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Press Release | | | Author: media.txt | | Date: 2009-10-28 00:00:00 |
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213 Caroni Savannah Road
Charlieville, Chaguanas, Trinidad and Tobago,
Telephone: 671-1134, Fax: 665-6742
Website: www.coptnt.com, e-mail:secretariat@coptnt.com
WINSTON DOOKERAN’S SPEECH AT COP’S PULBIC MEETING HELD AT
THE ASJA BOYS’ SCHOOL
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27TH
We are here today in San Fernando at ASJA College as it celebrates its 50th anniversary as a college in Trinidad and Tobago and we congratulate them. San Fernando has been the seat of significant contribution in the field of education. San Fernando has been a city that has led in the educational renaissance in Trinidad and Tobago.
I recognize that scholarship and character were the two fundamental premises on which this renaissance was built and it is in that same context that as we build this new political movement, I recognize that we must do so, on some very fundamental pretext. What we are about to do in Trinidad and Tobago is to ensure that we can bring back this new nationhood for all the people in our land.
That is why when they say we have no seats in parliament and they have so many seats, and those with so many seats speak for so many people and those with these many seats speaks for this many people, we have no seats so we can speak for all of the people in Trinidad and Tobago.
The question that each one of us must ask, should I become Prime Minister what must I preside over? If you are serious about your scared commitment to the nation that has given you that privilege, then you must ask yourself what I must preside over. Then you must embark on a programme of action, to preside over what you will like to see for our nation, for society and for our people.
I will not go back before 2007, what has the Prime Minister presided over in Trinidad and Tobago since 2007?
We will all say that (if we were Prime Minister) we must preside over the development of the country; we must preside over steps that will improve the quality of life for the people, we must preside over the providing basic amenities so that the people would have a decent life like water, electricity, roads; we would preside over creating a civilization that is better than the one we had when we come into power.
When we end our five year term, we will then have the satisfaction that we have presided over the upliftment of the nation, we have presided the development of the nation, we have presided over the quality of the nation and foremost we have presided over the general happiness of the nation. That should be our oath, when we go before the parliament and decide to take the responsibility of being the Prime Minister.
What have we got instead, what has this prime Minister presided over?
Today we have a criminal industry that is larger in its growth than the whole economy and our young brothers and sisters have become the victim of that presiding over by Mr. Manning on that issue of crime. And today we know we cannot walk the street with any sense of comfort and even in this meeting tonight we leave here with some trepidation about how we will get home in safety.
So this Prime Minister has presided over the escalation of criminality in this land and the breakdown of law and order in this society and you know what makes it worst, he is happy about it.
This Prime Minister has presided over Commissions of Inquiries and Commissions of Inquiries that were set up for public relations. And as of now they are attempting to stop the UFF commission again and I say here tonight that nothing will stop them from stopping it again. Corruption they have presided over and corruption they intend to protect. You see what is happening today, Mr. Manning is all over the place with his “Hart” wide open for all to see.
My friends, one of things that we will want to do (as Prime Minister) is to make sure that the underprivileged in the society has a better deal during my term in office; that those who have been locked in poverty will begin to see the light of day. A Prime Minister will preside over a programme of actions to increase the empowerment of those who are poor, to provide for them an opportunity that they didn’t have before. This is especially since as a Prime Minister in 2007 you came in inheriting all of the money in the world.
But what has happened, our pensions today, through some kind of creative arithmetic by the Minister of Finance has had their simple pension taken away, and that is something we cannot stand up for. And you know while the level of poverty is increasing, the money they are spending on it is rising.
If you look at the figures you will see that they allocate more and more money for all kind of programmes that they call poverty reduction programme but when you as Prime Minister spend a lot of money and see the poverty rising then you have to do something about it; if you serious about what you are doing.
But they are using the money in the name of poverty in order to create clients of the state and vote banks for all times. So our Pm has presided over that.
If I were Prime Minister I would want to see opportunities for the young increasing. It is true that we have put a lot of money in the field of education but the question is, is it making opportunities for our young. Are these funds just cash dispensary machines?
When we go in the world of business; we know if you want to develop a country you need to provide opportunities to overcome obstacles so that people could go into business, small business, micro business, and big businesses.
My friends, it is astonishing where we have gotten on this score. There were some figures published in the World Bank about doing business in 183 economies, where do we stand?
