(Trinidad Guardian) – Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar says criticism of her proposal to give conditional relief to St Vincent, St Lucia and other Caricom states is a storm in a teacup.
Persad-Bissessar made her first public defence of the statement during a news conference at the offices of Fire One Fireworks, Macoya, one of the warehouses used to store relief supplies to victims of natural disasters in T&T and the region. At a news briefing on Monday Persad-Bissessar said her proposal was for T&T’s assistance to the region to be linked to some benefit to T&T citizens.
She said then: “There must be some way Trinidad and Tobago will also benefit. “So if it is that we are giving assistance, for example for housing… then we may be able to use Trinidad and Tobago builders and companies so that whatever monetary assistance is given redounds back in some measure to the people of Trinidad and Tobago.” She maintained on Thursday her statement stood. She blamed an Express headline for the controversy. “I think it’s been taken out of context,” she said. She insisted that she “saw nothing wrong with that (statement)… internationally that is what is done.” She added: “When the US invaded Iraq and after they damaged Iraq, they then gave them the aid but the aid to reconstruct Iraq was what?
“They used US firms. They used the US materials. They used US companies.” She continued: “Where would we source the materials from for construction? With T&T dollars in T&T. It seems to me a logical explanation of it.” The PM said the Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, had sent her a fax requesting construction materials, including cement. She noted T&T was sending unconditional humanitarian aid (water, food supplies, mattresses and other things) to St Vincent and St Lucia. Dealing with the issue of the Jamaican-led boycott of T&T products in protest of T&T’s conditional support, Persad-Bissessar said the Jamaican government already had made a statement in the press there that it was not endorsing that initiative.
She said she did not want to exacerbate the Jamaican position. She said: “The only place this comment has really come from is out of Jamaica, as far as I am aware. “St Lucia, St Vincent have been really badly hit but have not made any such comment. They have actually made requests for goods and services,” she insisted. “Diplomatically, through the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister, I am not seeing any comment where the (Jamaican) government, is endorsing it and I would not want to intervene in the private sector of Jamaica. “It’s a free country and they are free to voice their opinions.” She insisted she was unaware of any adverse comment in the diplomatic circle.
She added there was no “tension” in relations with other Caricom leaders, including the Prime Ministers of St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines over her conditional support statement. “I observed none of that and no one shared any hostility or grave concern,” she added. She insisted there always would be differences of opinion but “I didn’t pick up any hostility from anyone.” She said all Caricom governments were “challenged in these economic times. They fully understand what we are saying and what we are trying to do.”
