Dr Phillips secret MOU and the access to information act

The recent controversy surrounding the move by the government to increase the time taken to access cabinet notes and the agreement by the leader of the opposition to such a move got me thinking.

We now know that Dr Peter Phillips spoke with the PM and in principle agreed with the move, but was not in agreement with 70 years, how much years he would have agreed to, no one knows and the media has refused to ask.

Anyway, my thought turned to the secret MOU unilaterally signed by Peter Phillips that no one else in the entire government was aware of including the Prime Minister of the country.

It then struck me that part of the reason Dr Peter Phillips never brought the matter to cabinet was because he knew that notes would have been taken on whatever decision was agreed upon, and those documents could have been in the public domain 20 years after the decision.

It appears to commonsenseja that Dr Peter Phillips knowing this, made sure that under no circumstances any decision made in relation to this MOU would ever show up in the public space and deliberately keep it out of cabinet discussions.

To now hear Dr Peter Phillips saying he has no objection to access to cabinet documents is very funny, when he himself virtually single-handedly made sure that nothing related to the agreements he made would EVER show up in public record

How self serving and disrespectful to the people of this country.

His moves with the secret MOU was well orchestrated and a deliberate attempt to ensure the public NEVER finds out what he did.

Can anyone really trust Dr Peter Phillips

Dr Peter Phillips calls for political interference is troubling !

Yesterday, Monday , October 7, 2019 I was stunned to her the leader of the opposition Dr Peter Phillips demanding that the government step into the middle of a number of investigations and have them issue updates.

I was even more stunned with the opposition leader indicated if his demands were not meet, he would be incite all sections of the society to rise up and demonstrate against these independent state agencies.

Not only I am alramer but I a very troubled by the stance taken by Dr Phillips, who appears to be willing to exert political pressure on independent state agencies who should NOT be subjected to such pressures, is this a throw back to the 1970’s.

I therefore have no choice but to issue this call

We are calling on the opposition leader Dr Peter Phillips to immediately withdraw his incendiary comments where he called on the government to directly interfere with the investigation being carried out by independent law enforcement agents, which should NEVER be subjected to political interference.

We are also calling for Dr Phillips to immediately apologize to the head of these agencies for inciting public demonstration against each one of them if his demands are not met in 30 days.

We are also calling on Dr Peter Phillips to reaffirm his commitment to the rule of law and good governance as it relates to the operation of these entities.

We are demanding that Dr Peter Philips re-affirm his commitment to independence of the agencies and ensuring they are free from all political interference.

We are demanding that these be done within the next 24 hrs.

Oct 8, 2019

If Dr Phillips refuses to acceded to our request, we will be calling on the various stakeholders, the media, NIA, THE churches and civil society to join us in staging a demonstration at the PNP HQ to voice our disgust at the attempts by the opposition leader to meddle in the operations of the independent law enforcement and investigative bodies in Jamaica.

We are NOT going back to the days of the 1970’s