Despite the best intentions of those of us who tried to stay focused on issues, we were dragged, kicking and screaming, into discussions over who did what; who said what and when; who dropped the best "bombs," and so on. Before the PP coalition manifesto was launched, I was looking for something to give me an idea of what their policies (particularly economic and social) would be. A friend was kind enough to forward me a link to the September 14, 2001, budget statement made by the then UNC Minister of Finance, Gerald Yetming. (http://www.finance.gov.tt/documents/publications/pub3.pdf). I actually returned to Trinidad in 2007, so I was not here when this budget was being read. The positions taken in this document were surprising to me, although most of you may remember it. Permit me to draw your attention to four areas of interest to me. Firstly, on Page 12, reference was made to a plan to reform the existing property taxation regime.
Mr Yetming said that Phase I of the reform had been completed, and Phase II would focus on a full-scale valuation of all properties, through an aerial survey throughout Trinidad and Tobago, and would span a period of two years, beginning in late 2001. Secondly, on Page 29, after speaking about the need to diversify through the development of conference and convention tourism in Trinidad and Tobago, Mr Yetming speaks about plans already being in place for establishment of an international conference centre on the Port-of-Spain Waterfront. This $1.2-billion project will involve construction of a 400-room Marriot Hotel. There is also talk about a national centre for the performing arts; a shopping complex; the Association of Caribbean States' office tower; office buildings; and a 1,400-space car park.
Thirdly, Page 36 speaks about the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank exploring the feasibility of establishing Trinidad and Tobago as the financial centre of the Caribbean, and the centre for international financial services. Fourthly, Page 62 speaks about an aluminium smelter project which will create approximately 600 jobs; a gas to liquids plant which will generate as many as 500 jobs; an ethylene-based complex which will employ 500 persons, and this excludes employment generation from the downstream industries based at the complex. Referring to the construction phases in particular, the gas to liquids plant was expected to utilise 6,000 persons at the height of construction, the aluminium smelter was to create 4,000 jobs, and the ewthylene complex 2,500. So, from perusing this document, one can, perhaps, forgive me for concluding that the UNC's vision for macro-economic development was/is not unlike that of the PNM government.
Both manifestos were launched within a few days of each other, which gave those of us so inclined an opportunity to compare them side by side. The PNM manifesto contained no surprises, as it essentially, after celebrating the achievements of the administration, advocated staying the course. I was surprised, however, by the absence of any reference to procurement policy, given concerns over the operations of a certain state enterprise. The PP coalition manifesto, on the other hand, distinguished itself to me by its proposal to introduce procurement legislation. Aside from that, the rest of the manifesto struck me as being a bit vague and even silent, in areas such as traffic (important for those of us who sit for hours every day in traffic) management and energy sector development (unless they will continue PNM policy?). As I have consistently written in the past, of particular interest to me are the many social programmes that the present administration has put in place.
I was relieved that the PP changed their policy to acknowledge that the UTT and Costaatt should be kept separate from UWI. Of course, Gate, Cepep and URP are included, but no mention was made of the other social programmes, such as MuST, Hype, Yapa, OJT, CCC, Ytepp, Cdap, and so on. Given the hundreds of thousands of citizens who benefit from these programmes, I would have thought that at least some mention of them would have been made, at the very least, something about what would, if anything at all, replace them. Fortunately, someone who thinks like me managed to get the question asked on last Sunday's Shelly Dass interview with the political leader of the PP. Ms Dass asked whether all the existing government programmes would be stopped, should they win the elections. To be fair, the reply was vague, at best. Personality, accusations, allegations and picong aside, is this election about the future of social programmes?
My name is Derren Joseph, and I love my country. God bless us all as we go to the polls tomorrow.