Jack Warner welcomed the new mayor of Chaguanas Thursday, congratulating Natasha Navas for her significant victory, which he said is the dawn of a new era in the Borough of Chaguanas."This era is definitely a significant one because it will be remembered for the shifts in power which gave to global and local communities, strength, belief and hope that we all can make a difference," he said in a speech at the mayor's inauguration.
The MP for Chaguanas West added that it is also the start of a better working relationship between the borough council and the MP, for the benefit of everyone living in those communities.
In a reference to ousted mayor Suruj Rambachan Warner said, "You are the change we all have been waiting for and thank God you are the change we received. No one has any divine right to office, especially the office of Mayor of the Borough of Chaguanas! And your ascendancy to the Mayor's office today has surely reinforced that."
Warner said Navas' elevation to the office of mayor "gives us hope" and the expectation "that will ensure that our market vendors are happy; that our garbage is collected; that government services are provided in a clean and healthy environment; that the police and magistrates will work in conditions that are totally acceptable; that our roads will be fixed; our recreation fields will be upgraded and our drains repaired and cleaned."
He added that these are the issues that drive his Platform for Change.
Warner also spoke of the significance of a person of Navas' background taking office. "A few decades ago, it was inconceivable that an East Indian woman would wear a Mayoral Chain in a predominantly East Indian community from a Platform for Change that has begun to excite the people of her burghesses and give to them new hope," he said.
He compared her journey with that of U.S. President Barack Obama, who transformed a dream of the African American community into a reality.
"A few decades ago what he achieved was viewed as virtually impossible. No one would have thought that an African American would have entered the highest portals of power and bring hope to the world with a message of change," Warner said.
Warner is heading to Washington Thursday where he will have a private audience with Obama. The meeting with the U.S. president is scheduled for 2:00 pm on Monday.
He reminded his audience of Obama's own struggle for change, and quoted the president who said, “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
In her inauguration address the 30-year-old Navas said she hopes to inspire the many other capable young citizens "who have the power to effect change, to take interest in what is happening in our country today and more importantly to influence, for the better, the future for those who are to come."
She said she grew up in a UNC village, in a UNC family and still lives in a UNC community. Navas said faced hardships but always looked forward.
And she sent a message to everyone: "Together, we, the young and the old, can work and become the stalwarts of the change we desire....We are demonstrating that there is need for change; that we want to be recognized; that we want to have a say in the affairs of development."
She pledged to to serve the burgesses of the Borough of Chaguanas not only because it is her sworn duty to do so but also because "I am a people person." Her first order of business was a walkabout to meet vendors at the Changuanas market.
She thanked Rambachan for his six years of service as mayor, adding that she hopes "to be able to draw on his knowledge and experience for the improvement of Chaguanas in general."
Orlando Nagassar, who has objected to Navas taking office and challenged her residency qualification for the job, has retained his job as Deputy Mayor. Nagassar was mayor of the borough before the UNC moved him and installed Rambachan.
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