St. John’s, Antigua: Opposition leader Lester Bird is calling on Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer to apologise to the people who picketed outside the Chinese Embassy for referring to them as “mercenaries and criminals”, the Observer reported.
In a press statement yesterday the former two-term Prime Minister said Spencer was “out of order” for making such “inappropriate remarks.”
On Tuesday, a dozen people, including Bird’s nephew, picketed the embassy calling for the publication of documents regarding the deal between local government and the EXIM bank of China for the funding and construction of the controversial Wadadli Power Plant, the Observer said.
“Citizens of Antigua & Barbuda have a constitutional right to picket and to show their displeasure over actions of the Government that they consider unacceptable. It is highly improper for the Office of the Prime Minister to discredit and denigrate citizens,” Bird wrote.
The St. John’s Rural East MP also denounced Spencer’s description of the picket as an “attack on the Chinese.”
Bird said Spencer’s remarks are aimed at stifling disagreement and objections to government policies.
“The protest outside the Chinese Embassy was not directed at the Chinese Government, but, as I understand it, the protestors wanted embassy officials to be aware that they were concerned about the quality and value of a power plant, bought by an unknown company, with funds that taxpayers will have to repay,” Bird said.
The MP further accused the United Progressive Party-led administration of seeking to suppress freedom of the media, freedom to picket, freedom to speak out and freedom to disagree, according to the Observer report.
Opposition members have leveled accusations that the engines of the new Wadadli Power Plant are not new and that Government failed to get value for money.
On Monday, PM Spencer promised documents relating to the plant would be presented to Parliament at its next sitting, the Observer report concluded.
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