Yesterday, Belmopan representative John Saldivar boasted that he’d gotten the Leader of the Opposition’s speech before he read it. Saldivar said it was intercepted through the email. We’ll opine that, at best, it’s bad form for a representative to boast about the merits of electronic snooping, but the PUP took it one step further today calling it a “gross violation of privacy.”
It continues by echoing sentiments express by Freetown Representative Francis Fonseca, saying, quote: “It also brings into the question the issue of privacy, not only for elected officials, but for the public at large.” But what about the other matters? First, there’s the declaration that the leader of the Opposition didn’t write his own speech, and, second Saldivar’s suggestion that it had input from former Budget Minister Ralph Fonseca, among others.
Well, the PUP release says that in crafting his speech the Leader of the Opposition consulted with a number of leaders in industry and in business as well as his political associates. It concludes by saying that “This is not a new practice and leaders rely on their staff to prepare the necessary research and data collection for speeches and presentations.”
