LITANY OF LIES

He was delivering the feature address yesterday at the People’s National Movement (PNM) public rally held at Eddie Hart Grounds, Tacarigua.

He said the United National Congress (UNC) had ignored his reports of the former administration’s “profligate spending” for Emancipation Day, Shouter Baptist Holiday and Christmas but have started a “roti war” over that aspect of catering.

“I want to say to my brothers and sisters of the East Indian population of Trinidad and Tobago that the time has come for lesser leaders to stop taking you for fools. You are equal citizens, with equal rights in Trinidad and Tobago and you must be able to differentiate between what is right and what is wrong,” he said.

He spent the bulk of his speech addressing a UNC advertisement published in yesterday’s newspapers and responding to a number of the 39 claims which appeared therein.

On the claim, Government shutdown the Point Fortin Highway he said work had stopped before he became Prime Minister last September.

He reported that the contractor OAS had been fired, $1 billion recovered and they would finish the job using a series of local contractors.

He said the litany of lies included that they reduced the disability grant while in fact it was increased from $465 million to $513 million. On the stopping of the “baby milk grant” he claimed it was an avenue to steal money by the previous administration and the $120 million was to give milk to father, nephew and baby mother.

He said the UNC feels people of this country are “foolish and malleable and could be led by the nose”.

On the claim that Government raised the price of gasoline he said that they “plead guilty” and the incremental reductions in the fuel subsidy had been announced by Finance Minister Colm Imbert.

He also agreed that they were brining back property tax but pointed out that former finance minister Larry Howai had taken steps to remove the five-year waiver that had been implemented.

On Imbert, he said the UNC had pasted his face all over but called on them to “take me on” instead.

On the claim that Imbert announced a “zero zero zero” wage freeze he said no trade union had received any such offer and the UNC was “holding on to a shadow”.

“No other political party has treated public servants better than the PNM,” he declared.

On the claim that they had not paid backpay to public servants Rowley reported they paid $500 million in backpay to the Regional Health Authority, $400 million to the Water and Sewerage Authority and millions to Fire Service, Defence Force and other arms of the State. He said they still have $2 billion backpay outstanding and called on the Opposition to “bring back the money they drained out of Trinidad and Tobago” and they could use that to pay them.

He also denied that Government had stopped the regularising of squatters, though they were not giving anyone licence to squat as the former prime minister did, and denied they had shut down the University of the West Indies Debe Campus but pointed out that the principal reported issues with the contractor.

On the claim they took away laptops from children he said an education expert did an assessment that the laptop programme, which cost hundreds of millions, did nothing for education and disrupted the school programme.

He reported Government stopped the contractual arrangement and implemented a system where all children would have access to computers and trained teachers.

On the claim they stopped printing textbooks he said a textbook industry was nurtured by them and hundreds of millions of books were printed which children did not need.

“We made sure of an adequate supply of book without an adequate supply of crooks,” he said.

He told the gathering that he has had political opponents of all shades but there was a group that has made a career of accusing him of “the worse kinds of things” and told the crowd of thousands that they were his “witnesses”.

“The accusation will be made about nine o’clock on Monday night. I will be accused of domestic violence because I am going to beat Kamla Persad-Bissessar from bow to stern,” he quipped to roars from the audience.

He said she will get the “soundest political licking that she ever got” and this is because it will be “licking number 10”.