New year message: Basdeo Panday

Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday's resolution for 2010 is to continue educating the people on the power they possess so they would use it to unite and get the People’s National Movement out of office.

In his new year's message Panday said, "My resolution for the new year is to continue to educate the people on the power they possess.

"As a result of all these factors, there is nothing to give the population any reason to believe that things will get any better in 2010 under this Government...

"It is my hope that 2010 will be the year the citizens of the country recognise their power, their strength and ability.

"I pray that in 2010, nationals unite and assert their authority on the Government as that appears the only way that this Government would work in the national interest’ said Panday.

"My wish for the new year then is for citizens of this country to become aware of their true potential and to use that potential to force the Government to work on behalf of the citizenry or to remove them."

Panday said without unity the crime, corruption and chaos which characterise this Government will continue. "After years of promises under the PNM, the nation’s hospital still lack beds, crime is still rampant and hundreds of thousands live in poverty, despite the billions of revenue Government received in the recent energy boom," he said.

Panday said the new property tax regime will increase the burden on an already beleaguered population and will lead to another round of price increases.