BVI’s elected officials not getting any R-E-S-P-E-C-T; says Wheatley

Ninth District Representative Vincent Wheatley has bemoaned the lack of respect towards legislators in the BVI. Noting that it is an issue that pains him very much, Wheatley said incidents of disrespect are mostly perpetrated on social media. “When I see that persons just very, very casually would go on Facebook and disrespect each other. And they even take it further than that – they even disrespect elected officials. I never thought I would have seen a day when persons would openly disrespect elected officials the way I’m seeing today,” said Wheatley who is a government minister.

He further said the justification that ministers don’t act in an honourable way — therefore allowing persons to feel free to disrespect them — was not acceptable.

“I could never agree to that, respect is an internal thing,” Wheatley said. “You don’t respect me because of who you think I am or not, I am respected because it is the right thing for you to do.”