OPPOSITION Leader Portia Simpson Miller has threatened to boycott all official Government functions if the National Youth Council of Jamaica (NYCJ) is not given the funds it needs to host the National Youth Congress which, she said, was cancelled by the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) because she was scheduled to be the guest speaker at the event.

Simpson Miller, who was addressing a People’s National Party (PNP), mass meeting at Emancipation Square in Spanish Town, St Catherine Sunday evening, told her supporters that she was informed by the youth council that the state minister in the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, Senator Warren Newby, had instructed the NYCJ to cancel the event, on the basis that it was rude of the council to ask the Government to fund an event at which the leader of the opposition was a guest speaker.

The NYCJ is an umbrella organisation for youth clubs across Jamaica, which seeks to foster youth participation at the community level and advocate youth participation in all levels of governance.

“Let me be clear to Government, don’t invite us, the Opposition, to attend any public function of Government if the youth council invited the opposition leader, not as a politician, in her capacity recognised by the Constitution of Jamaica to address a function and Government instructed it must be cancelled because they are not going to fund anything with the leader of the opposition addressing that function,” she said.

According to the opposition leader, the action by the Government was an attempt to prevent her from addressing the youth.

But Senator Newby, when contacted on Monday, dismissed the claims as false, saying that the meeting was merely postponed and that the matter was being politicised.

“The meeting is not cancelled. It is postponed. We are not satisfied that the appropriate financing and planning were in place. What was being advertised was for 400 delegates to be bused to the meeting, and that was not approved, on Thursday, neither that nor the agenda was approved and we had to take a serious decision not to allow it to happen in a haphazard manner,” Newby said.

Simpson Miller also used the mass meeting to blast the Government for what she said was the unfair treatment meted out to president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Jamaica, Valerie Germaine, who was suspended recently with half pay for speaking about alleged breaches of the Pharmacy Act.

Action was taken against Germaine after she appeared on TVJ’s Smile Jamaica morning programme and spoke candidly about the shortage of qualified pharmacists in the system. She also reported that the Government was now using technicians who were not yet fully qualified to issue prescriptions to the public.

“If she is speaking to the quality and what can affect health care of the Jamaican people and she is sent home for this, then Jamaica should rise up in support of the president of the pharmaceutical society,” said the opposition leader.

“She is sent home for trying to save lives. What kind of Government is this, what kind of Government is so uncaring, so ruthless that you send home a woman for bringing to the attention of the nation, that the nation’s health could be compromised. I cry shame on the leaders of the party,” Simpson Miller said.

The PNP president called on Prime Minister Andrew Holness to reinstate Germaine, while promising that if he did not comply she would reinstate her when she is returned to power.

“The reputation of a number of public service officials who have given valued service to Jamaica is being ruined and we should not allow it,” Simpson Miller said, noting that the action was highly unacceptable, especially given that the Urban Development Corporation general manager Joy Douglas was recently sent on leave with her full pay following a series of questionable developments at the corporation, including the controversial sale of a property at West Parade in downtown Kingston to Bashco Ltd.

“For the few weeks that we have a new prime minister things are getting worse, dictatorship is creeping up on Jamaica quietly,” she said.