Panday calls CHOGM expensive talk shop, calls on media to expose gov't

Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday is questioning statements made by Prime Minister Patrick Manning that that Trinidad and Tobago will gain "future benefits" from hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

In a media release Thursday Panday said he has serious doubts about that especially since the nation is still waiting to see benefits from hosting of the Fifth Summit of the Americas in April.

"T&T is ranked 79 out of 180 countries on the Transparency Institute’s 2009 Corruption Perception Index, I am beginning to think that CHOGM 2009 may very well be an expensive talk shop," Panday said.

He added that the Local and International media have a duty to ask the organizers of CHOGM 2009, why "in such a rich country pregnant women and the elderly have to sleep on chairs and benches at our nation’s hospital."

He said they need to also ask why more than 70 per cent of the country still don’t have a continuous supply of potable water, why roads in such disrepair and why "in this small country quarter of the population is in absolute poverty, unsure as to where their next meal is coming from."

Panday said citizens continue to be denied basic amenities while the government "ramajays on the international stage of CHOGM, paid for by the taxpayers."

He said all the talk about development, climate change and the youth is a charade.

He also pointed to the Royal Commonwealth Society, which says the Commonwealth, representing 2 billion people, risks fading into irrelevance unless leaders take “bold action”.

Read the story: Report warns that Commonwealth risks becoming irrelevant

Panday also expressed concern about how the Manning administration is funding the CHOGM.

"A day before its official opening, we are unaware of the ‘real’ cost of the meeting, who were granted contracts and why so much more work had to be done when infrastructure had already been in place since the last summit."