Finally,
Dookeran speaks
By Irene Medina
Newsday
Port Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
08 26 07
FINALLY,
HE SPEAKS: Congress of the People (COP) leader
Winston Dookeran in
the House of Representatives yesterday....POLITICAL
leader of the Congress of the People (COP) Winston
Dookeran yesterday accused Prime Minister Patrick
Manning of squandering the people’s patrimony
in the fashion of a “drunken sailor spreading
joy on shore leave.”
Dookeran made the comment during his 75-minute
long maiden Budget response as leader of the COP.
Haunted
by last year’s fiasco, in which
he lost the chance to make a contribution to that
Budget debate, Dookeran was quick on his feet and
was successful in catching the Speak-er’s
eye. He immediately waded into Manning, telling
him his early Budget was a “quick fix” re-election
ploy.
He
bade “farewell” to Manning, who
he said had come “to the end of the line” adding
that the COP was ready to form the next government
and in so doing,“reduce the cycle of poverty” and
shift expenditure from “mega buildings and
palaces” to people living below the poverty
line.
Dookeran
accused Manning of not telling the people “all” about
the Ryder Scott Report and of marginalising members
of Parliament who are yet to see the document which
warns about depletion of the oil and gas reserves
over the next 12 years.
“If the CEOs of BP and British Gas have
the full Ryder Scott Report, why has it been withheld
from MPs, the media and citizens?” he asked,
adding that it was just another example of Manning’s
marginalisation of the Parliament.
Dookeran,
whose speaking time was extended on a motion
by Manning, for some 30 minutes, told
the House that the integrity of the country’s
system of politics and government was under threat.
He
accused Manning of allowing the nation’s
business to be led without any accountability,
by an “energy cartel” that comes from
the “old boy’s network” and demanded
that Manning “declare the assets and interests
of the members of his energy cartel and come clean
with the people of TT.
“Are
we the end of the rainbow? Can the bubble economy
sustain itself in the hands of the
Minister of Finance the MP for San Fernando East?
“Are we to be assured by the sudden TV appearances
of the CEO of BP, Robert Riley and Derek Hudson
of British Gas, who intervened as high powered
proponents in the critical public debate in the
audit of the Ryder Scott Report?” Dook-eran
questioned.
He
slammed Government’s $300 increases in
disability and old age pension saying it was one
of the most “vexing” issues of the
Budget and added that under a COP government such “abuse” of
the differently- abled will be immediately corrected.
Dookeran
said the creation of new jobs meant an abandoning
of Government’s 2020 Vision. He
added that “poor people want help to develop
pride and independence not handouts” while
workers want emancipation from poverty, not obligations
for the generosity of the treasury.
“They want liberation from community leaders,
gang leaders and drug dealers,” he told Manning,
adding that “they want their children to
have a future, not the need to be cutting grass
by the roadside as their profession for life.”
Dookeran knocked the Gov-ernment for equating
growth in the energy sector and billions of dollars
with development.
“How have these billions developed the youth
murdered in gang wars in Trinidad? The income of
funeral agencies must have grown, but is that development?
Many have died, killing each other in search of
Government’s free money, is that development?
How has the massive inflow of energy wealth changed
the lives of workers anywhere in the country?”
Dookeran
warned that people are suffering to buy food
everyday adding that the PM’s $1 increase
to the minimum wage, from $9 to $10 showed contempt
for their worth as human beings.
Trinidad & Tobag Newsday
Saturday, August 25 2007
Copyright
© Daily News Limited. All Rights
Reserved.
