UNC: Trinidad and Tobago was better off under Kamla

PRO of the United National Congress (UNC) Dr Kirk Meighoo is asserting that Trinidad and Tobago was better off under the Kamla Persad-Bissessar Government.

Meighoo referred to the findings of the recent North American Caribbean Teachers Association (NACTA) poll which showed the unpopularity of the People’s National Movement (PNM) and its leader.

It also reported that despite the PNM’s unpopularity in the first year of its second term, the UNC was still not considered a viable option.

Rowley said in response to the poll that the 39 per cent who said things were not good as they used to be had no idea what they were talking about

In a release, Meighoo urged Dr Rowley to immediately cease and desist from attacking citizens for speaking the truth about his failed government.

He said it was not surprising that Rowley has received the worst assessment of any PM one year after election, and would attack citizens for saying his government has failed.

“Rowley cannot have power without accountability. TT is not a dictatorship.”

Meighoo said the assessment of the PNM’s governance is akin to citizens saying TT was much better off under the prime ministership of Persad-Bissessar.

“Here is the objective reality. In 2015, our real GDP was $170 billion per year. In 2020 our real GDP was $142 billion per year.

“In other words, TT lost fully 16 per cent in economic production. This has surely contracted much more sharply in 2021 with job losses, business closures, and the PNM’s shutting down of the economy without any plan.”

Comparing the two governments, he said it was widely acknowledged that under the PNM, the country was consistently producing much less than under the UNC-led government.

“Even Standard and Poors has reported that TT is 19 per cent poorer, on a per-person basis, than it was ten years ago,” he said, referring to the international agency’s recent report.

Nevertheless, he said, “Rowley continues to gaslight the population with a fake PNM version of alternative reality, where the Kamla Persad-Bissessar good times were bad, and the Rowley bad times are somehow good.”

The reality, he claimed, is that by the end of 2020 the PNM had taken the country back 15 years to the 2005 level of GDP and standard of living.

“In 2021 the economy surely has regressed further, perhaps going back to 2003 levels, losing almost 20 years of capacity built by previous governments. Under the Rowley PNM, this country is 'reversing back'
at full speed, instead of making progress."

He identified the UNC’s successes in building 106 schools and rolling out the laptop programme for Form One students.

In the “strange world of Keith Rowley,” he said, building 100 schools is “madness” and "criminal."

“For the PNM, giving laptops to children was a bad idea. Giving all children a place in secondary schools was a bad idea.”

He said what was criminal was getting rid of the laptop programme, the refusal to open some of the 106 schools, even those 90 per cent complete ,and denying some 46,770 students access to online learning during the pandemic.

“If Rowley wishes to point to criminal expenditure, he need look no further than his government’s spending of $20 billion supposedly for covid relief, with nothing to show and without any accountability. Give us a break, Rowley. The whole country sees your failure and your foolishness.”