Opposition bluffing on Caroni

Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ken Valley said yesterday that he always knew the Opposition was “bluffing” when it called for a debate on Caroni in the Parliament. The Opposition is refusing to file a motion on the issue.

Said Valley: “They had since February 15 to file a motion. If they had done so then, the matter would have been debated by now. But they never wanted to debate the issue because they know that this is the best plan for Caroni Limited”. Valley lamented however that the Opposition, realising that it couldn’t win any logical discussion on the Caroni issue, decided to “go down in Couva and be very racist”. He referred to statements made by Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday. Valley pointed out that Prime Minister Patrick Manning said that Government was prepared to support a waiver of the Standing Orders in order to have an Opposition motion on Caroni debated within five days.

Told that Opposition Chief Whip Ganga Singh indicated that the Opposition would not be filing any motion because the onus was on the Government to do so, Valley said: “They know they cannot win any debate. We always knew they were bluffing. They are merely attempting to incite the workers in Caroni”. Told that Singh also stated that 30 minutes (which is the time allotted for discussion of a motion on the adjournment) was too short to debate the issue of Caroni,  Valley countered: “But they wanted to do (debate) it in 15 minutes the last time and they walked out of the Parliament because of this”.  He was referring to the walk out led by Opposition MP Kelvin Ramnath after Deputy Speaker Hedwidge Bereaux turned down his request to debate the issue of Caroni as a definite matter of urgent public importance.

Valley said Government would continue talking to the people. He said Government only yesterday had a meeting with the Board of Caroni, which includes Rudy Indarsingh, ATSGWTU’s President-General. The Minister said he did not think that the Opposition noises would have any impact on the workers. Saying that the VSEP was going “quite good”, he stated that slightly over 3,000 workers had accepted the plan. Valley said when the vesting of the lands at Caroni takes place, Government would make a comprehensive statement in the Parliament. He said he expected this statement to include information on all the restructuring and rationalisation plans which were implemented at State enterprises like the Port Authority, PTSC, IDC, Post Office, Management Development Centre, West Indian Shipping Company and National Fisheries, none of which were ever opposed by the UNC. He recalled that the UNC sponsored a whole VSEP plan in the airport when hundreds lost their jobs.