Crouching tiger, hidden dragon

A major issue that has been of concern has been the use of Chinese labour in this country. The issue is, for some, not that the Chinese are foreign, but that Chinese workers are being brought to this country under conditions that point towards human trafficking and have been made to live and work in this country under deplorable conditions.

But in addition to questions of the use of Chinese labour we must very carefully examine the diplomatic relations between the Prime Minister Patrick Manning administration and the Chinese regime. This week came word that Manning indicated one month ago that the Shanghai Construction Group (SCG) would be selected for the construction of the National Carnival Centre. SCG is the same company that built the much criticised National Academy for the Performing Arts.

Additionally, SCG constructed the bizarre Prime Minister’s Residence and Diplomatic Centre, billing Udecott approximately $3 million for curtains. SCG is also at work on the Ministry of Education Tower in downtown Port-of-Spain and the behind-schedule South Academy for the Performing Arts in San Fernando.

The same SCG is also at work on a church, estimated to cost $30 million, being built in the Heights of Guanapo, Arima. The church is being built in the name of a woman said to be an adviser of some sort to the Prime Minister.

SCG was selected to build the north and south academies under the secret terms and conditions of a so-called “Government to Government” arrangement involving – according to the State – a US$100 million loan.

Yet, at the opening of the NAPA in November last year, Manning said the north and south academies cost US$130 million. It was unclear, then, whether the original US$100 million loan was later changed or was an accurate representation of the Government to Government arrangement in the first place.

Manning has attacked local contractors and touted foreign contractors as being better. He has also said that Udecott is the vehicle of the establishment of a new order in the construction sector. Yet, almost all Udecott projects, featuring foreign contractors, have experienced variations in the budgets (increases) and in their completion dates (ie have been late).

In the rush to complete the NAPA for the Commonwealth Heads of Government, it appears that the contractor SCG took certain short-cuts. Now, it has been estimated by the Artists Coalition of Trinidad and Tobago that it could cost as much as $80 million to correct these defects. So in addition to paying for the CHOGM itself (around $500 million), taxpayers must pay for the cost of the International Waterfront Centre (about $2 billion), the Port-of-Spain NAPA (about $500 million) and the cost for correcting flaws.

Manning, in justifying the CHOGM, had famously said it would be a key summit en route to the Copenhagen summit in Denmark. Ironically, agreement at that summit, at which the world attempted to deal with the current environmental crisis, was undermined by delegates from China, the same checkered country Manning’s administration is consorting with.

The Chinese proverb “crouching tiger hidden dragon” refers to something formidable, left unseen. I can think of another Chinese proverb that describes the incoherent policies of the Manning administration: Do not bow down for the sake of five pecks of rice.