ADDRESS BY DAVID ABDULAH POLITICAL LEADER TO THE SECOND ANNUAL PARTY CONGRESS OF THE MOVEMENT FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE SUNDAY JANUARY 23RD, 2014 PALMS CLUB SAN FERNANDO, TRINIDAD
Brother Chairman, Executive Colleagues of the MSJ, Your Excellency Coromoto Godoy Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to Trinidad and Tobago, Your Excellency Guillermo Vasquez Ambassador of Cuba to Trinidad and Tobago, Comrade Juan Pozo of the Communist Party of Cuba, invited guests and representatives of civil society organizations; members of the Activist Council of the MSJ, members of the Media, members and supporters of this, the most important party in Trinidad and Tobago, friends, sisters and brothers all, good afternoon! First let me thank all members of the Party for the confidence which you have expressed in my colleagues and I by your ratification of our nomination, unopposed to serve as your National Executive. In particular let me say how humbled I am to be asked to lead our Party for the next three years. If the first three years of the MSJ were dynamic, the coming three years will be extremely challenging and absolutely critical. I look forward to your support and the guidance of the Almighty as we together chart our course through the troubled waters of the politics of this country. May I take a moment to share with you the talent, experience and dynamism of my Executive Team. CHAIRPERSON
Vincent Cabrera
DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON
Andrea Ali
Veteran labour leader, very committed political activist Experienced trade 1
union officer, holds a very responsible position in Petrotrin, founding member of MSJ POLITICAL LEADER DEPUTY POLITICAL LEADER
David Abdulah Dr. Roosevelt Williams
GENERAL SECRETARY
Oswald Warwick
ASSISTANT GENERAL SECRETARY TREASURER
Ramkumar Narinesingh William Celestine
EDUCATION OFFICER
Oliver Elcock
Highly respected educator – former Director, CCLCS, President of ACTI, served on UWI Council & UTT Board, lectured at Howard, Steelband and community activist, long history of political activism Young, radical – left an international organization doing HIV work to join OWTU; founder of Unigem; one of the Caribbean’s best peer counsellors Young trade union activist – energetic Experienced, formerly worked at Central Bank, experience as Exec member of BIGWU Former Education Officer of the CWU, Founding member of St. Joseph Road Youth 2
ELECTIONS OFFICER
Franka James
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS OFFICER
Clyde Callender
PARTY ORGANIZER
Akins Vidale
PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER
Gregory Fernandez
SOCIAL SERVICES
Radakha Gualbance
Movement, Executive Officer of the T&T Friends of Cuba, member of the Save our Savannah group TSTT worker, active CWU member. Entrepreneur Former Branch President OWTU; President T&T Friends of Cuba The undisputed winner of the LGE Debate! Akins had Imbert and Suruj for breakfast, lunch and dinner! What they didn’t know is that Akins isn’t a just come to the politics. Former UWI Debating Club member, former President of the TYC; general secretary of FITUN, Lecturer at CCLCS, founding member of MSJ. Entrepreneur – software; Soca Monarch, revived Super Blue’s career; TNT Finder Dedicated to 3
OFFICER
Youth Officer
Ife Smith
improving people’s lives; UWI grad, worked in social welfare; entrepreneur Activist in the labour and women’s movement: just completed her studies towards a MSc. Led an initiative to assist T&T students at Mona and Cave Hill.
