Trinidad Opp Leader Kamla Speaks on TUNAPUNA ISSUES

• So let’s look at tonight. For how long Tunapuna has been in the clutches of the PNM? They have been representing you and look at the state of Tunapuna under decades of the PNM.

• Crime continues to skyrocket here. Gang warfare is out of control. You all are reduced to prisoners within your own homes. Look at the houses around here…all burglar proof like a prison to keep you inside. And we saw the tragedy in my own constituency. I had my councillors visit today to see what assistance we can give that tragedy of not having a fire tender. And I am told for the past month, Siparia has been without a fire tender. They have to come from as far as San Fernando when you get the call. And when they come there is no water. Our condolences go out to that family, a really horrific incident has occurred. And it is not because to say that persons would have been negligent – is that the state is totally unprepared. I was told that the bush fires are so many now, we are in that dry season but no water in the taps, no fire tender.
• You talked about Balisier House Dr Moonilal, all of you talked about it – and yet the basic that we need the government will not provide.

• Look, that is the Balisier House. It looks like something out in Canada, somewhere. It reminds me of the Olahan Towers in Canada if you all remember– the PNM thieving from since then. I think Anil dealt with that “thieving” thing very good. Are you a wajang or a thief or are you a wajang who is thief?

• So crime, let us take a look at the clip. Do we have the clip please?

• This was not too far from where we are now. And that is happening throughout the country, home invasions.

• Your children cannot play in the yard because there just might be a mass shooting or a random shooting. When you come home at night you run straight inside again because you don’t want to  stay outside for too long because you may become another victim or statistic.

• I just want to share with you again some plans. This government is telling us they have plans to deal with crime, criminality – it’s just not happening. Moonilal made a joke out of Hinds but that fella busy surfing the internet. I don’t know what he is looking for on the internet, rather than looking for the criminals in Trinidad and Tobago.  But he could tell you what is causing the crime. How does he know that? Because he is busy watching the same thing too. Instead of watching what is going on with crime and trying to solve it – the fella busy on the internet ‘doing I do know what’. So let’s look at some plans.

• I have told you before and I repeat – the UNC has plans to restore your communities, to bring back safety to the people of Trinidad and Tobago.

• First major thing that has to happen, we have to restructure all the Ministries that are in charge of or have responsibility for national security.

• And so that Ministry of National Security should be divided into other Ministries – A Ministry of Home Affairs to deal with crime on the ground.

• The Ministry of Defence to deal with our porous borders.

• And of course the Ministry of National Security itself to deal with TTPS matters.

• We would have further, a Ministry of Justice. We’ve been talking a lot about the justice system collapsing. That is why we had created that Ministry of Justice to ease up the work of the Ministry of AG and put some of that work dealing with justice in a Ministry of Justice. We need to do that again because clearly what is happening is not working.

• I have promised that a UNC government will increase in retirement age for the Trinidad and Tobago defence force to bring it in line with other arms of the protective services. Why do they have to go home at 45 years old? Many able-bodied men and women are 45 years old. Others retire in the public service at 60. When you look at Canada, Australia they have a higher retirement age. Why do we train all these people in the TTDF and just when they reach their peak at 45 – go home. So all those years of training just lost. We will increase that retirement age.

• A UNC Government will offer diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in policing for recruits, combined with a police apprenticeship programme. So we are not just praying and crying. We pray but we will put the policies.
• Pre-trial detention and bail reform
• individual risk and financial assessments
• minimum security detention centres
• laws to prevent incarceration of nonviolent drug offenders (addicts)
• ankle bracelets and house arrest. What about these ankle bracelets? We passed that law – the ankle bracelet law to be able to monitor the criminals from a central point so you don’t have to feed them in the prison, then if they can’t work they can’t feed their children and you create more criminals. It is non-custodial sentences for crimes but the person can still be a useful member of society.

• Where is it? Faris would come and cry in the Parliament every week – “yes it’s coming, it’s coming”. It’s coming and coming and now – he gone.

• And it’s still not there. Where are the ankle bracelets? Where are the cameras for the police to wear? We have so many stories about people claiming that the police killing unlawfully. In fact in the US report that is one of the main areas of condemnation for Trinidad and Tobago – extra-judicial killings by police officers. Where are the body cameras? Both the police would be protected by those cameras and persons who may be shot by police.

• We will set up State support for children of incarcerated persons.
• We will establish a fund for children who have lost one or both parents to crime. We have to take care of the children.

• So in addition to the state of crime, look at the sad state of the infrastructure here. You vote again and again for the PNM in Tunapuna and nothing comes. Nothing. You name me one project in Tunapuna that has happened in the last 8 years under the PNM. We opened a state-of-the-art Nursing Academy to train all allied medical personnel. People need jobs – they need sustainable jobs.

