PM says he will not fire Minister Walters

If the Opposition follow through on their plans to request that Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves fires minister with responsibility for the public service Selmon Walters, they are wasting their time; Dr Gonsalves is backing his man.{{more}}

“If you want me to fire him, I will not, not for that,” the Prime Minister emphatically said, during a heated debate with a journalist, at a press conference on Wednesday, where the question of Walters’ recent statements was raised.

Dr Gonsalves tried to throw water on the controversy, again stating that while he acknowledges that Minister Walters was wrong with regard to the statements he made during the Ecumenical Church Service at the Kingstown Evangelical Church on Monday, October 8, he believes that it was being blown out of proportion.

Dr Gonsalves said that he believes that the vast majority of people in the country would accept Minister Walters’ apology for what it is.

This is not the view, however, of Opposition Leader, Arnhim Eustace.

“What could cause a minister to be so arrogant? They are not above the law,” Eustace told SEARCHLIGHT earlier this week.

“What peeves me is his arrogance,” said Eustace, who said that he was shocked that a minister could actually give the examples that Walters did to depict poor service in the public service, when the examples blatantly show him to be at fault.

Eustace said that he and his party have every intention of keeping the issue on the front burner.

During the notorious address, Walters made reference to the importance of customer service and referred to two personal encounters.

In one instance, he was late for a Cabinet meeting, but had to do business at the National Commercial Bank (NCB).

“I went into the NCB. It was 9:50 a.m. and I was late for Cabinet, so I broke the line and asked the teller, a gentleman, if he can change this cheque for me as I am late for Cabinet and I have to give my son some money,” Walters was reported as saying in another weekly newspaper.

Walters then explained that the young man ordered him to get in the line, and during the discourse he asked the teller “Do you know who I am?”

The newspaper reports that Walters said that he asked to speak to the bank manager and he (Walters) gave instructions for the young man to be removed from his post.

In another example, Walters related how he disobeyed a police officer’s instructions for him to divert through Cane Garden when he arrived at Sion Hill.

“I want to go that way to take my son to Grammar School,” Walters said he told the officer.

The officer insisted that he go through Cane Garden, to which Walters is reported as saying, “If you do not move from in front my vehicle I will knock you down with my jeep.”

Prime Minister Gonsalves told journalists that the second incident took place a few months after Walters became a minister of government, seven years ago.

He further said that while he did not condone Walters’ actions, he is informed that the police officer in question, who has since left the police service, had a run in with another member of the Walters family before the incident took place.

He hinted that Minister Walters may have felt that he was being picked on by the officer.

A legal source indicated to SEARCHLIGHT that Minister Walters could have been charged with up to five offences stemming from the incident, carrying a combined potential jail term of six years.