Senate president Tom Tavares-Finson slams Golding as ‘a man without honour’
ABIGAIL BARRETT / Our Today
Senate president Tom Tavaris-Finson scolded Opposition Leader Mark Golding after the ‘walkout’ staged by Prime Minister Andrew Holness and government Members of Parliament.
Tensions flared in Gordon House on Tuesday (March 19) as MPs representing the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) staged a walkout while Opposition Leader Mark Golding was delivering his contribution to the Budget Debate. He antipathetically critiqued the appointment of Holness’s wife, Juliet Holness, a two-term MP for East Rural St Andrew as speaker of the House of Representatives.
Golding argued that such an appointment lacked independence, since Juliet Holness, assumed the role of after the resignation of former speaker Marissa Dalrymple-Philibert.
Tavaris-Finson released an audio recording soon after, rebuking Golding’s behaviour and arguing that it demonstrated a dishonour of himself, the prime minister and the country at large.
“As in life, there has to be a baseline that you do not cross. A minimum standard of ethics, respect, decency and honour. Today the leader of the opposition sank below that line, demonstrating that he will say and do anything to distract the public- the people of Jamaica, from the truth at hand… to articulate, to lay before the people of Jamaica, a clear vision supported by a definite plan for the betterment of this Jamaica and we love. Golden has repeatedly taken to personal attacks instead of advancing real and practical ways to move the country forward…”
Senate President Tom Tavares-Finson.
The recording conveyed his disappointment in Golding’s ‘attack’ on Holness as house speaker, who he maintained was nominated unopposed.
He voiced that Mark Golding had “demonstrated that he would do anything for political gain” and that he has previously “flip-flopped” on numerous issues when they no longer aligned with his political agenda in what Tavares-Finson describes as a “blind pursuit for power to which he (Golding) feels entitled”.
Golding, in response to the walk-out, said, “I thought it was an appropriate and necessary occasion for me to say that I have concerns and this does not sit well with the tradition of the Speaker of the Parliament being an independent umpire in proceedings of Parliament and the prime minister’s actions reinforces that point,”
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