PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad--Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley is responding to the public’s annoyance over comments he made on Saturday that citizens had grown accustomed to Government providing everything, and that those days of freeness were over.
Through his press secretary, Rowley issued a statement seeking to clear up what he termed “the obvious misrepresentation of statements” he made at the launch of a School Improvement Project at the Success/Laventille School.
At the function, he told the audience: “Every road built in this country has to be built by the government. Every school, every health centre, every this, every that, because in this country for the last generation or two, we grow up on the government. Well you better begin to be weaned off the government because the government should cannot carry the burden anymore.”
He also took note of a business leader’s response to the 2016-2017 budget presentation last week Friday by Finance Minister Colm Imbert. Rowley said the business leader had suggested that the budget lacked a stimulus package.
Rowley said: “I said to myself, as long as that is the mentality, [this – Ed.] is the mentality that will keep us here today. We have to be careful that we don’t borrow money to maintain our lifestyle and put ourselves into bankruptcy when we can’t repay the money we borrow. And anybody who is telling us that the way out of our problem is to borrow money to spend it on a stimulus package to maintain our lifestyle … as [economist – Ed.] Lloyd Best would say, them is people to watch.”
According to the Prime Minister’s statement issued on Monday: “It has been reported that Dr. Rowley said that citizens can no longer depend solely on the Government to provide all that they need. To make it clear, Dr. Rowley was referencing the merits of the Public/Private Partnership Model as a means of dealing with the economic challenges facing Trinidad and Tobago. This is a conversation that seeks to identify the role of the Government working alongside and in harmony with citizens who are being encouraged to take more responsibility for their circumstances.”
“The Prime Minister was simply holding out to the population, that to continue to develop, in spite of economic constraints, we need to do things differently and take a more active role in developing and improving our communities.”
The Prime Minister’s Office said that: “It is truly unfortunate that the amazing talent and positivity put on display on Saturday by young people of Laventille and the paradigm shift towards actively working with Government to improve the lives of those in the area escaped national focus.” ~ Trinidad Express ~