• That was to educate people to get a sustainable job. The Couva Children’s Hospital – 2,000 people would’ve got jobs at the Couva Children’s Hospital. But out of spite, malice and ill-will, it took a pandemic for this wicked PNM government to open that Couva Hospital, and then only for Covid. State-of-the-art hospital why are you keeping it shut down? And why have you shut down the Nursing Academy?

• They seem to hate anything that has to do with education. You know why? Because they can keep you down, rubbing your faces in the dirt. It was a UNC government that I led that did so much for education. The first, and the beginning and the end of every strategy has to be educating your people to lift them out of poverty. But the PNM hates education. They hate anything to do with that – laptop gone. All the MIC centres – there were so many programmes for children and adults. Everything shut down. And where is the money going?

• Anil told you tonight about what we spent and what we achieved. And they spent more billions and you cannot stand and point and say that’s it. The only thing they can point to and it is still not done – is that Balisier House. Nothing else have they done in this country. Don’t come and tell me about Arima hospital that was started in my time.
• Don’t tell us about Point Fortin hospital that wasn’t yours either. The San Fernando Teaching hospital – massive project there done, completed under my term. One term! And we did so much in that five years.

• Infrastructure, gone.

• Potholes, drains, rats and so on, traffic, lack of water, high unemployment all that right here Prakie in your constituency of Tunapuna. All of that. Because its the same state of affairs elsewhere. So if they’re not taking care of their own who vote for them in Tunapuna everytime, everytime.

• What do we say, get out. This election we have to get them out. They must go, they have to go. They have to go. How much more can people suffer under this wicked government?

• And I say we have a plan to Rebuild and restore your communities.

• We have a Plan that is based on five (5) guiding principles

• PRINCIPLE 1: PEOPLE CENTRED DEVELOPMENT – GETTING PEOPLE BACK TO WORK.
• The CSO statistics telling us now, government’s own statistics, over 70,000 persons lost jobs since the PNM came into power. Seventy thousand people. Don’t count that as 1,2,3 to 70,000 you know. Each time a bread winner loses a job it is a whole family that suffers.
• So when 70,000 have lost jobs under this PNM it is 70,000 families we are talking about, who are suffering. No wonder you can’t buy groceries in the supermarket when you go to buy.
• Central Bank data again tells us food inflation from last year to now 17% increase. And this bogus man Imbert when we had that debate, I could never forget it and I used the statistics, he got up and said Kamla, bogus numbers. And now every number coming out of the Central Bank is saying exactly what I said in that debate.
• Everything has gone up.
• And I see they want to rejoice again because the price of oil they say going up. Don’t get yourself too excited about price of oil going up and you going to benefit you know. Its not going to happen. Because that smart man Keith Christopher Rowley shut down your refinery, shut it down.
• The actual production in terms of number of barrels produced, that keeps falling. So even though the price goes up, we will have to pay more for refined fuel. So when the crude (oil) price goes up, ok we will get a little more, but then we have to go and pay more to get the refined product.
• So don’t expect no ease and no spreeing and bacchanal and whatever.
• No better days are coming. Imbert sees how clear he wants to see. There are no better days coming under his government in office, none. Then on top of that our production levels I say fall. We have to import this. So when that price of oil going up, you know what’s going to happen, your cost of living is going to go higher.
• Because part of the inflation in the food prices is because of that removal, reduction  in the subsidies. True Taharqa. They took away the subsidies from the fuel, you have to pay more at the pump, so everything’s going up because everything has to get transported.
• So don’t clap and praise Imbert. They did nothing to recover this economy. They did absolutely nothing. They’re just drawing down money and spending it as you know, not where you need it, or where we need it as a country. So people centred development, that’s the first principle. Getting people back to work.
• We continue to be guided by the principle that the highest mission of any country is the development of our greatest resource, which is our human resource. I started talking about the educational factors. Greatest resource is the human resource, and we have to enrich this resource, first by training and programming and then actually creating the jobs out there. Under the government I led we created over 50,000 new jobs. Under this wicked government 70,000 persons lost their jobs and you want to tell me you come back in Tunapuna to vote for them.
• This next election you know, don’t put God out of your thoughts you know, make sure you’re clear. Vote for the children. You vote for Trinidad and Tobago, you vote for the UNC, next time.
• A new UNC Government remains dedicated to creating jobs and getting people back to work, safeguarding social equity and justice and protecting people’s rights.
• We commit to supporting lifelong learning, skills building and giving full rein to the enthusiasm, initiative and creativity to citizens.
• Priority one for us is to put people back to jobs. That is our priority. So you can care for yourself and your families. I make the point we have a track record. We did it once, we can do it again.

