Dear Editor,

Dr Peter Phillips, looking rather hapless at his circus of a press conference on Monday, issued an ultimatum to the Government to provide updates on the ongoing investigations by law enforcement agencies into alleged acts of corruption in government, or face the consequences, including civil disobedience.

Really, Dr Phillips?

One can understand that, due to the pressure he is under in his party because more than half of his parliamentary colleagues have no confidence in him, as well as the fact that he barely survived a challenge from Peter Bunting, he has to try and be seen as being in touch with national issues and pressing the Government.

What is not understandable, though, is his insistence that the Government interfere in ongoing investigations. What Dr Phillips is asking of the Government is to politicise the police force once again, as happened before under previous PNP Administrations. That cannot happen again — not now, not ever. We have come too far to go back to those days, and the opposition leader ought to know better. It’s disgraceful.

Dr Phillips, who is an old politician, must have heard about the three branches of government and how they must be kept independent of each other — the old Westminster model of checks and balances.

What he is advocating is precisely what he argued against when Andrew Holness placed Justice Brian Sykes on probation. I remember quite well how Dr Phillips accused Holness of trampling on the sacred tenets of our democracy — the separation of powers. It is this very same separation of powers that Phillips seems to want overturned because he sees it to be advantageous to his political fortunes. That cannot be the way how we govern this country.

Go march up and down in the sun hot if he wants with whomever is willing to follow — that’s his right — but he must not get away with trying to have the Government trample on a sacred tenet of our democracy.

For a man who loves to accuse the Government of undermining democracy, he sure has an uncanny way of advocating for the same.

Old people have a saying, “Pressure buss pipe”. That’s what seems to be happening to Phillips why he is making asinine comments in public.

Fabian Lewis

tyronelewis272@gmail.com