Fete now start for Dr Rowley?

THE EDITOR: In his 1982 budget speech, prime minister George Chambers, elected after the death of Dr Eric Williams on March 29, 1981, said, “It would be naive of us to believe that petroleum – a non-renewable resource – can insulate us completely from the effects of economic recession…we can no longer permit our vision to be obscured by selfishness and the pursuit of instant affluence.”

And, in a now famous line, he concluded, “The fete is over and the country must go back to work.”

Fast forward 36 years later and, with a fiscal deficit of $5.5 billion, a debt-to-GDP ratio of 75 per cent, and a central government external debt of $36.7 billion comprising 20 per cent of GDP (which has to be repaid in scarce foreign exchange), Prime Minister Rowley has allocated $30 million to his office for official entertainment in 2025.

It seems that, for Dr Rowley, the fete now start.

ELTON SINGH

Couva