usher’s appointment to the Ministry of Home Affairs is the direct result of recent controversy over the abduction of Joseph Budna. Prime Minister John Briceño also highlighted the Ministry of Education as area that needed significant changes. We asked Taegar-Panton for her take on the ordeal. Here’s what she had to say.

 

Tracy Taegar-Panton, Leader of the Opposition

“The Budna situation will not go away, and obviously the honorable Musa is the fall guy in this situation. But that is not enough. We need to know who are the perpetrators. We need to know who are behind the perpetrators and we need to hold all persons who are involved in this situation to account. The opposition will continue to keep up the pressure no matter which brother is in charge of home affairs. That particular change to me seems very cosmetic. It is to suggest that the government is taking a meaningful step but we need an investigation to be done and we need somebody or some persons to be held to account for that situation. In the case of the Ministry of Education, we all know that the issues continue to multiply as it relates to concerns of the membership of the BNTU and other unions. The education of our children is not something we should take lightly. The Honourable Francis Fonseca has quite a bit of experience in dealing with these issues, and so I’m not surprised that the Prime Minister is choosing his strongest representative to take back the reins of education at this time. It’s for me, this is not at all an indictment on the honorable Oscar Requena. He has always been supportive to the request that we, from our constituency has sent to the Ministry of Education. But I do think that the issue are bubbling on the currents are strong in terms of the concerns for education in this country,”