Kamla demands answers from Manning on "Church on the hill"

The controversial church under construction in the Heights of Guanapo in Arima was front and centre Monday night as Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar called on Prime Minister Patrick Manning to answer "the real questions" about the matter.

Manning has denied any direct links to the church, but has admitted that State lands have been allocated for the building. However, there appears to be a discrepancy between when the cabinet approved the request for the lands and when construction started.

Records show the cornerstone was laid before the cabinet signed off on the land. The name on the stone is that of reverend Juliana Pena, a woman identified as a spiritual adviser to Manning.

Persad-Bissessar said it is "high time" the people ask for an account of what is really going on.

"Is it sufficient for you to just get up and shout religious persecution? Are you above the law? Are you not accountable to the nation?" she asked.

"You have a legal and moral obligation...to come clean and answer the questions that now encircle you, your so-called spiritual adviser."

Persad-Bissessar raised questions about why the Shanghai Construction and its Chinese labour force that have been used on so many government projects are building the Guanapo church.

She had a long list of questions and said Manning need to provide answers:

• Who has employed Shangai Construction to build the church?
• How has it been so easy to get a road to the Church paved and who paved it?
• Who paid the capital cost of electricity for the project?
• What is WASA’s involvement in providing water to the Church when people there have been clamouring for water for all their life and how is it that other communities are not so easily facilitated?
• Did Shangai Construction get work permits for this job? If so, on what basis when local unemployment in construction is low and people from the area were refused work on the project?
• Would the owners of the Church be willing to say how they got $30 million to finance the project?

She wondered if the Prime Minister is "so afraid of further investigations that he now threatens spirit lash for the journalists."

She slammed Manning for talking about religious discrimination, noting that his government has failed to help build a school for the Baptists which had been planned by the UNC when the land was given.

"Remember, it was the UNC who partnered with various religious groups - Pentecostal, SWAHA, ASJA, Maha Sabha, Catholics and Anglicans to create new secondary schools across the country, unlike the PNM which had stopped establishing denominational schools for a long period before we took office."

She also addressed Manning's claim that Full Gospel churches in Trinidad and Tobago are under attack and must defend themselves against religious persecution.

"If one wants to find an example of religious persecution you need only look to the case which the Maha Sabha won against Manning’s government for failing to allow that group a radio license while granting others, a case won by the Maha Sabha in a ruling by the Privy Council.

"So please, don’t preach to us about religious persecution," she said.

"We will not allow Manning to use these weapons of mass distraction. How can we explain or account for the bizarre intervention in the proceedings of the House last Friday? she asked.

She suggested that Manning's motives appear to be part of an orchestrated strategy to use the media to shift focus from national crises which we face "to poor Mr. Manning the victim of religious persecution." She charged that Manning "wants us to lose perspective and become distracted."

She added, "His rants and raves about religions churches, faith, good and evil and God may well be a political ploy to distract citizens while defending his “dubious” conduct in Church on the Hill Affair.

"I will not be drawn in unwarranted debates about secularism of the State or even the allegation of religious persecution where the Prime Minister is the victim...Do not be distracted by a Red Herring at the expense of the real hard issues facing us today.

Persad-Bissessar charged that citizens are now seeking competence, equal opportunity and equality of treatment from those who present themselves for the country’s top leadership position.

"Our people have demonstrated that they want the best person, a message that has come home to the PNM and Patrick Manning...Long ago he would have played the race card. He can no longer evoke or use race, because race in the politics is being rejected in favour of competence.

"As a result, he now chooses to play the religious persecution card suggesting that some of our brothers and sisters are being persecuted.

"Let us today collectively call on the Prime Minister to desist from fuelling a religious war in this country. This is a most accommodating society, one in which people share their religious faiths, where they work and pray together, where religious festivals are shared and appreciated by each other."