Brian Kuei Tung & Basdeo Panday

August 31, 2000
By A. H. Hotep

In an Independence address to the nation last night Prime Minister Basdeo Panday said; "Whatever might be my own defects, and there are many, I have always acted in pursuit of the greatest good for the greatest number of our citizens." At this point, I turned off my television.

What does he mean by "whatever might be my own defects", then he turn around and admits that he has many defects? This is just more of the same deceit that has become the hallmark of his addresses.

Now that he is actually admitting that he has MANY defects, what about his infamous statements, "anyone who attacks (criticizes) my government will not escape unscathed" and "do them before they do you"?

Now who is going to be scathed for highlighting some of his defects, defects he himself acknowledges that he has, defects that are the manifestations of his inabilities and fear of loosing political power. Defects that have him unwilling to listen to anyone other than the bunch of yes-men he embraces for their blind loyalties, defects that have cost us Millions.

Is he aware of the fact that it is his many defects that angers many people, defects which includes regularly having the appearance of being drunk in public; defects like giving all the large government contracts to his close financial supporters without complying with the tendering process. In addition, these contractors are getting the contracts at above the price offered by other equally established companies.

I cannot compliment a hundred dollar increase for pensioners when the government is not accounting to us for the monies allocated in the 1999 Budget. The Prime Minister said that they would not accept an increase in salary until they get the support of the opposition then he turns around and slip these ten thousand dollar increases for parliamentarians into the Budget to be passed with a simple majority in parliament. The finance minister did not have the courage to mention these salary increases while reading the Budget.

The Prime Minister Basdeo Panday must be held liable for the immense wastage of our money on such things like the most expensive golf game in the history of the Universe, where during one game with Donald Trump he agreed for us to host the Miss Universe beauty show that eventually cost us in excess of 100 million dollars. They played one game that dwarfed the efforts of Tiger Woods; they could have retired after that one game.

He must come clean on the Indian rice deal negotiated by him as Prime Minister where we got half the shipment of the worst quality rice in the world and the other half disappeared. The losses amounted to 30 million dollars.

The Inncogen deal where the state owned Electricity commission was ordered to make a deal to pay for excess current that they could not use, a deal that is structured for 30 years to guarantee the profitability of Inncogen, a company of his close friends. In the first year, T and TEC declared a financial loss and Inncogen a profit in excess of 90 Million dollars.

Our Water and Sewage Authority has been saddled with a similar deal. Trinidad and Tobago has a high amount of surface water, so much so, that we have flood problems. This Panday government has ordered a desalination plant to service the Point Lisas industries and our water authority will loose its major money earner and will be forced to pay a private company, made up of friends of the Prime Minister, for the excess water they desalinate.

Then we have the airport terminal, a project The Prime Minister completely rejected while in opposition, a project that initially was to cost 700 million dollars. The Prime Minister turned around and not only reinstated the project but has also doubled the expenditure.

Similarly, the Library project, which Mr. Panday previously condemned as wasteful, then, turned around and increased the expenditure. This project has already been plagued with numerous problems and is costing us hundreds of millions more to build.

Then there is the ferry they leased for the inter-island transportation; they eventually cancelled the boat which cost us 24 Million dollars in penalties.

The refurbishing of the Prime Minister's office, a project, which was to initially cost 5 million, ended up costing 36 million dollars.

The NP upgrade project which is still shrouded in mystery but is costing us in excess of 200 million dollars.

Then there is the bypassing of the proper tendering process and giving the Cherokee Jeep contract to their chief party financer to the tune of 50 million dollars. Very few of these Jeeps are road worthy after three years.

The 130 million dollar Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway refurbishing project, which was shut down after they were eventually forced to fire the contractors for wasting Millions of dollars. Members of the public were pointing them to the wastage on all the Talk-Show programs and such callers were considered racist and opposing to the Indian Government.

We are saddled with the increase in subventions to Caroni Sugar, (the Indian equivalent to the URP) to the tune of 300 million dollars. This is an area where the Prime Minister derives his greatest support.

Did I mention the poor conduct of the PM who seems to be drunk when he makes some of the most outrageous statements?

What about the double-talking when he goes to speak in Indian communities and makes racially antagonistic statements then he comes on the National Television and says that he is about National Unity. What about people like Raffique Shah whom he accused of selling out to the Niggers?

So I am sorry, but I cannot talk about any new allocation of our scarce resources; we should all be calling for accountability and transparency, and start with what was spent.

There were reports that the Prime Minister was warned about the corrupt business dealings of people in India before he made that infamous trip. The Prime Minister's advisors did not know that the businessmen in India were the ones that should have been on their guard. He returned from India with the worst that our combined societies have to offer.

The Prime Minister frequently brags about projects developed by his government; I would like someone to name one other than those schemes that I have spoken about. All the wastage is as a direct result of increased oil prices and natural gas sales; projects that were there before he got into office.

Are these some of the defects about which the Prime Minister spoke?