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Elrington Hopes The PM Is Flexible on 53
Fri, August 26, 2016
We also asked Elrington about his position on section 53. Before the cabinet decision, the former attorney general said he wanted it appealed. Today, he said that the Prime Minister is coming around to his position:..

Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"The roar that started, I had already really expressed my view. That's really in the public domain. Demonstrations are healthy. Expressions of peoples view and opinion and honest and fairway is healthy. That is the basis of democracy and it is when one is able to express one's views, discuss and debate it and come to a consensus in a rational way, that is when we know that we have a good mature democracy. When things break out into violence and that kind of thing, then we know that our democracy is still lacking. So, that I have no difficulty with demonstrations, I used to be very active in them in the 60's and 70's when I demonstrated against Guatemala and was convicted and arrested. So, I can't hold anything against the people who want to express their views. I did the same thing then and I would do the same thing now, if in fact things were happening that I thought..."

Jules Vasquez
"Except, you did it thinking it was an unjust regime, they now think the same thing about you."

Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"Yes, and they are free to do that, that is how life is. It's a cycle, cyclical. People see things in different ways. As a matter of fact, the young tend to see things differently from the old. So, that is not surprising, it is healthy. It is good."

Jules Vasquez
"If you were young right now, you might be protesting against this government."

Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"I probably would have been doing that too. You don't know. You never know."

And while Elrington was hopeful about what he saw as flexibility form the Prime Minister, former Deputy Prime Minister Gaspar Vega apparently is not. He was absent without excuse from today's house meeting - and our sources say it's because he firmly opposes government's position on section 53. He had a report to present in the house today and so his absence was made more conspicuous. We'll have more on that story next week.

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