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MINISTER in the Minister of Finance Brian Manning has angered the Carli Bay Fishing Association (CBFA). which is calling for an apology.
The association said Manning misled the Parliament and the country when he said National Security Minister Stuart Young met with it after seven of its members were kidnapped and murdered at sea in 2019.
Association president Imtiaz Khan said that never happened, neither did Young make recommendations regarding Global Positioning System (GPS) trackers for their vessels and engines in the aftermath of this tragedy.
Manning made the statements during the motion of no confidence in Young brought by the Opposition United National Congress (UNC) on Wednesday, which was defeated.
Manning, the San Fernando East MP, in responding to the Carli Bay issue, which was raised by MP Ravi Ratiram, was quoted as saying Young and members of the police met with the fishermen.
He said it was also recommended they apply for GPS for their vessels so they could be tracked and assisted if they needed assistance.
Khan said that was “an utter and total fabrication of the truth.
“MP Manning should be ashamed to tell such boldfaced lies in our nation’s Parliament. The Honourable Stuart Young, Minister of National Security, never met with the CBFA, nor did he make any recommendations to us concerning GPS trackers,” Khan said in a statement.
He said the association asked on August 26, 2019 to meet with Young, via a hand-delivered letter, after an August 10 meeting it held with representatives from the Coast Guard, police, the NGO Fishermen and Friends of the Sea (FFOS), Claxton Bay Fishing Association and the Orange Valley Pirogue Association along with other stakeholders.
“The main objective was to create a way forward in the interest of protecting our fisherfolk, following the gruesome tragedy of July 22, 2019 that rocked the national fishing community whereby five of our brothers were mercilessly slaughtered at sea, with two more of our brothers lost at sea, at the hands of criminals.”
Khan said the letter to Young contained details of the August 10 meeting including recommendations for GPS trackers..
He also objected to statements by Manning that some fishermen and “those on the other side,” in reference to the UNC, had been resisting Young’s effort to assist and protect them and his offer of a solution in terms of the GPS.
“The fishermen of Carli Bay and surrounding fishing communities feel an utmost sense of disrespect that an MP would concoct and impute such improper motives, that us fishermen have been resisting any effort that would improve our livelihood and keep us safe.
“To allege that our MPs have been resisting any effort to better the lives of us fisherfolk is a reprehensible and shameful act.”
Noting Manning’s statement that Young brought a stability to the National Security Ministry that was not there before, Khan sought clarification.
“Given the fact that Mr Stuart Young assumed control of the Ministry of National Security from his own PNM colleague, former minister Edmund Dillon, is it that MP Brian Manning was referring to the incompetence of his own government?
“We demand that MP Brian Manning come clean with the facts and call for a public apology for casting aspersions on our fisherfolk, for knowingly and wilfully misleading the Parliament, and for lying to the nation.”
Messages have been sent to both Manning and Young for a response.
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