Mass Organisations
Before I say a word as well about two of our veterans, there is one person, a friend and a comrade who is missing today. That person is Ian Teddy Belgrave. Teddy and I go back to our days at UWI, St. Augustine in 1972. We were friends and comrades in arms for more than forty years. He was a founding member of the MSJ. Indeed, as I said in my tribute to him Teddy was more than just a founding member – “he, together with Lyle Townsend, Roosevelt Williams and I would meet – as the remnants of MOTION to discuss the political developments of the day, the state of the mass movement and its leadership and organize to build a political party once again. I likened this process to the Long March in China”. That we meet here today in this Second Annual Congress is due in no small part to Teddy Belgrave. Though gone way too soon, we say thanks for all that he did – in politics, in steelband and culture, the labour movement, in education. His contribution must never be forgotten! Two of the brothers on the Executive who also shared a long and powerful relationship with Teddy are Clyde and Oliver. True to their politics, they accepted positions on the Executive on the condition that within the coming six months they will give way to persons who are younger and who have the energy and dynamism of youth to push forward the work of the Party in the 4
important areas of International Relations and Education, respectively. I commend them for their selflessness. What this means is that before the end of 2014, the average age of the Executive will be just about 40. It means that we are building the leadership capacity of the MSJ for the long term, in full recognition that the process of fundamental change to which we are totally committed is not an overnight matter. When we look at the history of change throughout the world – and in T&T and the Caribbean – it is the young people who are the energy and force behind that change. And so, Ozzi, Akins, Ife, Ramkumar and those who will join us on the Executive in a few months time – you are the ones who are charged with the responsibility of providing our movement with the spark and energy for change! Compare this with the situation of the other parties in Trinidad and Tobago. The UNC dare not call internal elections! They were due more than a year ago but have now been postponed indefinitely pending “reform of the UNC Constitution”. This reminds me of a man who was engaged to get married and kept postponing the wedding date since he had to complete the house first. So desperate was he to escape the noose that every Monday morning he would change the design. Of course that house was never finished and the marriage never happened! Don’t expect elections in the UNC this year or next! The COP – what can I say about them? They’ve brought in someone from Canada to help them try to revive their party. A gentleman named Ray Larson who is a strategist with the Liberal Party of Canada is supposed to work some magic for the COP before the General Elections scheduled for 2015. But to paraphrase another statement – all the Viagra in Niagara can’t raise the COP from the dead! And the PNM – can we expect any real change from this party? A simple test would be to look at Dr. Rowley’s slate in the upcoming elections for the party’s Executive. Franklyn Khan, Colm Imbert, Keith Rowley – all Cabinet Ministers during the Manning government; Ashton Ford – been around for ages; Fitzgerald Hinds – the youth officer! If you ask me, he belongs not to the category of youth, but to the over the hill boys! Really, how can the PNM offer change when the key leaders of that party are part of the old; are part of the old political culture from which we are trying to escape. With the PNM it’s back to the future! 5
The future looks bleak indeed if our choice is limited to the UNC, the COP and the PNM. And notice that I haven’t even mentioned the ILP. For good reason. As I said to one journalist when asked about the latest scandal about Jack Warner and FIFA – it’s just another chapter in an old book, the book according to FIFA which script is based on influence peddling, votes exchanged for money and other benefits, gifts, nepotism and cronyism. The issue is not simply about Jack. The issue is – do we in Trinidad and Tobago want a leader who sees nothing wrong with such behaviour in FIFA and thus is not likely to see anything wrong with such behaviour in public office. And we well know that such behaviour took place here – as for example when financial contributions for a Ministry staff Christmas party were to be made out to companies owned by the Minister. But this absolute absence of a sense of ethical behaviour is not limited to those who operated in the rarified realm of FIFA. Listen to what a well known attorney at law and the Chairman of First Citizens, Nyree Alphonso, had to say about the purchase of 659,000 First Citizens shares by a senior manager – “But you cannot use morals and ethics (to judge wrongdoing) because everyone’s are different,” Put another way – the end justifies the means – winning or profiting or getting ahead by any means, fair or foul is OK. Then there is the abuse of office, like all kinds of people driving vehicle with flashing blue lights. The latest expose on this is Mr. Ramadharsingh. He feels that it’s OK to behave in a manner that could jeopardize the safety of fellow passengers, thumb his nose at the flight crew who have the responsibility and authority to fly people safely from airport to airport, and threaten a staff member with the menacing words – “your days arte numbered”, quite apart from some level of physical assault, and then get up the next day and wish away the entire episode by saying sorry and that he was stressed out! Stress? What stress? Overwork? What overwork? A Minister with driver, numerous staff members to do this, that and the other, a PBR pass to avoid some of the traffic? He should try live the life of a single mother who works as a security guard for minimum wage. Up at 4 am out of the house before 5 to hustle transportation to get to work for 6 and if you reach late your meager pay is cut; working 12 hours – so hustling transport to get home after 8. Then to cook a little something for the children, fall asleep for six hours and then repeat the routine for six days of the week. And sometimes work 6
