Richard Lord

A two-mil­lion-dol­lar first prize for at least four ma­jor cul­tur­al events should the leader of the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar be elect­ed Prime Min­is­ter fol­low­ing to­mor­row's gen­er­al elec­tion. Per­sad-Bisses­sar made the pledge in an his­toric ad­dress at yes­ter­day's Uni­ty and Lib­er­a­tion Ral­ly of the Coali­tion of par­ties, in­clud­ing the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress, the Con­gress of the Peo­ple and the To­ba­go Or­gan­i­sa­tion of the Peo­ple. Per­sad-Bisses­sar was greet­ed to a spe­cial wel­come on her ar­rival by the mam­moth crowd. Short­ly af­ter for­mer Ca­lyp­so Monarch Denyse Plum­mer per­formed her ren­di­tion of Woman is Boss, Per­sad-Bisses­sar took the stage, wear­ing trade­mark yel­low top and skirt, wav­ing to the crowd. In her ad­dress, she said her Gov­ern­ment if elect­ed would im­me­di­ate­ly abol­ish the Prop­er­ty Tax. Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship re­mains com­mit­ted to a five per cent re­duc­tion in the salaries of Cab­i­net min­is­ters and a ten per cent cut in the salary of the Prime Min­is­ter.

Oth­er promis­es in­clud­ed:

1. Mon­ey saved will go to a Life Fund for sick chil­dren re­quir­ing ex­pen­sive med­ical at­ten­tion.

2. No re­duc­tion in the salaries of pub­lic ser­vants.

3. Pro­posed Trinidad and To­ba­go Rev­enue Au­thor­i­ty, to re­place the Board of In­land rev­enue and the Cus­toms and Ex­cise Di­vi­sion, will not be pur­sued.

4. The jobs of more than 2,000 em­ploy­ees would be spared as a re­sult. "Not a job will be lost."

5. To deal im­me­di­ate­ly with the num­ber one prob­lem in the coun­try–crime. A Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship Gov­ern­ment un­der her lead­er­ship, she said, would mean safer streets and homes in T&T.

"Eco­nom­ic pros­per­i­ty with­out se­cu­ri­ty is point­less," she stressed. She said a high­way to Ma­yaro "is no use if you will be robbed and raped in your beach house. "We pledge to at­tack the prob­lem of crime at the root and solve the crime prob­lem. We can­not de­vel­op a se­cure fu­ture un­less law and or­der, se­cu­ri­ty of per­son and prop­er­ty are ad­dressed in a con­text in which all cit­i­zens can feel that jus­tice can and will be done." For­mer High Court judge Her­bert Vol­ney al­so re­it­er­ate that crime must be dealt with. "We have to take our coun­try back. We must put crim­i­nals be­hind bars to en­joy our coun­try again," he added. "We shall not be easy on crime. We will re­turn our coun­try to law and or­der." TOP leader Ash­worth Jack said the cries of the peo­ple have been heard. He in­sists he has not sold out the peo­ple of To­ba­go. He ex­plains he had joined the UNC-led coali­tion of par­ties be­cause that par­ty had sup­port­ed the peo­ple of To­ba­go in hav­ing the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly es­tab­lished.

Coat of arms for Head of State on­ly

She promised that the Red House will re­main the seat of Par­lia­ment in T&T and the Coat of Arms will be used on­ly by the Head of State and not the Head of Gov­ern­ment. The Siparia MP is con­fi­dent of vic­to­ry on Mon­day say­ing it will mark the dawn of a new day and a new way for T&T as she seeks to be the first fe­male to be­come Prime Min­is­ter of T&T.