ROSEAU, Dominica--People making claims that partisan politics is playing a role in aid distribution to residents of storm-ravaged Dominica on Friday evoked the ire of Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit.
So angry was he at the people he said were seeking to undermine the future of Dominicans, that he repeatedly said he was “p***ed off” and just as frequently called on the guilty parties to stop making “unfounded, baseless, malicious allegations” that would only hurt the country.
It was at his daily media briefing that Skerrit lashed out at the culprits.
“This talk about food supplies and partisanship with food supplies and politicians are the ones dealing with the delivery of food supplies – this is total nonsense; total nonsense,” he said, insisting that regional and international agencies were the ones distributing the aid.
“The supplies are coming in; there are structures, there are limitations in terms of places to store the food supplies in communities because every single home got damaged in the country, and people who are seeking to undermine the Government’s efforts of bringing relief and bringing aid and bringing restoration of services to our country need to stop it.”
Skerrit acknowledged there were some legitimate complaints and better structures would be put in place to facilitate the more efficient delivery of supplies.
But he said the spreading of misinformation had to end.
“We cannot be going out there on social media, on the radio and elsewhere and making [these – Ed.] unfounded, baseless, malicious allegations. Don’t think that it’s going to hurt me; it’s not going to hurt me and this thing must stop, because it’s really p***ing me off that people out there talking a bunch of nonsense about food supplies and political interference in the delivery of food supplies, which all of these attempts are geared to undermining our efforts. This d**n country has been destroyed. It’s been devastated. Schools are destroyed and people are out there talking a bunch of nonsense about food supplies and political interference!”
“The only people who will be affected by this are the people of Dominica and the most vulnerable in our country; the people whose homes are not insured, the people who do not know where they’re sleeping tonight, the people who do not know whether when Monday comes they’ll have a job, who do not know how they’re going to pay their mortgages,” he said.
Skerrit added that his mandate was to ensure the country has adequate supplies to get to every home and individual in the country and he was working to make that happen.
And he was upset that he had been forced to address the allegations when there was a much bigger job at hand.
“I have no time for politics; absolutely no time for partisan politics. My interest and commitment is to do what I can as the Prime Minister of this country to bring hope to the people and to ensure that we can rebuild our country in the soonest possible time,” Skerrit said.
“Dominica needs all of us to focus on rebuilding this country and bringing hope to our people and letting our people know there’ll be a better tomorrow. But we cannot do this when the people are distracted by all these nonsense elements ... I have no time to play politics with corned beef or sardines.
“I am really, really p***ed off and I have not gotten p***ed off since the hurricane but this nonsense must stop, because I shouldn’t have to deal with this foolishness ... What the hell, we have to stop it!” the Dominican leader insisted. ~ Caribbean360 ~
