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Prime Minister’s adviser Norman George says he is unaware of any damaging rifts within the Democratic Party and the Government.
And he says any view to the contrary is “creative fiction” being manufactured by the Pitt brothers’ media organisation, the Pitt Media Group, publishers of three weekly newspapers and owners of Radio Cook Islands and Cook Islands Television.
The group has published a number of stories alleging problems of disunity within the Democratic Party and government, but George says a lot of the material coming from the group appears to be deliberately provocative and full of incitement.
“It almost looks as though they are bully boys, deliberately trying to get political parties to fight among themselves,” he says.
According to George the Democratic Party is “very much united.” The party’s win in the recent Ruaau by-election demonstrates just what a united party will be able to achieve in a general election, he adds.
“We just have to contain our personalities and private agendas and place the interests of the Democratic Party ahead of all our individual interests.
“The issue the Pitt Media Group has been inciting relates to the role of the Prime Minister versus the Deputy Prime Minister and the Democratic Party leadership.
“The leadership question will no doubt be addressed at some point in time. We need to look at it seriously. No-one in any democratic organisation should assume private possession of the leadership.”
George says that as a caucus of the Democratic Party all members are entitled to their own view of the leadership question.
“I just hope that in the not too distant future the matter can be addressed without burying it under the carpet.
“We will face the issue when we come to it. But it won’t be the Pitt brothers who decide when and where." |