PRINCIPLE 2: PRO-BUSINESS – ALLOW THE PRIVATE SECTOR TO DRIVE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

• We will follow a pro-business strategy, which allows the private sector to be the main driver of economic growth, transformation and sustainable development.
• Why is it as the government gets involved its in every single thing. Why? Again its about leakage, and slippage and about making money. That’s what it is about. Why must the government be involved in all these things and there is a private sector.
• We have a great private sector in Trinidad and Tobago, let them drive economic growth. Instead the PNM policy has been one of nationalise everything. Run it to the ground and then shut it down.

• Everything they put into these national companies, every one is running at a loss. Anil told you all tonight, its jobs for the boys and girls. All these companies, state boards, state companies, Anil told you tonight, friend and family. One man sitting on ten boards, twelve boards, eleven boards, its jobs for the boys and girls. And they run the companies down to the ground, not one is making a profit, name me one that is making a profit, not a single one, none. The only one making profit is PNM Balisier house. That is the only place making profit in this country.

• So pro-business, a UNC Government will focus on improving the ease of doing business, tackling crime, removing obstacles to business growth and expansion, and attracting local and foreign investments by creating an enabling environment.

• Under our watch we were able to get FDI to the tune of billions of dollars to come from foreign to help us grow and develop. Now the opposite is happening. Every cent is gone, minus, how much, seven billion minus, gone under this wicked, incompetent government.

PRINCIPLE 3: RESILIENCE – DEEPEN ECONOMIC REFORMS BUT WITH A HUMAN FACE

• Deepening economic reforms with a human face is a powerful force for sustainable development.
• A new UNC Government will focus on improving the economy’s resilience to future shocks, bringing the budget into balance, stabilizing high public debt, protecting our external position and safeguarding financial stability.
• All of that is great, economic programmes, plans, but it must be done with a human face.
• And how do we do that? We must reduce poverty. We must close the income gap between the haves and the have nots.
• I remember this present Prime Minister talking about making the rich richer. His job is not to help poor people. His job is to make the rich richer. Because that is all that he is doing because people are getting poorer and poorer and poorer in Trinidad and Tobago.
• So one hand does not clap; Whilst we push the economic growth, we have to take care of the vulnerable. That’s the human face of development in any country in the world.

  PRINCIPLE 4: LOCAL CONTENT – GIVE PEOPLE A SENSE OF OWNERSHIP AND INDEPENDENCE

• Local content has the potential to stimulate broad-based economic development, to give a sense of ownership and independence to everyone in our country.
• All projects must include opportunities to maximise local content, local content, local values -added through jobs, skills, training, procurement of goods and services, technology transfer – all this must come together.

PRINCIPLE 5: SUSTAINABILITY

• No point that you have something for today and it’s gone tomorrow. There must be sustainability. We must promote environmental stewardship as well.
• So those 5 principles are the interconnected pillars we see for restoring and rebuilding our country, Trinidad and Tobago – for restoring and rebuilding your community here in Tunapuna. Very very important for here and elsewhere.

NEW BALISIER HOUSE, A SYMBOL OF DECADENCE, OPULENCE, CORRUPTION AND MONEY LAUNDERING

• Now I want to put up again – can I put up the slide with the Balisier House? Because I want to say something more about Balisier House.

• Okay, let’s look at that corruption, money laundering, new Balisier House.

• Where did they get – each time we hear the number it’s more – so now I hear the guy saying it’s 150 million. So where did they get 100 million? where did they even get 50 million? Where did they get 100 million? 200 million? What ever millions where did they get those millions to do this? Where?

• I want you to remember, do you believe anybody in this country, Mr Rowley, will believe you really run a raffle to build that? Is there anybody who believes that a raffle could build that? But there is more, look there is more – it looks like a shopping mall, the size of that building. I am calling on the PNM to provide the list of their donors into that construction – let us see where all this money is coming from.

• And I want you to remember an article of Mr Rowley when he said he became leader of the PNM. There’s an article, September 26th 2018, where Rowley – the article says “the PNM owed millions to the bank, says Rowley” – he said it in september 26th 2018 – and this is what he said in 2018 – I am quoting from that article in the Express by Ria Taitt.

The PNM owed million$ to the bank, says Rowley

• Dr Keith Rowley says the PNM owed the bank over $4 million when he took over the leadership “by accident” in May 2010, following the election defeat.
• In fact the party owed a slew of debts, he said on Tuesday night.
• However, the party’s debts have now been “liquidated”, he told a party meeting in Sangre Grande.
• Rowley said when he became PNM leader, his first meeting was with a banker who informed him that the party owed $4 million. He said in addition to this, PTSC had $800,000 bill for the party and TTT (television) had another bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Rowley said his first job was to save Balisier House in the face of this.

