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20031010, House Debates

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20031010, House Debates 47 Leave of Absence Friday, October 10, 2003 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Friday, October 10, 2003 The House met at 10.00 a.m. PRAYERS [MR. SPEAKER in the Chair] LEAVE OF ABSENCE Mr. Speaker: Hon. Members, I have referred communication from the Member for Tobago East requesting leave of absence from today’s sitting. LETTER OF CONDOLENCE Mr. Speaker: May I also inform Members of the passing of the mother of the Member for Tobago East. On behalf of all Members of this House I would direct the Clerk to send the appropriate letter of condolence. APPROPRIATION BILL (BUDGET) [Second Day] Order read for resuming adjourned debate on question [October, 06, 2003]: That the Bill be now read a second time. Question again proposed. Mr. Basdeo Panday (Couva North): Mr. Speaker, it is written in the good book: “where there is no vision, a people perish”, Proverbs 29:18. After 22 months, two budgets, three junior Ministers of Finance, and $50 billion, it is painfully obvious that the PNM has no vision for Trinidad and Tobago and absolutely no idea of how to position this country to face the challenges of globalization and the inevitable economic tidal wave of liberalization that is taking over the world. What is there in this budget really to answer? It really says nothing. Whatever else a budget may be, it is certainly not merely a statement of income and expenditure, of so much more money for this and so much less money for that and so much more money for the other. At this particular time, one would have expected the budget to address basic concerns in the society. The critical elements that have been missing in our quest to build the prosperous nation were the happy people. 48 Appropriation Bill (Budget) Friday, October 10, 2003 [MR. B. PANDAY] I have been a Member of this honourable House for 27 years. In those 27 years I have witnessed many budget presentations and many a budget debate. Those 27 years of service in this Chamber have led me to two inescapable conclusions about the PNM and its approach no governance, life and economic development. As far as governance is concerned, their strategy is to divide and rule; and they do it blatantly, shamelessly and without apology. It is a strategy in total contradistinction to that of the UNC, which is one of national unity, inclusion and the removal of all forms of discrimination in the society. Theirs, Mr. Speaker, is a dangerous strategy. It is one that is ripping the nation apart. This population is polarized, as never before, with the inevitable consequence that national, social and economic life is moving backwards at an unprecedented rate. Mr. Speaker, when it comes to life and economic management, their philosophy is eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow may never come. We see it in their reckless spending, lack of accountability and this brazen sharing of largess among their friends, families, wives and top supporters. These are the common threads that run through all the PNM budgets. After listening to the Prime Minister's budget speech I cannot help but be reminded of the old adage: The more things change, the more they remain the same. When the UNC was in government, we presented seven national budgets. Each budget was part of an overall plan for the economic development of Trinidad and Tobago. Each budget built upon its predecessor and laid the foundation for its successor. There was a continuity from budget to budget. Each budget of the UNC was informed by and based on a clear vision that the UNC had for Trinidad and Tobago. That vision was to transform Trinidad and Tobago into a knowledge-based society with a globally competitive, technologically driven, diversified economy that will sustain full employment, growing prosperity, equal opportunity, a secure life, social cohesion and the highest standard of living for all our citizens. I emphasize all. It is a vision of Trinidad and Tobago achieving its true potential and taking its place among the great nations of the world. It is a vision for the future, in a world where the philosophy of comparative advantage has given way to the imperative of competitive advantage. It is a vision of ensuring that our country is equipped with the requisite intellectual capital that will enable it to take part in the new knowledge-driven global economy. Most of all, it is a vision for ensuring that Trinidad and Tobago participates meaningfully in the mainstream of the new world economy. Where? Tell me where in this budget is such a vision. The term 49 Appropriation Bill (Budget) Friday, October 10, 2003 2020 is a slang like Anaconda and Baghdad, collateral damage and traditional kidnappers. Mr. Speaker, do you know that the concept of Vision 2020 was taken from the Belizian Government and that Anaconda, Baghdad and collateral damage from the Americans during the invasion of Iraq? I think this Prime Minister should stop looking at CNN. The 2004 Budget could best be described as a glorified shopping list. One gets the impression that the Minister of Finance asked each of his Ministers to prepare a list of things they think people would buy into and he merely pruned that list to fit the amount of money he estimates he will have to spend. There is no coherent strategy that informs the budget and the priorities that have been identified are the most obvious, even to the uninitiated whilst he avoids the real issues. The budget is really a damp squib; costing some $22 billion. If this population were to ask itself: Will I be safer tomorrow? Will my job be more secure or will I have a job at all? How will I be directly affected by this budget? Will the quality of my live improve? The only sure answer will be: I am sure that if I exercise my democratic right to march and protest, then the riot squad, which will be better armed, will be better able to brutalize me. The answer will be: I will have to pay more for gas and it might just be possible that the hon. Prime Minister has woken up, for he has finally admitted that under his watch, crime has become a problem bigger than any other that Trinidad and Tobago has ever had to face. The challenges of the global economy to Trinidad and Tobago and indeed the entire Caricom region are the challenge of the knowledge-based economy which brings with it the challenge of equipping our citizens with the attitudes, values and skills to participate at the upper end of the economy. It includes the challenge of global competition on a scale never before witnessed in the history of the world— trade negotiating skills and dispute resolution skills have become national imperatives in the situation—the challenge of innovation and the convergence of new technologies; the challenge of bridging the digital divide and lastly, but by no means least, the challenge to create sustainable economic growth and alleviate poverty. It is not about more money for corruption in the Community-based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (CEPEP), the National Housing Authority (NHA) and the Unemployment Relief Programme (URP). We will not win the new economic gain by merely being the low-cost labour supplier. We will win only if we are a country with the highest productivity. This 50 Appropriation Bill (Budget) Friday, October 10, 2003 [MR. B. PANDAY] means that our human resources are the most important resources for competing in the future and therefore our major challenge is to position our people to be among the most productive in the world and you do not do that by handing them a whacker and by putting a man to stand at the side of the road in a blue uniform. Mr. Speaker, to better understand how we can position and prepare our country to meet these challenges, we must first have an appreciation of the international, economic and geopolitical environment that characterize the world. The future of our country and indeed our region depends on our ability to interpret and forecast the international environment as it relates to the global economics. We must identify the major issues and deal with them. The major global issues of the day are terrorism, trade liberalization, AIDS, growing poverty levels, deterioration of the environment, financial liberalization and the consequence of national regulations of the trade in financial services that will follow. The impact of SARS and the geopolitical uncertainties caused by America's presence in Iraq has led to a slowing down of industrial production and trade growth. In the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, the United States has waged an incessant war on terrorism with the military invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq so far being the high points of that war. The war on terror, coupled with domestic problems in Nigeria and in neighbouring Venezuela, has made the international energy markets more volatile. The coming of Iraq on the oil market will not be without its consequences. At home the challenge of crime on an unprecedented scale has us all living in jail. The assault on the business community will make every young person, especially those of Indian descent, think twice maybe 10 times before getting into business. It is as though there is a concerted strategy in motion for ensuring that the next generation refrains from business as a profession. For the young Indo- Trinidadian, what he or she can expect is kidnapping and rape and for the young Afro-Trinidadian youth, it is murder and mayhem.
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