Manning hints at early polls

He was addressing a PNM rally yesterday at Success Laventille Composite School.

"Put your house in order," he told cheering supporters.

He said economic woes had caused his first PNM government to lose the 1995 General Elections, saying it was not due to his calling an early election.

"I did it once before and if I have to do it again, I will."

He predicted the effect of his words on the crowd, saying, "Everybody gets frightened; your stomach gets queasy."

Admitting the country had problems like crime, he said these were being tackled by the Government.

"Just be assured we are going to the polls," he repeated, "And don’t say I didn’t warn you." Referring to the $850 million sports complex, he said the past decisions of the PNM which had been highly criticised, had eventually proved to be correct.

Critics, he recalled, had slammed his decision to build the Brian Lara Promenade, to float the Trinidad and Tobago dollar, to liberalise the economy, and to export LNG, but these all turned out to be good choices.

"Can you imagine Port-of-Spain without the Brian Lara Promenade?" he asked. From having no foreign exchange in 1993, floating the currency had led to Trinidad and Tobago today having US$3.9 billion reserves. The liberalisation of the economy, he said, had led to local businesses becoming so competitive that this country is involved in 70 percent of the trade in Caricom. Manning added, "About 40 percent of Guardian Life’s business comes from the United Kingdom." The export of LNG, he added, had boosted our energy exports from 240,000 barrels of oil per day in 1978, to 770,000 "equivalent" barrels of oil per day in 2005 made up of oil and LNG.

He cited the recent visit of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo as proof of this country’s high profile internationally. "Do you think it is easy to get the president of Nigeria to be here?!" He said the Nigerian president has agreed for Nigeria to celebrate Emancipation Day and Obasanjo will soon ask the African Union to also do the same.

As if answering critics to the refurbishment of the PM’s Official Residence, Manning said the building is used to house important guests and the hospitality he gets on his own official visits abroad has made him realise that our country’s facilities have a long way to go.