Dookeran promises to back ‘Prez’ in fight against crime

Speaking for the first time in Parliament in the capacity of Political Leader of the UNC, Dookeran’s statement was greeted with "oohs" from Members of Parliament, who erupted into laughter when Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday interjected with, "as soon as you ready."

Later in Dookeran’s presentation, House Speaker Barry Sinanan was forced to ask the MPs to listen to the first speech of the "leader of the party in Opposition."

Before his scathing attack on the Budget and the Finance Minister, Dookeran addressed what he described as the nation’s greatest tragedy — Government’s loss of control of the safety and security of the country.

Dookeran said the lack of national leadership response to the crime situation in the country, and more so the 112,000 signatures collected by the Keith Noel 136 Committee, could not be forgiven, or forgotten.

He said it was based on this tragedy that the Budget focused on what Government called the basic needs. But the most basic need in society, Dookeran said, was the restoration of trust in the nation, the very thing President George Maxwell Richards had called for in his address to Parliament at the opening of the session. Dookeran said the real test of economic management was whether or not it resulted in an improvement in the quality of life of citizens. But in this country, he said, our quality of life fell as our resources rose and "the evidence does not support that the end of poverty is any nearer."

According to Dookeran, the tax proposals outlined in the Budget were "purely illusional." The beneficiaries of the tax relief, he said, were given the impression that they would have more disposable income. This increase, he said, had been equally matched by the removal of other personal allowances, such as mortgages, credit union deductions and child maintenance allowance.

As a result, the tax burden faced by the middle-class has remained virtually unchanged, Dookeran said. "Government is addressing the feel rich index, not the feel good index," he said.