When a country like Singapore with a population of 4.8 million people is ranked number one and a country like Trinidad and Tobago is ranked 81. And an interesting one, when it comes to enforcing contracts, a country like Singapore is ranked number 2, while Trinidad and Tobago is ranked 183-last place. We have UDeCOTT giving out contracts and we cannot enforcer contracts in Trinidad and Tobago, and that is the source of our problem.
That is why we have talk all the time about all the contracts and all the over runs, and when they get serious on it, they decide that they going to close down the commission of inquiry and when they get embarrassed about it, they decide they going to open it back up, and when they decide they took a risk by open it back again, they are now planning how to close it back up again with a judicial review on UDeCOTT.
This Prime Minister has presided over a regime that does not enforce contracts. That is a nice way of saying that he has presided over a regime that has the highest level of corruption of all times in Trinidad and Tobago.
If I was Prime Minister, I would have to measure my performance by whether or not I bring about development. But what is the opposite of development, the opposite of development is under development. So instead of this country developing, this country is under developing, under developing under Prime Minister Manning.
My friends, I raise that issue to put into perspective that this is not a simple matter about who is more popular than whom, but it is a matter about whether you are being governed in your interest or not in your interest and I say to all my friends who do not understand the purpose of governance as they should, that they should not give their votes to work against their own interest.
Time is against us but I want to speak for one moment on the politics of the day. We have had the greatest expression of raw politics in the last week. We heard the PM in parliament, leaving no stone unturned in his castigation of his deputy, Keith Rowley. He went on and went on, and in going on he said something that I want you to notice. As he described Mr. Rowley as a raging bull, he said that he was part of a new relationship between the Ramjack fraction and himself to bring down the UNC and PNM.
Probably it went unnoticed, but here was the prime Minister defending the UNC and the PNM from the threats from the Ramjack Rowley fraction. What is happening is he is defending the UNC and the PNM.
Remember I spoke about the gate keepers? There are two major gate keepers. One of them hold the view that their main support, which is mainly afro-Trinidadians, will always vote for them regardless because they have the power of the treasury in their hands and that is what they hold on to.
And the other gate keeper who believes, not that the Indians support him but that the Indians owe it to him to support him, that he must get their votes because they are now the victims of what the government does. So he goes round the place and says you are a victim and if you are a victim you have to support me because those in government will not give you anything and if you put me there in parliament with 15 seats, I still can’t do nothing, then he complaining that we do not have any seat.
So I want go back to my story-so I listen to Mr. manning speak about his defense of the PNM and UNC against the attack of RamJack and Rowley and I said that the play will play out, The raw politics will come out-under real threat the truth will come out. What was suppressed will no longer remain suppressed.
The presence of the UNC is important for the retaining of power by the PNM.
Then I read on the newspaper about the UNC platform at Rienzi-something that may not seem so obvious-a serious defense for the need for an executive president in Trinidad and Tobago by the leader of the opposition. Listen to what I am saying, he takes it on himself, apart from the few other things he said which were not consequential because Kamla was on his mind all the time-he talked about that he will support an executive presidency.
He used some words about conditions under which he will support it, which we know can always change-but there were some coded messages that were passing through parliament and Rienzi. In parliament the Prime Minister was saying that I will defend you in the UNC and I will defend the PNM; we shall not fall-meaning the UNC and the PNM. And Mr. Panday returns the favour and says thank you very much, I will now support the executive presidency in Trinidad and Tobago.
That is high level diplomacy when leaders want to negotiate their positions. Their interest now is the preservation of their gate keepers’ position. So they are saying, you give me this and I will give you that and we will stay together.
Now when it is all over then we will start back the window boxing to see whether I will be on that side or you on this side.
At times we don’t realize that this country is a dynamic one, even now more so than ever and ever since the Congress of the People came on the political scene of this country the dynamism of this country is increasing to a higher level and a higher level. And I say to you today that the gate keepers cannot hold back their flocks-whatever flocks they feel they have because there is now a new political organization that is expansive, open and flexible that is bring all the flocks together under the COP for a new Trinidad and Tobago.
There is a myth that this party cannot win the support of the grassroots supporters. But I know that the 131 medical clinics we have had all over Trinidad and Tobago it was the ordinary folks were attending because the state was not providing them with that and over 8000 patients have come to our clinics and one more will take place this weekend. I know that the over 22 occasions in which we have celebrated the rich heritage and common future representing all the different festivals and otherwise that we have been demonstrating on the ground that we want to bring people together, not divided by race, not divided by geography, not divided by anything else, and that is why I feel certain that we will in fact bring about that renaissance in the politics.
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