for 24 hours straight just! That is overwork! Or the young women who work till 10, 11 in the night and have to travel home not being sure if they would be attacked, robbed or raped. That is stress! Or living in a home that is falling apart and leaks and cannot properly accommodate the family with young children – that is pressure! But these hard working people are not assaulting others or threatening someone that “their days are numbered”. Compared to tens of thousands of citizens who live in poverty or barely make ends meet, Mr. Ramadharsingh should consider himself lucky indeed, if not the happiest man alive, that the leader of his government has not fired him summarily! That attitude of arrogance and abuse of office was set in motion with the words “let’s move on” in response to some earlier governmental mistake, wrongly labeled a mis-step. What example does that set for the children of this country? I don’t often see eye to eye with Mr. Sat Maharaj, but I do agree with him on this issue – if the so called exemplars don’t show respect for others and for authority, how can we expect schoolchildren to do differently? How can someone in charge of education, for example, deal with indiscipline and bullying in our schools when it is alleged that he bullies, threatens and verbally abuses senior officers of the Ministry of Education? There is an old saying – fruit don’t fall far from the tree. Well, who is before the courts for an apparently unprovoked plannass attack against a doubles customer? Yet another example of the horrific governance in Trinidad and Tobago today is when the Prime Minister goes on an official visit to China and then behaves as if she is on a casual Saturday afternoon trip to the mall. Her approach to the Chinese government to buy a naval vessel; the agreements to sell our pitch; and the announcement that we are borrowing $5 billion from the Chinese are nothing less than reckless. When Ministers behave in the way that they do, can we not agree that this country suffers from a crisis of leadership? Brother Chair, sisters and brothers, our country is facing a deep morass. The leadership on show in the Parliament can’t get us out of the mess. Let me share what a friend of mine wrote me the other day. Given that it was a private correspondence I can’t share his name, suffice it to say he is a hard working young entrepreneur. 7
“I am one breath away from complete despair. This country has become such a joke, that it is now internationally comical! I am no longer fooled by our political class and our so called elite. I am ashamed to be a part of a business community as corrupt and immoral as this one. A country has to know right from wrong to choose it and they have to differentiate good from bad to choose it. Trinidad has allowed itself in to the haze of indifference where countries can never again find themselves. The policies of the MSJ will never be UNDERSTOOD firstly by our mentally corrupted society and by extension cannot be embraced by them, that is the challenge. Our voices will always be lost in the noise, because we like the noise. Our elite, our rulers, our capitalists, our entrepreneurs, our leaders have ALL failed...and what is even scarier is they all truly believe they have ALL been wildly successful! Such is the dichotomy of this so called nation! I no longer even have the desire to talk the politics with my contemporaries as the responses I get only raise my furor now. I have been emasculated into being a drone....My love for TnT is fading very fast.” To my friend, to all those in Trinidad and Tobago who despair about our future, I say – DO NOT GIVE UP! If all the right thinking people in this country come together, we CAN INDEED MAKE A DIFFERENCE! We can turn this country around! We cannot allow failure to enter our minds because if we fail, then we will be dooming this society to an utterly barbaric state where the recent fights by schoolchildren will look like a tea party. We have to, we must offer HOPE. HOPE that change can and will happen! Because where there is no hope, there is despair and where there is despair the society breaks down and it is every man and woman for themselves. It is in response to this morass, this deep sense of despair, to the headlines that every day scream – Murder! Corruption! Another Child Dead from Abuse! - that we chose the theme for this Congress – “Leadership, Vision and Hope for a Fair and Just Trinidad and Tobago!” Brother Chair, There is no doubting that in three short years, with very limited financial resources but with a significant amount of people resources, the MSJ has been able to plant ourselves very firmly in the 8
