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Address of Mr. Winston Dookeran - San Fernando | | Election 2010 Campaign Speech | | Author: | | Date: 2010-05-06 17:05:52 |
| My people of San Fernando and Trinidad and Tobago, the time has come. The moment is near. Victory is within our reach and freedom is once again with us. The People's Partnership is about to be born as the next government of Trinidad and Tobago and the leader of that government will be Mrs. Kamla Persad-Bissessar who has been at the helm of the People's Partnership.
My colleagues, I listened attentively to Mr. Makandal Daaga and Mr. Errol McLeod and I sensed the beginning of a new emergence of a history that has been denied our people. I sensed when I listened to them that what we have taking place now in Trinidad and Tobago is a fusion of the history that once had great promise for this land. It is a resolve of the present to deal with the problems of today and out of that has emerged a new energy among our people, an energy that will create a unity in this country that we have never seen before and we shall preserve it, we shall protect it and we shall make it work for us.
It is a new discovery in the politics of our land. In our jubilation we must be careful that we make no mistake. Today the country is at a standstill. Our people are bewildered, the nation is sitting on the edge and they are looking and they are wondering and they are trying to find out what has happened. Why it is the great expectations after 2007 election fell flat. Why it is that Mr. Manning could not continue to preside over the prosperity of our land. Our people are in a state of deep concern. You are here, have already passed the threshold. I speak to all those who are not here, come with us, join with us in the new history that we shall be making in Trinidad and Tobago within the next three weeks.
My friends, my people, why have we reached into this stage? Why it is that Mr. Manning instead of presiding over a nation who wanted to achieve the great expectations of the 21st century ended up presiding over what people now call a failed state. Why it is that he was able to squander that future? Why it is that he has brought us to the brink where our entire system of law and order is up in the air, where our people are dying on a daily basis, where the society has lost its sense of values for true leadership, where we have now realized that our economy is on the edge.
And tonight in the few moments before me, I would like to spare a few thoughts with you on the state of our economy. I have stopped criticizing Mr. Manning because I intend to put my energy in building Trinidad and Tobago.
I know that is the charge ahead of us and why I've always inspired by the history and always find myself working for the present, I must also ensure that I chart the future for our people.
In my own life in public affairs, I have never given up hope in the faith of our people, in the desires of our nation to become a model nation in this world of ours. Today your presence here has resolved a greater desire on my part and I want to tell you with my colleagues on the platform, and with the candidates that have been announced to you here today, we shall be marching forward in the new history of Trinidad and Tobago and we must not falter, we must not falter, we must not falter between now and election day and one way to do that is to assure the country that we know where we are going and we know what we are going to do.
What is the choice before us? By any indicators, our government is failed. There is a way to measure what is good governance, and what is bad governance. If you have a situation where the economy is on the edge, where your crime situation is out of control, where your health services are in disarray, where the farmers are in great disappointment about their future, where the young people do not know what tomorrow is, and for many of them, tomorrow is cancelled. If you have such a situation then you would have had bad governance. So the choice before our nation today, is whether they want to go back to bad governance or they want to develop the prospect of good governance under the People's Partnership - that is the choice.
Mr. Manning's government has collapsed. It has collapsed mid-term and now it is up to us, the citizens of this country, to put into place the new government. Those who wish to install the old government are going to install knowingly bad governance, and those who wish to seek confidence in the future shall install good governance for the future.
So to all those who are not here and all those who have not yet crossed the barrier, I want to let you know that that is the choice of this nation, at this point in time, in this place San Fernando, which once was the seat of learning in South Trinidad and we shall make it so again.
So my friends, in El Dorado, about ten days ago in preparation for government, I announced that a team of high level economists under the chairmanship of Dr. Patrick Watson, the Professor of Applied Economics at the University, will commission a work on the state of the economy. I did this after I heard Mr. Manning promising everything, everything that he could think about he was promising in Woodford Square and I say I have to expose the fact that those promises are false promises that cannot be kept, and the economy cannot sustain them and it is about time that we expose that he is hoodwinking his own people, his own supporters and that it is time that we bring sense to prevail.
The report of that commission, of that committee, was given to me today and we shall make it public in due course, but let me just point out one or two of the very telling statistics that I saw emerging in our assessment of the economy.
We have a situation today, and I can quote, where the Balance of Payment is in deficit, where the fiscal account is in deficit, where the propping up of the value of the TT dollar by the Central Bank cannot continue indefinitely unless energy revenues start increasing again on a sustained basis, which is unlikely according to this report. We have a situation where the global competitiveness index of Trinidad and Tobago has been decreasing year by year. We have a situation and I read the conclusion, "The much vaunted official statistics used by the government are not representative of the whole truth and tend to mask the uncertainties of the future. There are many underlying weaknesses which have to be addressed if the Trinidad and Tobago economy is to become sustainable and resilient. Our great and grave concern is the growing indebtedness and the inability of the country to survive in the face of the declining energy revenues."
