PM: PNM response to budget a total distortion of the truth
THE response to the 2015 budget by the Leader of the PNM Opposition was “a deliberate distortion of the truth,” Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has said. The Prime Minister was speaking Friday following a two-hour response to the budget by the Leader of the PNM Opposition.
“It is clear that Dr. Rowley has no vision or plan for Trinidad & Tobago and is content to spread misinformation in order to damage and try to undo the progressive reforms that the People’s Partnership Government has introduced in the past four years,” the Prime Minister stated.
“Foreign Direct Investment in the economy increased by 600 per cent between 2010 and 2013, yet the Opposition Leader has shamelessly told the Parliament that there have been no new investments or revenue streams,” she added.
Dr. Rowley pledged to restore the Manning PNM Government’s vision 2020 and some of the more unpopular measures that the people rejected overwhelmingly in the 2010 general election. This includes the T&T Revenue Agency, which would have put 2100 public sector employees out of work and cost the taxpayer more than $350 million, Mrs. Persad-Bissessar noted.
In addition, she pointed to his pledge to undertake another mass transit feasibility study while at the same time promising to build a Rapid Rail system that was roundly rejected by the people as too costly, impractical and damaging to the agricultural infrastructure of the country.
“In 2010, the people of Trinidad and Tobago resoundingly rejected the policies of the PNM, and today Dr. Rowley showed again his callous disregard for the will of the people by stating that he would reinstate and expand PNM policies,” the Prime Minister said.
What is worse, she said, is that after the PNM wasted almost half a billion dollars on a feasibility study on the rapid rail project with nothing to show for it he is saying he would build the rail system. That demonstrates his disdain for the people. It is the same kind of arrogance the PNM showed when it threatened the build three smelters when the people rejected the project as damaging to their health and as being unnecessary.
Mrs. Persad-Bissessar said, “The Opposition Leader demonstrated on Friday that his priority is to reject everything that’s good for the people and cling instead to failed and rejected ideas of the Manning regime that he himself called the most corrupt ever.”
She added that Dr. Rowley also distorted the facts about the baby care initiative that the government has introduced for poor and underprivileged families living below the poverty line as part of a series of measures aimed at poverty eradication.
Many of the people who would benefit from this live in constituencies held by the PNM but Dr. Rowley has no regard for their concerns and their plight for him, gaining political power is more important that helping the poor and underprivileged.”
She said Dr. Rowley also tried to hoodwink legislators and the public by talking about budgetary figures of the past. “He spoke about a budget surplus of $188 million in 2010 but conveniently left out the fact that the incoming government inherited huge debts to contractors, had to settle dozens of outstanding labour agreements and had to deal with the PNM-created Clico and Hindu Credit Union debacle that alone accounted for more than $20 billion,” she said.
“Such dishonesty from a man who wants to lead this country is unacceptable and provides clear evidence that Dr. Rowley cannot be trusted to speak the truth and therefore is unfit to lead a government,” she said.
Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar also commented on Dr. Rowley’s statements suggesting that GATE was being eroded by the present administration. “GATE was first introduced by the Panday UNC administration as the ‘dollar for dollar’ programme to help families with the cost of tertiary education at a time when oil was at US$9 per barrel,” she said.
“Dr. Rowley should explain why the PNM failed to appropriately expand the programme to more young people even with energy prices as high as US$140 per barrel. He should also explain why the government of which he was a part engaged in giving secret scholarships to its supporters from a multi-million dollar slush fund.”
The Prime Minister also took issue with Dr. Rowley’s statement that crime continues to rise but the figures are distorted because people are no longer reporting serious crimes. “This is a manipulation of reality spawned by Dr. Rowley’s desperation and a dangerous propensity to incite panic and anxiety in the population instead of presenting progressive ideas to benefit the people,” the Prime Minister said.
“Hiding the truth is bad enough, but to also ignore the truth, that the two biggest growth industries between 2001 and 2010, under the PNM Government, were crime and corruption, is much worse.
“Dr. Rowley and the PNM have not learned from their mistakes. And instead of developing a credible vision for Trinidad and Tobago they are content to spread misinformation and try to create fear and panic while they peddle the same failed programmes that the people rejected in 2010.”
Mrs. Persad-Bissessar said the 2015 budget is a people’s plan one designed to continue her policy of taking care of all sectors of the society and ensuring that the nation’s wealth is equitably distributed. She added, “Dr. Rowley’s response has been to heap scorn on policies designed to help the most vulnerable,” she said.