political landscape of Trinidad and Tobago. But it is not sufficient to be known or even respected. We have to change the politics completely! And this is not an easy task. It is one that requires immense effort on the part of all of those in the society who are fed up and disgusted by what passes for politics in this country. In this regard I am tremendously excited by the fact that persons from various walks of life have been coming forward and offering to assist the MSJ. This is something that we should take a lot of comfort in. I was asked by a friend of the party the other day – is the party growing? And my answer was yes! True, in total numbers the membership is not much larger than it was at our last congress in November 2012, but many of those who were on the membership list were there in name alone. They joined in the excitement of the 2010 elections, and the opportunity to be in government. But they were not serious about bringing about real change, about social justice. On the other hand, we have grown as a result of the hard work that we did after the last Congress as recorded in the General Secretary’s Report. Our many walkabouts, the numerous media statements, the local government election campaign, the Assembly of Citizens: Empowered! - all contributed to the growth of the Party. In November 2012 we did not have the Party Representatives as we do now: Kizzy in Carenage; Sharon in Maracas St Joseph, Cassandra in Mt D’or, Earl in Macoya, Carlene and Julia in Arima, Reza in Edinborough, Melina and Zody in La Brea, Stuart, Ronnie, Junior and Mavis in Point; Tony in Moruga; not including other activists like Theo, Philbert and Akins. A year ago we did not have the benefit of a team of dedicated professionals supporting our Public Relations and Communications effort; or a group of experienced persons who have agreed to be our Events Management Team. A year ago we did not have patriotic business people willing to provide assistance to the MSJ simply because they respect our position of integrity and our commitment to bring about real change. At our last Congress we did not have persons volunteering to serve as members of our Policy Team, Social Services or our Education Committee or even to serve on the Executive. All these things and more have happened within the past fifteen months since we last met in Congress. And in the coming year we must reach out and involve many, many more patriotic citizens in the work of the
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Party for it is this rich people resource that will give us the edge over those parties with cash resources. I believe that our hard work has paid rich dividends! It may not seem that way to many of you, but trust me we have made progress. We have pursued the right strategy and tactics. Thus our decision to contest seats in the Local Government Elections was correct as it gave us momentum in many communities in Trinidad, offered citizens an understanding of what we stand for via the National Debates and strengthened our party organization on the ground. Our Assemblies of Citizens enabled us to reach out to persons who would not normally have come to the MSJ. Brother Chair, I have no doubt whatsoever that this Congress will see us not only progress further, but indeed offer to the people of our beloved country Leadership, Vision and Hope for a Fair and Just Trinidad and Tobago. I wish to identify four major strategies for us to achieve this objective and I anticipate that the Congress will approve these strategies so that we can move forward in unity. These Strategies are: • Our Leadership and Vision through our Policy Documents • The Assemblies of Citizens: Empowered • Our solidarity with and assistance for citizens and communities affected by injustice and unfairness • Our campaign The First Strategy is to offer Leadership and Vision through our Policy proposals. We have already put this strategy into action as today we rolled out the First Installment of our Draft Policy Document. Our Policy Document addresses the following: • The Economy - a framework for transformation • Governance and Constitution Reform • Local Government • Public Procurement and Party Finance law • Labour and Industrial Relations • Education • Youth and Sport • Crime and Violence
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It is our intention to address other key issues such as Health Care; Housing and Shelter; Agriculture and Food Sovereignty; Water and the Environment; Entrepreneurship; Culture and the Steelpan; Science, Research and Technology; Transportation; amongst others. Together these will comprise Twenty-one Visions for the Twenty First Century! And I want to thank the Deputy Political Leader Dr. Roosevelt Williams for coming up with this approach and description of our Policies. Our Draft will be developed and enriched by a process of engagement with many publics – communities in town hall meetings; party members and supporters in cottage meetings; dialogue and forums with interest groups and civil society organizations; focus groups of professionals and experts in their field. By September we will complete this exercise and have a comprehensive Policy Document which reflects a consensus among a wide cross section of citizens about the way forward for Trinidad and Tobago. In this way, Brother Chair the MSJ is truly offering leadership, vision and hope for a fair and just Trinidad and Tobago! We are the only party to adopt a participatory approach to the development of our policies. We are not afraid of it being critiqued, indeed we welcome that because that’s how we will get it right. We want these policies to be more than the MSJ’s, we want