All the signs are there that the economy is not sufficiently diversified or resilient to be able to retain any sense of order. My friends I have said our economy is strong but our future is weak. Because the trends are all in the wrong direction and it is left to the People's Partnership to change those directions to restore confidence in our people in the economic future.
We shall be a government which will be informed by the facts as they are. That is why in Tunapuna today when I was interviewed by the Press about what I intend to bring to people of Tunapuna, they hinted, What can u deliver? I said to them all I can deliver is honest and sincere representation on behalf of the people of Tunapuna.
It is a new culture - that's why I say it is a new history of politics where we shall account to the people where we shall bring the people into confidence, where we shall tell them as it is, where we shall not ask them to vote for us because you'll get a job. We must make the government work for the people rather than have the people work to keep a government in place. That is the philosophical underpinnings of the historical moment. And that is why my appeal here is not only to us. My appeal is to all Trinidad and Tobago because we are on that edge. It is true that there are visible signs of progress and every government and every leader must be judged in the context of his times, but the visible signs of progress cannot keep a sustained prosperity in this country and that is our number one task.
So my friends, I have asked Dr. Watson and his team, which include members of the People's Partnership, to immediately commence discussions with all the stakeholders in the country, be it in the business sector, be it in the civil sector, be it in the labour sector, so that we can convert this reality into a way forward. You see, on May 25th we will not have a honeymoon, this society is impatient, they shall not give us one day of honeymoon, we must get back in on May 25th with our plans in place going where we are going and how we shall lead this country in the future.
I have only spoken to you with respect to the economy but we can do so at another time on many other areas. What I can tell you, you shall be in good hands under the economic direction of the People's Partnership in Trinidad and Tobago as from May the 24th.
And before I conclude that part of the report, I just want to refer to you, refer to you the much vaunted International Financial Center. One of the pillars of Mr. Manning's economic strategy was that he was building and International Financial Center. At that time I said in a public commentary that he did not understand what has happened in the global financial world. He dismissed any such utterances by people like myself as being politically motivated. My friends, you know, and I know, and everybody knows my politics is not motivated by politics but is motivated by the development and love for the people of Trinidad and Tobago.
But alas, there is another report that came to my attention about financial centers in the Caribbean; everyone is trying to build an international financial centre - Barbados, Antigua, Bermuda, Grenada, St. Kitts, Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines; and already we have Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. Imagine, in this small little space we call the Caribbean, everybody is fighting like crab in the barrel to create an opportunity for the financial center. This report said that in light of the developments in the world with respect to finance, financial centers no longer require physical presences but do require what they call smart electronic transaction processing and management systems. In other words, the world has changed, and Manning is moving back rather than moving forward. And if you vote for him he will take you further back, back and back, and back and then you will have no one on whose shoulder you can cry and this is but one example of where he has taken this country backwards.
After spending billions of dollars, the financial center in Port of Spain, and it is stated here in this report, and this is not a local report, the financial center in Trinidad and Tobago remains without any clients. Trinidad and Tobago has built a large brand of new financial centers on the waterfront which has not attracted any significant financial services sector tenants at this stage. Two summits, billions of dollars later, carrying us in the wrong direction, and yet the people of Trinidad and Tobago must decide whether they want to continue that path to move backwards. I have said before and I say it again that Mr. Manning and his government have been anchored in the thinking of the 1970's and what we intend to do in this election is to put a government that is now anchored in the 21st century to take on the challenges of the future.
I am so happy to be here tonight in San Fernando in particular - San Fernando has always produced people of significance in the national arena. San Fernando has been the energy capital of our country and San Fernando deserves to have as its next representative, the person who is the number one spokesman on energy affairs in Trinidad and Tobago, Carolyn Seepersad Bachan.
She comes in a tradition of Errol Mahabir, one of the finest energy ministers that this country has ever seen. And on the other side we have a young woman, or a youngish woman, she is my friend for a long time, she has brought up a wonderful family of professionals. She has been devoted to the people of San Fernando. She is a sitting borough council member, she has dedicated her life to service, a barrister at law. Someone who we must respect, not only for her commitment to San Fernando, but her desire to serve this nation even in troubled times.
You see, there are a lot of people who are afraid to come into troubled times, they only want to come into good times, I know that, I experienced that, and I was in troubled times in the last three years holding the fort, holding it together, and holding it together I shall continue to do as we move into the People's Partnership, as we move forward, as we never move backwards, as we embrace the challenges ahead of us, and as we make this history a reality for our next generation.
Thank you and let us move forward.
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