All the House’s a stage

However, Tabaquite MP Adesh Nanan, who rose to speak on an Act to amend the Tourism Development Bill, betrayed an unexpected desire to be centre stage. The Bill had been presented by Tourism Minister Howard Chin Lee, who repeated more or less verbatim the speech he had previously given on the same Bill in the Upper House.

The legislation had a simple purpose: to let non-resident investors in approved tourist projects avoid paying taxes both in their country of residence and in Trinidad and Tobago.

But Chin Lee did expand on his Upper House contribution, although he did so by repeating almost verbatim another speech he had made a few days previously to launch a domestic tourism project. In that speech, Chin Lee listed all that the Government was doing to boost tourism. He was especially proud that hotel occupancy rate was at almost 100 percent, and that in Trinidad two new hotels were to be built which would add 505 rooms to the island.

“That is a 50 percent increase in room stock,” Chin Lee announced. Unless the Tourism Minister is innumerate, however, that means that the Trinidad at present has only 500 hotel rooms, so his first boast about 100 percent occupancy wasn’t as impressive as it sounded.

Nanan, when he got to his legs, started off with a classic Freudian reaction. “I am under the impression that the Minister of Tourism, speaking under this live feed, was nervous,” he said. But Chin Lee had spoken with his customary urbane energy, and it was Nanan who, talking rapidly and slurring some of his words, appeared to be suffering from nervous excitement. Yet, since he spoke for nearly the whole of his allotted 75 minutes, it seems that Nanan saw himself in the role of starboy for that afternoon.

He had some difficulty in criticising Chin Lee on anything substantive, however, since he could hardly question the Ministers’ figures on occupancy rates in Trinidad and increased tourist arrivals in Tobago. But he attempted to spin the statistics by raising the issue of crime. He had, he said, spent one week in Tobago, during which the wife of a hotel owner had been attacked and there had been three robberies. “Come here with the facts,” he said challengingly to Chin Lee. “Tell us about the infrastructure — no public toilets in Mayaro.”

Nanan also argued that the Government had nothing to do with the increased tourist traffic. “Storms have moved to the north, I don’t know if you are aware of that, Minister of Tourism,” he said. “Tourism is developing because of weather patterns.”

“You have to deal with the crime situation in the country, that is the number one priority,” he said, adding, “Your arrivals are depleting.” But when Chin Lee looked astonished and gestured to his papers, Nanan added, “Yes, we agree, those are the figures you are giving us, we have to take it for granted. But your arrivals are depleting. People are coming because they are adventurers. But will they come back?” Nanan also criticised the Government because Charlotteville in Tobago did not have a proper port; there were no helicopter tours; and some bed-and-breakfast places were “houses of ill repute.”

He also downplayed Chin Lee’s announcement that a website about TT and the Soca Warriors had received over 30 million hits, saying that he (Nanan) was the one who had first said this in Parliament and that it was his (Nanan’s) comment on the Soca Warriors on CNN’s website that had been broadcast by the network. “I said that the tiny island of Trinidad and Tobago is now swimming in a sea of pride,” Nanan boasted. “I said that!” He then said that he didn’t come to get plaudits for that, but he just wanted to show Chin Lee had not utilised technology effectively.

When Nanan finally took his seat, Laventille West/Morvant MP Fitzgerald Hinds rose. Hinds responded to the crime aspect of Nanan’s presentation, arguing that the Government was taking measures to deal with crime. But, in the same breath, he claimed that crime was just as bad in the same countries issuing travel advisories about TT. “Citizens of other countries are no safer than we would be in our countries,” said Hinds. To “prove” his point, Hinds told about his giving some British officials a tour of his constituency. They had written since their visit and said “how safe they were and enjoyed Laventille in particular,” he said.

Of course, Hinds quoted no statistics to back up his argument since, had he done so, he would have had to mention that England’s murder rate is 0.5 per 100,000 whereas Trinidad’s is 29 per 100,000. So, when Hinds wrapped up his contribution by saying, “I don’t want to politicise this debate any,” the Opposition rightfully responded, “You mean any more!”