thousands of citizens to feel that they too own the policies because they played a role in their creation. This is walking the talk, this is the new leadership that the country needs. Our Draft Policy should provide a great deal of comfort to many who don’t know what the MSJ stands for. To the suspicious business person who feels that we “go mash up the place” or “we go scare away investors”, you are now aware that nothing could be further from the truth. We stand for a mixed economy as we now have, where there is space for both the public and private sectors to exist and thrive. At the same time we must bring about change in the lives of the twenty percent of the population – more than a quarter of a million people who are living below or barely above the poverty line. We must stand for workers’ rights to be respected and for the creation
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of decent, sustainable jobs. In this regard we, unlike the others, will uphold the Constitution which states – “We the people of Trinidad and Tobago respect the principles of social justice and therefore believe that the operation of the economic system should result in the material resources of the community being so distributed as to subserve the common good, that there should be adequate means of livelihood for all, that labour should not be exploited or forced by economic necessity to operate in inhumane conditions but that there should be opportunity for advancement on the basis of merit, ability and integrity ”
You see, Brother Chair, this country can provide for all of us. Our national income, the size of our economic pie is just under $170 billion TT or $26 billion US. This means that if everyone had an equal share of that pie we would all have more than $19,000 US or $120,000 TT every year. The fact is that the pie is very unfairly shared. With the right policies, policies that truly put people at the centre of development, every one of us can live a decent life. Only the MSJ is truly focused on that. The PNM couldn’t do it in all their years in office and we’ve heard nothing recently that suggests that they will do anything new. This PP promised it but the cabal and others in the government are only concerned about themselves and how many millions they, their families and friends can get as fast as possible. As the calypsonian sang – they drinking from the milk of the treasury! Only the MSJ with all of our experience in labour and in negotiations can bring about a real tri-partite dialogue and policies so that we can get business investing, workers producing and government implementing policies to direct tax and other revenues towards transforming the economy: all in the context of a fair and just society. That is leadership and vision that offers hope! In the area of governance and constitution reform we have identified detailed proposals for the way forward. Some people define politics as the art of winning power and holding on to it. The UNC/PP and the PNM see politics like this. They are only concerned with winning office. Many in the PNM believe that they done win already! The UNC/PP can’t imagine life without power. What Suruj, Rudi, Chandresh and Anand go do without flashing blue lights and no more access to the milk of the treasury? 12
The MSJ is the only party that sees political office as a means to change the relations of power! To weaken the power of the Executive (Cabinet) and place real power in the hands of citizens! We recognize that at the root of our country’s problems is not just that we have bad people in government – and the Lord knows that we have many bad people in government today – but we have a bad system of government. Look all around and we will see our institutions of governance falling apart, failing. From the Parliament which is not passing enough laws that will bring about necessary reforms; to the Judiciary and the justice system which cannot bring persons who do wrong to pay for their crimes; to the public service which does not consistently deliver efficient service to the public; to the Integrity Commission which has not done anything to deal with rampant corruption; to the education and health care sectors which are in crisis. We can only begin to fix these institutions if we first change the relations of power. We must put in place checks and balances in the system of governance. This is where our proposals for strong public procurement legislation comes in: we stand for all public monies (including all state enterprises and government to government arrangements) to be regulated by a strong regulator with power of investigation. This is where party finance laws must be passed: we stand for political parties to be registered entities similar to companies or NGO’s with legal limits on spending for elections and public disclosure of contributions. Changing the relations of power means: to have a House of Representatives and of Government and a House (the Senate) of the People comprised of representatives of interest groups and bona fide civil society organizations. In this way, the government will have to persuade the people to support its policies – this is real politics; and when the government (and its party) gets its policies wrong there is a constitutional body to tell them so. Changing the relations of power also means: strong local government with decision making power and resources to implement decisions located not only in the existing local government bodies but also with village and community councils. Brother Chair, I have just mentioned a few ways in which we propose that the relations of power can be changed to strengthen our democracy thus fulfilling the Constitution which states –
