Duke: Rowley’s lecture ‘callous and insensitive’

THA minority leader Watson Duke.
THA minority leader Watson Duke.

TOBAGO House of Assembly (THA) minority leader Watson Duke has slammed the Prime Minister for his televised Mind Your Business lecture to the nation on Sunday and Monday nights.

“The Prime Minister’s speech was calculated, callous and insensitive.”

Duke said just as an intoxicated person might use a pole to stabilise himself, so too the PM tried to use statistics that are “unfounded and unsupported.”

He said the future looks bleak and hopeless, and his Public Services Association (PSA) members want their just dues now.

“It was definitely calculated to put public officers in a position where they will demand nothing more from the Government but stability.

“We are saying we are minding our business and we want what is ours. Our salaries have been reduced and our lives been made harder and definitely as we look into the future it looks bleak and there is no hope. We want to mind our business.”

Saying the nation is griping, unsettled and on the verge of a cataclysmic event, Duke said the Prime Minister was expected to bring hope, but did not.

“He continues to excuse himself, blame the former government and challenge those who are looking for hope that ‘there can be no hope because things are looking so bad.’”

He said the speech was a manipulation of statistics to stabilise a staggering Government. “We would have wanted to see what he has done since he entered office and we could look through his spectacles to see a new world on the horizon, that would motivate workers, the entire country, the sick, the lame”

“Instead he came and gave a very sorry speech, as if we should feel sorry for him. We cannot feel sorry for the Prime Minister. He signed up for the job. He knew what he was getting into.”

Duke called on Rowley to account.

“How is he to account for the $31 million spent on paintings, for the $140 million spent on a boat that is not what was said, for the $80 million to buy two boats that are not accepted by the Port Authority?

“How does he account for the THA in Tobago spending money without rhyme or reason?” Duke alleged the PM instead diverted public attention to a time of five years ago. “Well Mr Prime Minister we are minding our business and when we check our gas tank, ‘super’ is really flying our now like Superman. “When we check our milk pan, the milk isn’t there any more. When we check our sugar pan, there are plenty granules but no sugar.” Duke said people are fed up of lives that does not meet the promises of the 2015 PNM manifesto.

Saying the population had voted for a Government that would let them participate democratically, Duke alleged Rowley acts autocratically like a Shah.

Asked about the PM’s allocation $1 billion for a tourism project in Tobago, Duke wanted to know who would be getting that sum and from where?

“If we have such a poor state of the economy where oil and gas has barely raked in $1 billion in 2016, you are going to take all that money and give it to Tobago? Come on, you don’t love Tobago that much. We want to find out the real secret behind that utterance.”

Saying a contractor had said the Sandals project would cost $8 billion, he asked what revenues it would earn. He asked where are the new Tobago airport, the road to Guayaguayare, and a mass transit hub.

“I think he’s a dreamer and must begin to mind his business.”

Duke said the PM is now an honorary Trinidadian, and when he visits Tobago he drives in a bulletproof car. “He’s not a man of the people any more but a man of the select few.”

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