• So, he raised that 4 million dollars – so he paid it off. This was in 2018, when he turned the sod for the new balisier house. So, between 2018 and now  – when he had no money – where did this 100 million dollars come from? You had no money – so you can’t say you had money in the bank – you had no money in 2018 – now 100 million dollars.

• MP Rodney Charles has asked  Rowley in the interest of transparency and good governance to release the list of donors of this symbol, that decadent symbol, corruption, Balisier House.

• Our reports are  that now the donors are running scared, funds are being withheld, work has apparently slowed down, or stopped, on that project, million dollar project – 100 million.

• But don’t worry Moonilal says he has a list of the donors – you know how Moonilal has a way he gets these things – we have a list of them and we will let you know –  as usual when we know, you will know – those who are bringing in cash donations to pay for the construction.

• It is now become pellucidly clear that funding for the project has slowed  because they are becoming concerned about people raising that the monies are coming from questionable sources – for example, brothel owners, white collar criminals, drug mafia, state contract kickbacks from contractors and suppliers are being pushed through on that project.

• So if, for example, white collar criminals have $1 million of the dirty money, a quiet way to use it is to donate it to Balisier House and that can lead to the  award of another state contract. And that’s how the hundred million is piling in.

• We have called for the FIU, we have called for the CTU, we have called for the COP to get to the root of the Balisier House funding by calling in the list of donors. You can’t see that massive thing going down and the FIU doesn’t know where it’s coming from, how it’s going down there. They have a duty to investigate, they have a duty, the CTU has a duty to investigate – but all those calls so far have been ignored.

• So we call again for these authorities to do their jobs and investigate where this money is coming from. And we will not leave it alone – you could call me all manner of names that you wish to call me – all of us on this platform – you could call us whatever you want – but one thing we will not let you escape is for telling the country, being upfront, where that monies come from. When we form the Government we will have a full enquiry into where this money is coming from.

• I see Jerlean John sent me something recently where people getting $500 for pan, and they rejoicing for this $500. I’m so happy for them – thank you very much. And other man walking and laughing all the way to the bank with all the rentals of millions of dollars going into family, friends and financiers. So small little nothing for you.

• When JJ and I, we plan to tell them look we’ll give you the house for a hundred dollars – get a deed, use it as a deed, use it as a piece of paper when you go to the bank – you could get a loan to buy a car – you could get a loan to buy a laptop for your child – you could get a loan to buy whatever it is – but that would have been money in the bank you have a deed for collateral. They voted against that.

• Can you imagine? Voted against getting a land deed, a house deed. I can’t understand it. I hope some of you all could help me to understand what would possess people – no laptop – take away your laptop – refuse to open all the schools – refuse to open the hospital down there – all these things that cause more sufferation for you and you say “yeah yeah great is the PNM”.

• We need to have a rethinking – we have to rethink how we do things if we want things to change. You cannot expect change when you do the same thing over and over and over again.

• There will be no change except for the worst in your life. And so rampant crime continues, terrorised innocent citizens.

RAMPANT CRIME CONTINUES TO TERRORISE INNOCENT CITIZENS WHILE THE PNM POLICY IS TO BLAME RELIGIOUS BODIES.

• The PNM policy now is to blame pornography and what? Blame the religious bodies.

• When we look at the crime rate we can only wonder if this Government plan is to only grow the criminal enterprise.

• Murders galore, home invasions, on the rise even in what we call residential areas, robberies in broad daylight in the busiest areas of the city and not to mention the rampant abuse and attacks against our women and children.

• Yes that is T&T Today

• We see that despite having all the solutions between 2010 to 2015, Rowley and the PNM are now admitting that they are hopeless and clueless

• They have resorted to blaming religious bodies for not doing enough but at the same time they are guarded 24/7 by armed security.

• We the taxpayers are paying these Ministers big money every month to come up with plans and policies to fight crime. The most important job of any government is safety and security.

• Because if people die there will be no houses, land, bridges, nothing will happen, people have to stay alive. That’s the first job of any responsible government.

• But this Govt cannot come up with any plan but bame religious bodies. It’s always blame something and somebody.

• Blame Kamla and the UNC, now blame the internet and pornography.

• We have so many hard working officers who continue to be frustrated  by the lack of support by the Government.

• The PNM will give 66 million dollars to hunt down UNC people while at the same time not even buy one fire tender to save a life of someone.

• You know how painful it is to know that child perished in that fire because they couldn’t find a fire tender.

• The fire truck wasn’t working for a Month in Siparia but Hinds was busy talking about pornography.