Budget
vibes
By Sean Douglas
Newsday
Port Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
08 26 07
PRIME
Minister Patrick Manning tagged his Budget with
the informal theme, “It’s a love
thing,” the name of a 1980s hit song by “The
Whisperers” although it might have been even
more appropriately named after the ballad, “(Come
on baby) Let the Good Times Roll.”
However it all began on Monday rather droll with
Manning droning on and on and on for three hours
seemingly without saying anything new. Reporters
in the Red House press gallery exchanged yawns
and furtive hand-signals to ask each other whether
Manning was actually going to say anything of interest.
Manning continued, apparently oblivious to the
huge emptiness in listeners who had expected specific
remedies to their daily grind of facing ever-increasing
prices especially of food-stuffs.
With
a completely straight-face, he announced certain “initiatives” quite sincerely,
but which after a moment’s reflection listeners
began to realise they had heard promised before
at another time but at this same place. “Am
I going mad, or didn’t he promise that last
year or a couple of Budgets ago?” many listeners
asked themselves at this strange sense of deja
vu.
Manning
truly began to sound like a stuck record, repeating
previous promises — unfulfilled — without
the slightest show of guilt or shame.
He
was kept under a barrage of constant heckling
from the Opposition particularly Princes Town MP
Subhas Panday and Caroni East’s Ganga Singh.
Boasting of his anti-crime measures, one notable
failing was picked up by an Opposition MP shooting, “Blimp
!”
Manning
raised Opposition eyebrows when he dismissed
the Ryder-Scott Report (which says TT has just
12 years of gas reserves) by bizarrely reasoning
that it doesn’t mean the gas is running out
but just that more exploration needs to be done
to find more gas!
At
one point Manning likened himself to the Energiser
Bunny, reminiscent of his previous remarks that
his doctor had certified that he was fit to give
full service at all levels with full capacity.
His claim that he keeps “going, going and
going,” brought UNC taunts of “and
gone!” with COP’s Ganga Singh adding, “And
not delivering, not delivering, not delivering!”
Despite
attempts by Opposition MPs to liven up proceedings,
one reporter described Manning’s
speech up to that point as being “a mishmash
of nothing; an empty bag.”
However
in his last 20 minutes Manning presented the
long-awaited goodies, including hiking CEPEP
wages, minimum wage, pensions, and disability and
public assistance grants. The next day’s
press headlines were very favourable to him, although
critics still maintained it was a spend now Budget
with little being invested to create future earnings.
On
Friday, Leader of the Opposition Kamla Persad-
Bissessar, gave a feisty response to the Budget.
She struck the perfect balance between presenting
studied detail and witty quips to lighten her speech.
She hit the Government’s “A to Z of
crime plans from Anaconda to Zero tolerance, accompanied
by limping blimps.”
Persad-Bissessar
even prompted giggles when she warned Manning
that he would get a “cattle-boil” for
giving income hikes to people but then coming “like
a thief in the night when they go to buy food,
their medicine and their milk and rob them of their
benefit.”
She
accused Manning of having a “God-syndrome” in
his attitude to the country’s depleting gas
reserves as unearthed in the Ryder Scott Report.
Saying
God has given this country a second chance, she
quipped: “He has forgiven us for allowing
the PNM into office in the 1970s.” All laughed.
She
also raised a laugh when she presented a mock-up
of the “Manning Card,” in a jibe at
both the Government’s high expenditure in
this $42B Budget and likely a reminder of the controversy
over Ministers’ use of the Government-issued
Visa credit card.
COP leader Winston Dookeran gave a studious speech
which might have been just a bit too deep and analytical
for after-lunch on a Friday.
On
a simpler note, he asked: “What is the
value of $300 for old people when inflation has
robbed them of more than $300 on real goods and
services during the past two years?”
He
slammed Manning’s disclosure of $10B
placed in the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund. “Let
us not lose our sense of proportion — $10.9B
in a $42B budget cannot be a safeguard of a financial
heritage.”
Dookeran
then vowed that a COP government would integrate
the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund with
pensions plans in the public and private sector
in order to introduce a universal national pension
plan available to every senior citizen. Suddenly
sounding as if he was on an election platform,
he said it was the end of the line for the PNM
adding, “...as I say farewell to Prime Minister
Manning.”
The
PM was bemused. In a rousing tone, Dookeran said: “The
time has come. We are ready for government.”
Manning
laughed at Dookeran’s statesmanlike
tone and tauntingly interjected to tell him to “announce
the election date.”
Trinidad & Tobag Newsday
Sunday, August 26 2007
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