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“the People of Trinidad and Tobago have asserted their belief in a democratic society in which all persons may, to the extent of their capacity, play some part in the institutions of the national life…”
I wish to make just one point on one other aspect of our policies and that is education. The education system is in trouble. More than 50% of the young people who write CXC do not pass five subjects at their first attempt. This means that it’s the system that is failing the young people, not the young people failing. And when the system deems them as failures what do you think that does to their self-esteem? To their sense of power? What hope do they have for a decent job, for a safe and secure future? So we should not be surprised by the violence in schools that we have been witnessing. And you know, instead of adults tackling the root of the problem – the failure of the system and the culture of violence in the society, we want to condemn the young people, call them derogatory names like hyenas and propose to send them to boot camp. Compare that to our policy on education where we seek to establish a new education system where the children of the ordinary people, the working people, are given a fair opportunity to excel. The real hyenas are the politicians who have destroyed this country by their corruption, their “don’t care a damn attitude” to those in our society who “don’t count”, and their failure to change the system. They want it to be business as usual. And they are driving our youth to violence and so-called antisocial behaviour. The real criminals are not these children but the so called exemplars who are setting the example of corruption. We can’t find Mr. Big with the $600 million cocaine but we want to punish the children. There were a billion dollars in suspicious transactions reported by the Financial Intelligence Unit but not a single arrest or conviction and we want to jail young boys who were fighting? There is talk of this government having Ministers who demand 10, 20 or even 40% of every contract awarded, yet they are protected, while our children are suspended from school. I am not saying that we should not punish the youth who break rules and the law. They need to know right from wrong, but how can they, if those at the top have absolutely no idea of right and wrong! If we want to have a fair society then all who do wrong must be punished! A fish starts rotting from the head and that’s where we must start to deal with wrong doing if we want
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to steer our youth along the right path! There can be no forty thieves without an Ali Baba. Kamla – yuh hear! Let me therefore move to our Second Strategy to move our Party forward and offer to the people of our beloved country Leadership, Vision and Hope for a Fair and Just Trinidad and Tobago. This second strategy is the Assemblies of Citizens: Empowered! I have often made the point that Trinidad and Tobago is not a nation which has a common vision and is engaged all together in the achievement of that vision. We are also a very fragmented society. There are many different Trinidads, all ah we is not one – Westmoorings is not Sea Lots, Laventille is not Barrackpore; Toco is not Valsayn, and Tobago is certainly not Trinidad! We have divisions by race, religion, class, gender, age, geography and also colour – as has surfaced in the PNM! The big challenge for any government is – how to bring build a nation out of this diversity? How do we develop a common vision? How doe we pull together? The PP offered hope but has left the people bitterly disappointed by its failure. It failed because the key players were not serious – they were only interested in the optics – how to make things look united in the photograph. And then under the mask of unity the cabal pursued its own narrow, ethnic agenda – discriminating at every turn, dismissing people, not renewing contracts, hiring people on the basis of party loyalty and not merit, giving contracts to a selected few – like SIS. Only the MSJ is prepared to do the work of developing national consensus and building bridges across what divides us. We will do this through the Assemblies of Citizens: Empowered! In this space we can truly listen to each other, learn to respect each other and arrive at agreement on the way forward. And I want to emphasise the words – listening to and respecting others. I believe that our national watchword of “Tolerance” should be replaced with “Respect”. Because it is when we respect each other’s religion and culture that we will recognize that we are truly all equals under the Creator. Our Assemblies of Citizens will be enable discussions on our Draft Policies but will be much more than an MSJ activity. I have proposed that we have a Charter for the Assemblies and that this Charter is signed by all those who 15
