Lee Sing urges PoS: Reject the 'red party'

Louis Lee Sing, leader of the Port of Spain People’s Movement (PPM), asked voters in the Port of Spain corporation to reject members of the “red party,” as he refers to the PNM.

He said the PNM had said failed the area after 60 years of leadership.

Lee Sing made the call on Saturday in Belmont, while campaigning in the lead-up to Monday's local government elections.

"This government, this red party, has failed the test and they have failed the people,” he said.

“When anybody fails a test, what do you do? You fail them.

“What we need to do on December 2 is say to them, 'You had your chance and you have failed the test.'"

He said giving the “red party” a failing grade would send a clear message that Port of Spain is saying “never red again” and putting its trust in the PPM, which he said is the only organisation to move the corporation forward.

Turning his focus towards the PNM’s local government campaign in PoS, he said, "After 60 years, the only thing they can give us is contempt. They are so contemptuous of the city of PoS that the person leading the red party's campaign in PoS (former minister Marlene McDonald) was once a deputy political leader.

“At one point she was 'minister fired, minister fired.’ Today she is before the courts.”

McDonald appeared in court on corruption-related charges in August.

Lee Sing said the party's decision to select her to co-ordinate the area's local government campaign was an insult to residents of PoS

"They have been charged for misbehaving in public office, they have been charged for money laundering. And still this person can be so special to the leadership of this red party that she was hand-picked and once again imposed upon the people of PoS.

“I think the people of PoS deserve more,” he said, adding a description of McDonald.

“And therefore we must do something about it."

He said the “red party” believed it owned the corporation, and that its 60-year leadership of the area was simply too long.

"Integrity, honesty, accountability and transparency.

“These were once the words of that red party. But these words are now longer relevant in the context of what is passing for politics and governance in TT. Nobody is giving an account, and when they do give an account, it is out of convenience because they are trying to cover up something."

He also took aim at the planks of the PNM’s campaign.

"I ask the question, why is it on the eve of the election the party brings the ganja bill to the Parliament? They had the audacity to come, seven days before the local government election, to talk about a ganja bill."

But, he said, the “red party” has yet to speak on local government issues.

"I ask you not be fooled by this administration. They have a fight in this election, but they have not come to speak to you about one issue on local government. This is a party that is fighting a local government campaign but have not addressed a single local government issue."

He criticised the Prime Minister once again for a recent attack on the PPM.

"We have a situation where the Prime Minister of this country, speaking on a public platform, describes the PPM as a latrine party.

“Why did he do that? Because the PPM has taken a very strong position on the eradication of latrine pits in the city of PoS.

Lee Sing, a former mayor of the city, charged, “He does not understand it, he would never understand it, because he is too stush. But if he were to walk the streets of east PoS, Sea Lots and other places in the city, he would understand how difficult life is for people where six families have to share one latrine pit."