Manning not making sense on power sharing

"This is a non-starter, it is an unfounded situation, totally baseless, it lacks rationale, it lacks sense and it lacks direction and will make this society much worse," Sankersingh said at a press conference at the party’s Victoria Square Headquarters yesterday.

In an address to party supporters at Princes Town Senior Comprehensive on Saturday, Manning said that voting had been based on race and proposed sharing of power between Central Government and Local Government bodies.

"What the PM is attempting to do is institutionalise race as a factor that divides our society and I don’t know how a responsible PM could make such a statement like that," Sankersingh told reporters.

He said that if TT has to move forward, the first thing that has to be done is to get people involved in the process of Government. He said that in order to begin this process local Government and communities have to get involved. "The only political party that sought to reform local Government was the NAR, when they passed the Municipal Corporations Act No 21 of 1990, which sought to establish community based organisations and which expanded the powers of local Government bodies," Sankersingh said.

"When the PNM came back in power in 1991 it took away all those powers. Clearly the PNM does not have any way to go about Local Government reform.

"If you are gong to reform Local Government for the purpose of distributing the resources of the society, along lines of race, it will make the present situation of race in TT much worse."

Also included in yesterday’s press briefing were recommendations for the 2006 Budget presentation.

On the the spiralling crime rate, Sankersingh said the Government does not have a clue on how to deal with the crime epidemic in TT. He attributed the high crime level to the National Security Minister, Martin Joseph, saying that he does not have a clue as to how to control the rising crime rate now because he lacks experience.