Camille Clarke

A stat­ue of Dr Er­ic Williams soon will be among the scenery at Wood­ford Square, Port-of-Spain. May­or Louis Lee Sing made the an­nounce­ment dur­ing yes­ter­day's month­ly statu­to­ry meet­ing at City Hall, Port-of-Spain. Lee Sing said that was in com­mem­o­ra­tion of the 100th an­niver­sary of the birth of Williams who was born on Sep­tem­ber 25, 2011. He added: "He took the PNM in­to gov­ern­ment in 1956. He was a key fig­ure in par­ty pol­i­tics and pro­vid­ed free ed­u­ca­tion. The prime min­is­ter was a vi­sion­ary who took the coun­try for­ward. "There are peo­ple who came in­to life in re­cent years who know so lit­tle about yes­ter­day.

"I am speak­ing about 1956, 1970 and 1990. I be­lieve as a coun­cil we need to es­tab­lish a link.

"So peo­ple who are com­ing to Port-of-Spain will un­der­stand his con­tri­bu­tion." He said a stat­ue of Dr williams, with the ap­pro­pri­ate pan­el, would be placed so peo­ple would un­der­stand his bril­liance. "Were it not for Dr Williams, the democ­ra­cy of to­day would not have been," Lee Sing said. He said be­fore Dr Williams there was no Fore­shore Road, La­dy Young Road, Beetham High­way or Solomon Ho­choy High­way. He added: "It was a dirt track to Diego Mar­tin. It was not a de­vel­oped so­ci­ety and we still are not a de­vel­oped so­ci­ety. "It was Dr Williams' dream and bril­liance that cre­at­ed Pt Lisas."

He said he would like to have the stat­ue on site be­fore the cel­e­bra­tion of Williams' 101th birth­day. "I have to get some­one to vol­un­teer the stat­ue and then we have to con­sult with the fam­i­ly to get the best pos­si­ble stat­ue with what they have in mind," he added.