PM: Foreign or local “I don’t care, investigate it”
These are all the arms of the Partnership… making your partnership STRONG and UNITED.
What makes us so strong is that we recognize our differences, but we also recognise our common purpose, which is to create a just society for all of us.
We put our differences aside and we put country first!
We are not one party with one set of rules that guide all of us.
We are a coalition of interests that reflect the ethnic, social, economic and cultural diversity of our country…
But in the end our primary focus has always been for a better Trinidad and Tobago … and service to you.
We are partners because there is something more important in the partnership than any of our political parties…
What we saw this week was rage…a spectacle of anger and hate from a man who came to our Parliament with the most malicious and irresponsible set of lies ever presented in our legislature.
It mattered not if I was a COP or if Prakash was a UNC…
What mattered was that YOUR government was under attack and we stood up as a united force against that attack!
Let me say it again for those who may not have heard me say it before…
The allegations made this week by the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament are
FALSE, MALICIOUS and RECKLESS…
They have been discredited by anyone who took the time to review them…
That is a fact…
So before I move on I just want to outline the facts… No spin, like Dr. Rowley and his handlers…
The spin on this issue stops right here tonight…These are the facts:
Those are the facts.
Period.
You might have heard the PNM spin-doctor saying that even if the entire thing is not true, what if part of it is true…
Nonsense…You ever hear more nonsense than that?
You cannot be half pregnant! And something cannot be kind of true… Half-true…
Either something is right of wrong, true or false…
But Dr Wrongly seems to be used to dealing in half-truth… Not me. And not this government.
How else could he hold the Parliament hostage with his utter foolishness, telling people that he has incriminating evidence of a conspiracy involving the Prime Minister and the Attorney General … and then when we expose you as a fraud he comes back and say … suppose some of it is true… suppose one of them is true.
How can one man be so reckless?
Why would someone who has what he calls compelling evidence of a super conspiracy involving the PM, the AG and a senior cabinet Minister not rush to report this matter to the police?
His failure to do so shows his irresponsibility.
Suppose those emails were real… in such a case he would be guilty of negligence is for not reporting the matter to the police.
He sat and he waited… for SIX MONTHS because he knew they were bogus.
And knowing they were bogus he still went to the Parliament, hoping his wild allegations would to bring down the Government…
BUT IT DIDN’T WORK.
We immediately caught him.
And the public caught him.
And when he realized he could deal with the heat, he and his colleagues ran away!
HE was not man enough to stay in Parliament and register a vote for his own motion of no confidence.
They are telling you it was a protest against me.
You hear lie… that is LIE!
Well let me tell you, the real reason why Rowley and his caucus ran away.
It was because his MPs were not prepared to go along with his nonsense.
So, instead of facing that embarrassment they ran away …
And in case you didn’t catch it … on Wednesday Rowley himself was admitting that his emails were bogus.
Here is what he said: “Suppose the contents of one or two were true?
Suppose one of them is right?”
Dr. Rowley has demonstrated through his actions that he is not fit to sit in the house, far less to be one of its leaders.
I wish to clarify the Parliamentary rules under which I spoke in the debate on the opposition no confidence motion in the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
The motion he presented in Parliament – and then ran away – has demonstrated that the member ROWLEY is a disgrace to Parliament and is not fit to hold the office of Leader of the Opposition.
Rowley is the worst opposition leader ever in the history of this country.
He has brought his office, parliament and politics into disrepute.
He is more concerned with grandstanding than with the truth.
In short he tells tall tales and is willing to do anything for a headline and to get what he wants.
This was an historic low in our parliamentary democracy…
We have raised our national profile in the world and earned the respect of our biggest and most important allies.
And HERE WE HAVE THIS PARLIAMENTARY JOKER TRYING TO UPSET AND DESTABILISE OUR COUNTRY WITH HIS RECKLESSNESS.
HE IS NOT FIT TO HOLD OFFICE.
They lie to you… and they spin things to create FEAR…
The PNM is interested in the politics of fear… hoping they would distract us from our agenda and frighten you into withdrawing your support for us.
BUT THEY WILL FAIL!
THEY CANNOT DISTRACT YOUR GOVERNMENT and I tell you HAVE NO FEAR!
My sisters and brothers, there is something fundamentally wrong inside the PNM household and that is why we have to stand firm as a partnership, a government and a people.
We cannot risk having them getting back into government with their divisiveness and spite.
We are NOT cut from that cloth …
WE are NOT like the PNM.
Just look around you tonight.
God’s children, a beautiful array of races, creeds, and classes assembled together as one family.
We are still here after three years… although the naysayers predicted we wouldn’t last three months.
And today, in one newspaper we saw a poll where the headline and the story was different.
The headline says KAMLA’S 3RD FALL!
But when you read the story you see something else…
Let me quote from the Express: Thirty seven per cent of the respondents interviewed approved of her performance in 2013 compared with thirty eight percent in 2012.
I know everyone here can count!
Do you know what is the difference between the two ratings – one per cent. –
ONE PER CENT. That is the Big Fall. One percent.
Any pollster will tell you that a poll has a margin of error of either one or two percent… So my friends… that says that my approval rating is unchanged at Mid-term.
