Leaders of the parties in the People’s Partnership yesterday renewed their commitment to the coalition at fifth anniversary celebrations at Constantine Park, Macoya. The theme of the event was Renewal.
Labour Minister Errol McLeod said he had been to many rallies in his lifetime but had never seen one as big. There were an estimated 25,000 supporters from all over T&T in attendance and Constantine Park was a sea of white and yellow, the colours of the two main parties in the coalition, the Congress of the People (COP) and the United National Congress (UNC).
McLeod said the crowd was even bigger than the one in 2010 just before the PP won the general election. He said watching the crowd, he felt safe in boasting that the PP has drawn together the broadest cross-section of society. McLeod said he was the son of a preacher and asked the crowd to stay silent for a 30-second invocation. The noise subsided and the park was silent for half-a-minute. He then announced: “You just paid your respects on the demise of the PNM.”
The minister said when the PP came into government in 2010, nothing was right. Wage negotiations were stalled but the PP settled 131 collective agreements. He recounted the achievements of his ministry which included raising the minimum wage from $9 to $15 an hour and extending maternity leave for working mothers from 12 to 14 weeks.
The amendment of the Industrial Relations Act, deemed anti-worker by many trade unions, was a most significant move, he said.
COP Leader: We’re here again
“What God has put together no PNM shall pull asunder,” Congress of the People (COP) leader Prakash Ramadhar said as he surveyed the crowd. He said he saw every creed, race, ethnicity and every corner of T&T represented. Ramadhar said when the coalition government was formed in 2010, there were many attempts to separate it.
“There were many times I thought the Partnership would have been jeopardised,” he said. “The Congress of the People stood the course and here we are again. The COP is here at your beck and call as a leader in the PP.” Ramadhar said in 2010 the COP went where angels feared to tread, the East/West Corridor, and in San Fernando West, and won seats there. They will do it again, he said, and asked supporters not to be afraid.
“If God is on your side, no weapon formed against you shall prosper.” Ramadhar noted, though, that the Government can’t continue in the old way. A new structure, a new equation, is needed to include the undecided voters, he said.
Mutema: NJAC won’t tolerate corruption claims
National Joint Action Committee (NJAC) leader Kwasi Mutema said accusing the People’s Partnership of corruption is like accusing founder Makandal Daaga and his party of corruption. NJAC is not going to tolerate that, he said. Mutema began his address by paying tribute to Daaga who he said fought against racism, injustice and corruption under the PNM in the 1970s and 1980s. He said Daaga was jailed and bribed by the PNM to change his stand but when that didn’t work they sought to demonise him.
“They said if the NJAC gets into government they will make everybody wear long dress, dashiki and sapat.” Mutema said the PNM continues its propaganda to today and the greatest lie it is perpetrating is that the PP is the most corrupt government ever. “When you are saying the PP is corrupt, you are saying Makandal Daaga and the NJAC are corrupt,” he said. “The NJAC is not prepared to stand by and tolerate that kind of disrespect.”
On the issue of corruption, Mutema said 45 years of PNM corruption hung like a spectre over the head of every government that came after it. He listed PNM corruption scandals from the 1960s to 2009 and said the party had jailed and harassed those who dared stand up against them. He said proper legislation, education and instilling sound values in citizens are steps towards dealing with corruption.
Jack: PP alive and kicking
Fully endorsing the People’s Partnership’s general election campaign theme, One Good Term Deserves Another, was Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP) leader Ashworth Jack. “The PP is alive and kicking,” he declared, adding that the coalition government had kept its manifesto promises to Tobago by bringing internal self-government legislation, finishing the Scarborough Hospital and giving citizens security of tenure for their lands.
He said before 2010, every night at nine o clock, Trinidad seceded from Tobago because the last flight left at that time. He met with Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar on the matter and within an hour theuy agreed to open the 24-hour ANR Robinson airport in Tobago. There were 17 University of T&T (UTT) campuses in Trinidad in 2010 but none in Tobago. Within two years, Tobago got its own UTT campus, he said.
Jack said the PP did not succeed in getting internal self government for Tobago because the PNM refused to support the legislation in Parliament. He vowed to push, fight and struggle to make it a reality. “This is the way it has to be,” Jack said.