LETTERS

Letter: Response by former opposition member of parliament Published on Monday, September 14, 2009 Email To Friend    Print Version Dear Sir: I am forwarding my budget address of 2008 in response to a letter written by one Edward E. Smith where he attacks me with his comment: "To recognize the problem and do nothing about it is not sufficient! You are the people’s representative. You have been elevated to higher office to champion the people cause – that does not mean see and do not see and draw a fat salary. That means open your mouth, raise your hand and do something about the wrongs that are been perpetrated on the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands." For the record my salary while being a member of the House of Assembly was $2,800 per month, the least paid member of the House. I would ask the people of the TCI if my contributions to House Debates, Town Hall meetings, press conferences, Administration committee meetings was made like I was the least paid member. In fact, I would dare say my colleagues and I always acted as though we were the highest paid members of Parliament even though our combined salaries were less than any Minister during the Misick regime and our combined salaries was just $2,000 per month more than any Minister during our PDM Government of 1999-2003. In fact we always acted as though we represented 100% of the people of the TCI and sacrificed countless memories that could have been shared with our families and friends to serve the people of TCI because we know that we have to give back to our country to protect and keep what we have come to cherish in the TCI. I am forwarding the email so as to time date the address so that all could see if asked about when we addressed some of the urgent and critical issues that are now bearing down on the TCI. Finally, I would encourage Mr Smith to keep writing as we need more Turks and Caicos Islanders to participate in our democracy. I invite him and all others of authencity to contact me as I can be reached at dougparnell@gmail.com so that I can address his concerns directly. Doug Parnell   Reads : 845 Back... Comments: No comments on this topic yet. Be the first one to submit a comment. Back... Send us your comments!   Send us your comments on this article for publication in our Readers' Forum or as a Letter to the Editor. All fields are required and in the interest of openness and transparency we will no longer accept anonymous submissions. We therefore request that all submissions include a name for publication, regardless of content. We will in special circumstances protect a writer's identity only after we have established good cause for anonymity, otherwise we will not be able to publish the submission. For your contribution to reach us, you must (a) provide a valid e-mail address and (b) click on the validation link that will be sent to the e-mail address you provide.  If the address is not valid or you don't click on the validation link, it will be a waste of your time typing your submission because we will never see it! Your Name: Your Email: (Validation required) Comments: Enter Validation Code *