THE EDITOR:
PM MANNING promised in his 2005/2006 Budget speech as follows: “I am therefore pleased to announce, Mr. Speaker, that with effect from January 1, 2006, all nationals of Trinidad and Tobago enrolled at public tertiary institutions, namely UWI, UTT, COSTATT and other institutions where the government sponsors students, will be eligible for free tuition, that is free public tertiary education.”

This promise by the PM is welcomed and was at the time widely applauded.

However, to date, the UWI, UTT and COSTATT cannot give a definitive word on whether this will in fact materialise by the stipulated January 1, 2006 date.

The Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business was forced to say on its website: “The Institute of Business (IOB) is at present awaiting word from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education as to how this policy will be implemented, how it would affect our current students and the implications for future students.”

Amazingly the Budget was delivered by Manning on September 28, 2005.

This letter was written on December 13, 2005.

PM PATRICK
MANNING

MUSTAPHA HAMID

SATISH RAMROOP

That means that two and a half months have elapsed since the PM’s promise and still no word from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education (STTE) to UWI, UTT and COSTATT!

Not even a little carrier pigeon has made its way from Port of Spain to St. Augustine with the good news.

One would have thought that the goodly PS in the Ministry of STTE and the goodly PS in the Ministry of Finance could handle such a policy matter at that level and then communicate to the respective tertiary organisations.

This situation leaves thousands of students and potential students in massive limbo.

Students paying second semester fees are now left to wonder whether PM Manning is Santa Claus or the Grinch who stole Christmas.

Is this another wild PNM promise like the fabled Mamoral dam or the much promised highway to Point Fortin?

We shall have to wait and see.

In the meantime, I implore the public servants at the Ministry of STTE to try and make the January 1, 2006 deadline.

Sadly, it seems that it is the pathology of the PNM to make promises and never deliver on them and it is exactly for this reason that we approach the whole “free tertiary education” promise with a degree of skepticism.

One only has to look at the masive mess they (the PNM) have made of the OSHA legislation.

One also wonders what is the thinking behind the establishment of a new “teaching” hospital in Port of Spain.

The government clearly cannot run the existing institutions, so one wonders how effective they would be at running another hospital, let alone a “teaching” hospital which one assumes will be affiliated to UTT.

It seems that there is something about the UWI Faculty of Medicine that greatly bothers the PNM.

We shall explore this in another letter.

In closing this writer believes the two ministers with responsiblity for the Ministry of Science Technology and Tertiary Education, the most honourable Senators Mustapha Hamid and Satish Ramroop will pull out all the stops to ensure that their prime minister is not soundly embarrassed by the non-delivery of another PNM promise when January 1, 2006 comes along in a few weeks time.

THE EDITOR:
STUDENTS Akil Scott, Imran Bleasdell, Saddaam Hosein, Kareem Marshall and Steven Ramroop are the winners of the Eight Annual Alcohol, Drug and AIDS Awareness Week quiz competition held recently at the La Romaine Integrated Education Project (IEP) of Servol and the Ministry of Education.

These youths, as well as all other students who participated in the quiz, must be commended for the interest they showed in the awareness week.

This year’s event was another great success, but we need the assistance of the Ministry of Education and schools’ administrators in order to keep more children away from alcohol and illegal drugs.

Special thanks must go to the late National Ex-tempo Champion Leroy “Big B” Birch, who thrilled students with his ex-tempo rendition during the opening function.

It was probably his last official engagement in Trinidad before his untimely death.

More and more people are becoming aware of the damages that substance abuse and the illegal drug-trade are causing to many individuals, families and the country as a whole, and as a result they believe that this event held annually at the IEP should be extended to all schools in TnT.

I have written the Minister of Education Hazel Manning in the hope that she will support at least an awareness day in all schools in TnT because we need to highlight the dangers of substance abuse.

You see, we need to recognise that many students are messing with illegal drugs as well as abusing alcohol.

Too many of the crimes in this country are drug and alcohol-related and the quicker we recognise this and implement programmes in our schools and communities to deal with the problems, the more likely we are to witness a reduction in crimes in the country.

There is no way we can be serious about drastically decreasing the number of murders, rapes, child sex abuse, incest, domestic violence, road accidents and school violence if we continue to pretend that substance abuse is not one of the major contributing factors to these social ills.

THE EDITOR:
THANK you for the opportunity by printing my letter, I now write you on a matter of great concern.

Franklin Khan was charged with corruption yet Eric Williams and Ambassador Jerry Narace is still walking around.

Narace tried to cover up the whole scandal by calling Dhansam Dansook on the telephone, and tried to pervert the course of justice.

This conversation between Narace and Dansook was taped, so Jerry Narace must be charged with obstruction of justice and perverting the course of justice.

If Dansook did say that both Eric Williams and Franklin Khan were directly involved in the matter then they should both be charged, and Narace should be charged immediately since Khan is already charged.

So what is taking the police so long and why is the DPP not following the natural course of justice?

It is ironic that the chairmen of the United National Congress (UNC) and People’s National Movement (PNM) are both facing corruption charges and at least three of their collegues are involved.

I think Manning should re-examine himself and those who are involved in corruption from the smallest to the highest.

Only thing left for Manning to do is find an Indian who is not touched by corruption and make sure it’s a PNM person, too.

For if we examine all the top Indians in the PNM only a few would fit that bill. Satish Ramroop is out of the question since he was rejected by the UNC for the Chaguanas seat and then he joined the PNM. Jarrette Narine does not possess the oral skills to talk to people. Jerry Narace is allegedly directly involved in issues pertaining to Khan and Williams.

Dr. Lenny Saith is a dead horse and have too much baggage. Christine Sahadeo and Christine Kangaloo are not regarded as PNM.

Mustapha Hamid, brother-in-law of 1990 Muslimeen coup rebel Bilaal Abdullah, is not a full PNM, he is very new and one of Manning’s appointees from the Muslim community.

Manning would have to find someone who has been with the PNM a long time and who has never joined the UNC and who understands the constitution of his party and who posesses the oral skills that are needed.

There is no doubt that he would find such a person but while he is looking, the country is looking at Khan, Williams and Narace.

THE EDITOR:
ONE wish I have for 2006 is that the Ministry of Tourism and the Tourism Development Company will take sport tourism seriously.

Compared to the support the Barbados Tourism Authority gives to sporting events the support from the local authorities can be best described as dismal, anaemic and unimaginative.

For most local sporting organisations who host and attend regional and international championships the experience has been demoralising, frustrating and an exercise in futility.

An unfortunate situation, because sport tourism can be a sustainable and viable niche market that is undervalued by the local tourism experts.
There needs to be a paradigm shift at the level of the tourism policy makers.