Opposition leader Jamale Pringle called for Minister of Works Maria Browne to step aside pending an investigation into the $15 million “Vehicle-gate” scandal.
Her husband, Prime Minister Gaston Browne, then said Pringle’s tent business should be “pushed down.” Three days later, a Development Control Authority backhoe arrived at Morris Bay and made it happen.
“The sequence of events reads like a case study in authoritarian playbook tactics. During his Budget reply last Sunday, MP Pringle delivered a withering critique of what he termed a ‘Tax and Thief Budget,’” WiredJA reports.
“His sharpest arrows were reserved for Minister of Works Maria Browne—the Prime Minister’s wife—whose Ministry has become synonymous with the festering $15 million Vehicle-gate Scandal,” according to the report.
“Pringle methodically laid out the failures of her Ministry, the corruption allegations that cling to it like barnacles, and her steadfast refusal to step aside for an independent investigation. The facts were damning, the delivery devastating. And apparently, unforgivable.
“As Pringle spoke truth to power, PM Browne’s response was not a rebuttal of facts but a threat of force. He openly declared his intention to have Pringle’s tent at Morris Bay ‘pushed down.’ The parliamentary record will forever contain this moment—a Prime Minister using the people’s house to announce his plans for political retribution.”
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