PM: TT dollars to help Asia

PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning announced that Trinidad and Tobago will provide financial assistance to South-East Asian nations which were devastated by Sunday’s massive undersea earthquake which has killed at least 59,000 persons to date. Addressing a news conference at Whitehall yesterday, the Manning said he already has an idea about the quantum of financial aid which TT would contribute to the ongoing international relief efforts in South-East Asia and he was not bothered by any objections which the Opposition had on this issue.

Manning said while TT has not been approached by any of the affected nations (more specifically India) for help, “the disaster in South-East Asia is on such a scale that it warrants some kind of intervention from TT and we are going to make some financial contribution to the recovery efforts.” Told that the Opposition and other critics were likely to accuse Government of spending taxpayers monies to fix problems overseas rather than at home,  Manning declared: “Anything the PNM does, the Opposition will object. They are conscientious objectors.  Therefore what we try to do is we examine what they say to see if there is any merit in it. If there is any merit in it, we address it. If there is no merit in it, we ignore it. A comment of that nature, we’ll just ignore.” The Prime Minister indicated that while he had an idea of exactly how much financial assistance TT will contribute it was just a personal view and Cabinet would decide on the matter when it sits next Thursday at Whitehall in its first meeting for 2005. “All it requires is a Cabinet decision and a proposal will be put to Cabinet next week. We will then act and we will announce what we will do,” Manning said. He added that Government has not received reports of any TT nationals killed, injured or missing as a result of events in South-East Asia.

Manning said the tragic events of the last 48 hours meant that “international attention will be diverted to South-East Asia and away from Grenada and the Caribbean, so we are going to have to depend to a much greater extent on our own resources.” Manning added that TT may now have to shoulder the bulk of the recovery efforts in Grenada and play a greater role in assisting its Eastern Caribbean neighbours in times of natural disaster, given this new scenario. Manning said no decision has been taken by Caricom about whether the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA) and its agencies would have to be revamped. The Prime Minister also said the tragedy in South-East Asia places greater importance on upcoming conferences in Mauritius and Japan about small island states and sustainable development in early 2005.