PM: I rely on Trinidad and Tobago's women

THE Prime Minister said he is able to cope with problems facing Trinidad and Tobago because of help from women including his ministers, but asked the public to help him handle the covid19 pandemic. Dr Rowley shared these insights at the commissioning of the Malabar Government Primary School near Arima on Thursday.

He said TT always has many problems to be solved, and that is the role of the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM.)

"As a politician you know that where there is no pavement in a community you walk with your life in your hand and you may not be able to cross a drain. Then you build a pavement and the minute that cement is dry everybody forgets what used to exist before and points you to the next problem down the road to be addressed."

He said such is the job at the OPM.

"But sometimes I'm asked, 'What keeps you going? How do you manage?' I reply that I see progress. I expect progress. I see progress and every step along the way that you make progress that comes as a reinforcement, a rejuvenation, for me to keep going moving forward to solving the other problems."

He highlighted the Tobago ferries, Point Fortin highway and the new Malabar school. He said the later signalled TT's future was assured, despite the pandemic.

Relating that local pupils had been housed in container-like structures, he said, "I just want to thank all the citizens who didn't those circumstances to overcome them but to have confidence in the governance structure of the country that where there are problems an honest attempt will be made to solve them."

Rowley said while each person has his/her own problem, all problems ended up in the OPM, directly or indirectly.

"So how does the Prime Minister manage to identify, work and solve these problems? I can tell you how I do that.

"I rely on the women in this country. I rely on the women in this country to steer us out."

He said the President of the Republic, Speaker, Senate President and Leader of Government Business in Parliament were all women.

"That takes care of the parliamentary business, in good hands."

The PM said children's matters and education were also in the hands of women.

"In the OPM I'm pleased to tell you that the Minister for Gender Affairs is a woman, the MP for Tobago East, Mrs Ayanna Webster-Roy, a mother of young children. The Minister in the Ministry of Education, representing this constituency (D'Abadie/O'Meara) is another woman, representative (Lisa) Morris-Julian, another mother of young children."

Rowley said Minister of Education Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly was also a woman and a mother of children.

"I can tell you that arrangement, that outcome, makes the job of the Prime Minister so much easier, because these citizens go beyond the call of duty representing all the people who identify these very many problems that we live with every day. They set about, like the mothers in the homes, set about in the Government to try to get those problems solved."

He hailed female health officials combating covid19, plus female leaders in the education ministry and teachers and parents.

Appealing to the population, Rowley said some in TT only see problems and sometimes reject solutions being offered.

"But there ought to be situations where we can bolster ourselves, take courage, be positive in the belief that notwithstanding the very many problems we are called upon to solve, that with the right attitude and with the right prioritisation of the resource use that we can solve these problems one after the other."

He said even in a pandemic, he would build schools one by one.

The PM hoped the patience shown in awaiting the Malabar school construction would also be shown by others elsewhere, especially as TT was in a pandemic and seeking billions of dollars the Government had not catered for previously. He said no government gets popular by making spending cuts, noting last year's deficit reduction from $14 billion to $3-5 billion.

Rowley said the Government had repeatedly done its duty – such as procuring vaccines – to the citizenry which now had to do its bit, urging, "You need to take some personal responsibility."

He said vaccinated individuals were less likely to get infected, to be hospitalised or to die. "These things are now in your personal hands as the Government has met its responsibility."

Rowley said in this pandemic people have "a huge individual responsibility" to avoid infection to themselves and their families.

"There must be a huge component of caring, not only for yourself, but other people.

"So today at this function, at this venue, I want to ask the people of this country to join other people of this country in problem-solving, and help us solve the problem of the pandemic that has been relentlessly trying to overcome us since last year March.

"As Prime Minister I have never worked as hard as I have worked to get those vaccines into this country."

He said he had to draw on every sinew in a local, regional and overseas effort, for anyone in TT desiring a vaccine to now be able to have one.

Rowley lamented having to legislate mask-wearing but said without that TT's infection rates would have been much higher. Covid19 hospitals had nearly run out of beds, he said.

"Very early on I told you as citizens, accept the responsibility we have to fight this virus, because nobody is going to come to our aid. We have to take up our bed and walk."

He said TT was not like Mississippi, badly hit by covid19, which was getting help from other states sending in thousands of doctors and nurses.

"We have nobody to call, except Almighty God." Recalling some 75 doctors in Florida walking out to vent their frustration at vaccine hesitancy, he said, "It is a pandemic of the unvaccinated."

He hoped the delta strain would not meet an unvaccinated population in TT, and expressed confidence in TT's mothers towards averting this.