(Trinidad Express) How on earth has Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar left Vernella Alleyne-Toppin in office?
This is the question Senior Counsel Martin Daly is asking following claims by Alleyne-Toppin in the Parliament on Wednesday that Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley is a child of rape and a rapist himself.
Alleyne-Toppin, the Member of Parliament for Tobago East, made the statement in the House of Representatives during her contribution to a motion of no confidence against Rowley. On Thursday Alleyne-Toppin apologised for her comments about Rowley being a child of rape.
She however called on Rowley to answer questions about a teacher who fathered a child with a student in Tobago.
Roselyn Alleyne, the woman who Alleyne-Toppin alleged was raped by Rowley, has denied the allegations in an exclusive Express interview.
Alleyne-Toppin has come in for a firestorm of criticism over her comments.
Daly yesterday joined the growing chorus describing Alleyne-Toppin’s comments as a “new low” in this country’s Parliament.
“In my view, our Parliament reached a new low on Wednesday when one of the Members of Parliament for Tobago and a junior Minister, Mrs Vernella Alleyne-Toppin, sought to stigmatise a fellow parliamentarian, the Leader of the Opposition, by reference to what she insinuated were his origins as an alleged child of rape. I saw her performance myself,” Daly said in a statement.
“Others have dealt with the contents of Mrs Alleyne-Toppin’s gossip but, having seen her performance, there is an important issue of principle involved in what she has so recklessly done in Parliament”.
Daly said Alleyne-Toppin’s attempt of stigmatisation has the potential to return this country to a stage of “prejudice, discrimination, vicious inequality and arguably bigotry”. “There are very many persons in this society and all over the world who have been born in less than conventional or textbook circumstances,” Daly stated.
“Whatever the subject matter of debate in Parliament, to attempt to stigmatise any person by reference to birth circumstances has the potential to return us to a stage of prejudice, discrimination, vicious inequality, and arguably bigotry, a stage which every civilised country fights to pass,” he said.
Daly called on all “right thinking persons” to condemn Alleyne-Toppin’s statements. “As a commentator I may have more to say on this matter, but I call on all right thinking persons, particularly those who purport to claim the high ground in this society, swiftly to disown and condemn this form of attack perpetrated by the offending member,” Daly said.
“How on earth has the Prime Minister left her in office?” he said.