Mid-term my friends is usually when any government rating is usually at its lowest… Obama’s rating was at its lowest then too..
My rating has remained unchanged… The people are not headlines… or politicians screaming at the wind…
They know and understand the road ahead… They know that my job is not an easy one… and they know we are doing what is right, to make their life better…
No poll can tell you different.
And your People’s Partnership government is stronger and more united than ever.
Your government is SOLID AS A ROCK … and still working for you – every day.
And as your prime minister I tell you when we work together there is nothing that we cannot fix.
AS YOUR Prime Minister, I say to you whatever our problems, we work as one to find solutions.
Our common humanity is more important that our differences …
and over the years I met many of you personally and I have been able to listen to many of your stories.
And getting to know you and I understand your concerns which gave me the strength to continue the work I started a generation ago to serve PEOPLE.
That determination to serve people is stronger today.
Like so many of you, I did not have an early life of privilege or affluence.
I bundled bodi and bhagi to sell in the market and grew up in a rural community where managing with less was an absolute daily occurrence.
Luxuries were scarce.
But like the tens of thousands of us who faced those problems, I held on to my dreams and worked hard to achieve the goals I set myself.
And I know the countless stories of so many of you who, like me, also fought the odds and progressed.
It is that resilience amongst our citizens which has made us a great country.
We are all God’s children with the same hopes and dreams.
We all want the same things … a better life for ourselves, our children and our families.
We want peace and security and a meaningful future.
That is why when we came together three years ago to challenge the establishment; we agreed that service to you would be our common purpose.
Those who came before us exploited those differences.
They put brother against brother, sister against sister, to advance their selfish interests.
It kept them in power for a while… and it was tearing our country apart.
In 2010 we opened our arms and embraced everyone.
We knew we would never build our future unless we ended that divisiveness.
And so my friends, we came to you and offered our formula for building the future.
We could not rise unless we empowered each of you.
And that is why we started by establishing a coalition that believed in equality and democracy.
Those who oppose us still refuse to understand the concept of unity and strength.
They do not understand the rich diversity of our society and that the only way that we can govern and grow is by bringing those diverse elements under our big tent called the People’s Partnership.
We must never measure people by race or social standing.
For too long we have lived with the scars left by divisiveness and hate.
Those times are over.
They are gone forever!
We are one people, one family.
And this is OUR COUNTRY.
We will work together and we will build together.
Do not ever let anybody again separate us.
Our policies as a government – all of them – are directed not against any group or political party, but against hunger, inequality, poverty, desperation, and chaos.
Those were the plagues that hindered progress.
Three years ago we inherited neglect everywhere and those who occupied the highest office in the land had no concern of the suffering you endured.
For them progress meant tall buildings and international conferences.
For them progress meant building walls around Beetham Gardens to hide the shame of their negligence and social indifference.
Rural neglect has been relegated to the dustbin of history.
Soon you will have your own university campus in Debe and one in Tobago.
There is no better way to establish hope for the future than to enlighten young minds.
We must never forget that Dr. Keith Rowley and the PNM demonstrated contempt for the people of Debe because he violently opposed the building of the UWI campus in Debe because in his view Debe was not fit to have its own university campus.
He was also against us building a Children’s Hospital in Couva…
The PNM even said that Tobago was too small to have a university… Well I tell you that every citizen, no matter where they live, deserves these things.
You put us in office to end that kind of discrimination … and I warn you that if you ever allow the PNM to come back to power they will do all in their power to take backwards.
You will lose your Debe campus and the one in Tobago, to deprive our country of all the good that these institutions bring.
Their political ambitions know no bounds and they have no concern for the development of our country.
But I tell you tonight … we will fight them with every breath in our bodies and we will build your university campus in Debe… and we will build one in Tobago.
We will build the highway to Point Fortin … and bring economic prosperity to communities like Debe, Penal, Siparia, San Francique, Avocat, Fyzabad, Mon Desir, Rousillac, La Brea, Chatham and Point Fortin.
We will build a hospital in Arima… and the Children’s Hospital in Couva.
I tell you, WE are developing our country… the entire country – North, South, East, West, Central and Tobago.
We are a government of the people, by the people and FOR THE PEOPLE.
WE SERVE YOU, regardless of colour, creed race or space.
My brothers and sisters three years is a relatively short time.
The administration you rejected behaved like they owned you, the country and its resources … when the leader spoke, not a dog bark.
“The leader has spoken,” is how they treated any attempt at dialogue and discussion.
That’s not our style.
You elected us for five years so no matter what they say we are here for the full term … and with God’s blessing and your trust and support we will be back in 2015 for another five-year term to continue building together.
Ours is a great country;
It can be better…
It will be better with greater equality, justice and opportunity.
Your eternal vigilance would guarantee that we never deviate from these principles.
You must be our eyes and ears to tell us when we make a misstep.
We are in office to serve you.
There are no masters and servants here.
There are only citizens of a free and democratic state where every creed and race finds an equal place.
Never forget that.
And never let us forget that.
My friends, my fellow citizens I want to assure you tonight that I shall never lose my social conscience.
We shall never forget the past …