want to contribute to the process of listening and dialoguing, starting with a number of individual citizens and then moving to include civil society organisations, CBO’s. NGO’s and FBO’s . In this way we can truly create bridges in our fractured society. And by the MSJ initiating this process we will in fact be giving leadership, vision and hope! The third strategy is that of solidarity with and assistance for citizens and communities affected by injustice and unfairness. Our candidate in the local government elections, whom I think we should see as the Party’s representatives in their communities, need to implement under the guidance of the Social Services Committee an active and consistent programme of assisting people to access existing benefits to which they are entitled. This we discussed at our Strategic Planning Session on December 1 st after the LGE. This can simply take the form of a help desk set up at convenient locations, dates and times. I invite our Social Services Team to roll out this initiative as soon as possible. In the coming period our party members will continue to be active in all the community based struggles around the issue of sustainable communities. We will work with the Save our Savannah Committees to save Orange Grove and Aranguez savannahs. We must let Anil Roberts know that he will have to find another way of financing his campaign. No more mega projects costing mega dollars to construct mega buildings that will do mega damage to our green spaces and destroy the sustainable communities. At another level I wish to identify one aspect of the crisis in the education sector for immediate attention and our solidarity. This is the fact that many of our country’s schools have been closed for some time throwing thousands of children out of school and putting extreme pressure on teachers and parents. There are schools in almost every school district that are affected. Primary school students, secondary school students are at home, some for many weeks. How are these students to catch up on the syllabus? Especially since most of the schools affected are not in the ranks of the highest academic performers and need every day of the school term to for the students to learn. And what of the stress that this puts on parents – most of whom are working people who have little option but to leave the children at home. Who is supervising them during this time? Remember the devil finds work for idle hands!
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Sisters and brothers we must take up this issue. As fighters for social justice, we need to express our solidarity with the students, parents and teachers. And so I ask our Party representatives and district organizations to visit the schools in your areas which are closed. Let us build a national campaign on this issue. In this land of plenty no school should be infested with bats, rats, roaches or be without water and have overflowing cesspits. Imagine our children are swimming in ..it! We have to clean up this mess! I am asking the Party Organiser to follow up on this issue with our members. We will be the Ombudsman for Schools – and we will advertise how the public can reach us to share their concerns and problems. We cannot fix schools, but we will work with communities to have their issues addressed. In so doing we will walk the talk where concern for children and the youth of the nation are concerned. In addition to this immediate issue of closed schools there are the horror stories coming out of the health care sector. The tragic death of baby Simeon, son of Qually Cottle and Emil Millington has brought tears to many an eye. We again express our condolences to the family for their loss. But little Simeon wasn’t the only horror in the past few days, nor are the issues limited to the public sector. At a well known private hospital a healthy young man- Adesh Jaggernauth, a CAL pilot bled to death after routine surgery for tonsillitis. Then there was Telcia Jordan who had a miscarriage and on getting home from the hospital, found the five month foetus in a plastic bag with her belongings. And in the same period the parents of Matheu Flament of Pleasantville called for an inquiry into his death. Brother Chair, these incidents all took place within the last few weeks. I could add other cases and I’m sure that every one of jus in this hall knows of at least one instance of friends or family who have had a bad experience in the health care. I know that Carlene’s sister in October had to sit on a chair for hours after giving birth at Mt. Hope, the mother of a colleague at work had to wait for a day before getting a bed at Sando hospital after suffering a stroke. And so it goes. This is unacceptable! Not when we have a GDP of 169 billion dollars! But it happens because those in charge don’t care about those who don’t count! We must change that if we are to have a fair and just T&T! In all the cases of sudden and tragic loss in the health care system, the families who lost a loved one need answers and want to take Action to 17
obtain justice. But they aren’t necessarily able to do so. This is where the MSJ must walk the talk. I want to announce today that we are going to establish a Medical Ombudsman – a team of committed and patriotic citizens, both medical and legal, who will be able to assist families; educate persons on patient’s rights and on our developing a culture of accountability in the health care sector. The issue of proper health care is one that affects every citizen. Inadequate health care impacts on us regardless of race, religion, gender, age, geography. And this is an issue that will be in the forefront of our campaign for justice in T&T. It’s not about party politics, its about life and there’s nothing more precious than a fellow human being’s life! Are you with me on this? Sisters and brothers – we are behaving like the proverbial abused spouse. Moses and the 40 years in the wilderness. Our campaigns May 23rd Let us give hope to the nation. Forward ever backward never
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