A UNC gov't will drop the property tax: Kamla

Kamla Persad-Bissessar launched her public campaign for the leadership of the United National Congress (UNC) Monday in the heartland of the party. In a powerful speech, the Siparia MP said the leadership election is the first step to returning the UNC to power.

And she pledged that when she leads a new Trinidad and Tobago government one of her first duties would be to remove the hated new property tax.

But to do all of that, she said, requires action. And she invited her supporters to stand up with her and walk with her.

“If you going to walk with me, we walking as one, we moving as one; And no force can stop us,” she declared.

She steered clear of any criticism of her opponents but made it clear that she is running an independent campaign.

“I am not for rent or sale...I am in charge and I am fully capable of running my campaign and very soon of running this country,” she said.

“Kamla would not be easily wrapped around the hands of others nor would I become anybody’s ‘political dullahin’,” she declared. However she said she welcomes everyone who has ideas about how to reform the party and take back the government.

She called her campaign a march forward and told supporters the first stage is taking charge of the UNC on January 24, 2010. And then the march continues.

“And then…and then, my friends, we marching again. We marching against crime, we marching against injustice, we marching against inequality of treatment, we marching against greed and corruption; we telling Manning his time is up,” she said.

She spoke of the same issues that she raised in her declaration speech on Saturday, chastising the Manning regime for what she said was the mismanagement of the economy and its impotence in dealing with crime.

She also spoke of double standards. “I could not watch our children starve while Manning squandered a billion dollars to fete leaders who don’t even remember his name or how to find our country on a map.

“I could not let him spend billions of dollars to help out his friends who pilfered their own company while tens of thousands of you have gone bankrupt because they closed down your credit union,” she said in reference to the Hindu credit Union.

Persad-Bissessar spoke about poverty in a nation she described as one of the wealthiest in the Western hemisphere.

She painted a grim picture of Trinidad and Tobago today: “Mothers struggling to find food, families with no place to call home, hospitals with a shortage of facilities, gangs fighting one another in our schools, business people paying protection money to the robbers who roam our towns and village like they own the place, fearing no one.”

She said the UNC doesn’t operate that way.

“When a child is hungry, we don’t ask her race; when a woman is struggling to clothe and house her family, we don’t ask for her party card; hunger and poverty have no religion, race or gender!” she said.

The former attorney general spoke briefly about her performance in Parliament and advised the critics to check the records.

And she promised that when the UNC gets back in government it has two immediate priorities.

One is to fight crime. “Is jail for every crook,” she promised, “The ones with guns and the ones hiding in fancy offices.”

And she pledged to kill the new house tax, which she called a master plan "to steal what you work and slave all you life to build.”

“Poor people save and band they belly and send they children to school and build a little house for their retirement. And now because the house have some value, Manning coming and taxing you, taking back you little pension.

“We would never allow that. The tax must go! And Manning must go too!

“That is my promise to you tonight. We are not going to take it no more, we not going to let that tax rob you of your home,” she promised.

But she warned her supporters that none of this could happen unless they do their part and make sure they register to vote. She reminded them that this is an internal election in which only eligible UNC members can vote.

She said UNC members must ask themselves if they want to remain in opposition forever or whether they want a new leader who can carry the party forward and back into government.

“If you want to go back into government, change your leader. I will take our party back to its glory days. And the Rising Sun will shine again all across this land.

“You hold the future in your hands and only you can make the change that we need. The ultimate goal is the replacement of the Manning regime and the removal of the danger which it poses,” she told her audience.

She ended her speech telling the UNC to “Stand firm! Stand up for justice! Stand up for freedom! Stand up for the UNC; Stand up for Trinidad and Tobago. And no matter what the distractions are, GO BRAVE!”