People's National Movement (PNM) leader Dr Keith Rowley has gone past holding the Government to account for what he termed the "land grab" in Chaguaramas, and is now calling on the contractors who leased the property to give it back to the country.
Speaking to the large crowd at the end of a two-hour march from West Mall to the Chaguaramas Development Authority (CDA) office yesterday, Rowley said he was not speaking as the Leader of the Opposition or as the MP for Diego Martin West, but as a citizen of T&T calling for the return of the country's soil.
"Hand back the leases which this corrupt Government has given to you. Hand back those leases and be patriotic because if you didn't know the true ramifications then, you cannot say you do not know now," Rowley said.
"Hand back those leases and allow the incoming government to properly be advised so that any development in Chaguaramas would be done to the acceptance of the people of T&T." He said if they got the lands through transparent means, then it would be acceptable.
"There is no group in T&T that knows more or done more or feel more about Chaguaramas than the people of PNM," Rowley said. He was referring to the 1960 march led by former prime minister Dr Eric Williams, who fought to get the land which was leased to Americans returned. It was the Williams-led march that led to Chaguaramas being returned to T&T.
'PNM against land grabbing, stripping state resources'
"We of the PNM, we are not against development, what we are against or opposed to is land grabbing and the stripping of state resources and organised corrupt practices," he said. Rowley said a number of developments had already taken place in Chaguaramas, but they had been done in a "transparent way."
He said the current Government had entered into an arrangement to put the single beachfront in Chaguaramas, which was available to and being used by the public, into the hands of private owners.
"I want to ask the Prime Minister of T&T today, who defended this in the Parliament, if she knows of any better water park than the sea and the sea front we have here now and if she's aware that the trees and the beach and the waterfront here is the best natural water park which the public is now using. Which member of the Town and Country Planning Department would have granted approval for the bulldozing of those trees and for the building of a water park on the seafront of T&T. I would want to know the name of that planning officer, cause such a person's degree needs to be reviewed," he said.
'Baptists now pay to use beach'
Several of the people gathered at the march claimed that Shouter Baptists, who go to the area for their religious prayers and baptisms, now had to fork out over $7,500 for access to the previously free beach, while a beach party could cost organisers some $6,000.
"The national community must now pay for what they already have," Rowley said.
Rowley said he would also correct some "misinformation" being spread by government ministers about the PNM's use of the now defunct convention centre.
"The truth is the PNM has not held a convention in Chaguaramas, we have held our conventions in the Queen's Park Savannah because the Government and their agents have denied us access to the convention centre. But whenever we used the convention centre, we never used it for free. We would pay as much as $30,000 for the centre. So put it out of your mind and out of their lying commentary that the PNM used the facilities for free."
He said that Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar had secretly "passed" the convention centre on to a private party and she had not yet made public the terms of that arrangement.
"We do not know what the terms are but what we do know is that she confirmed that it has been done."
This, Rowley said, was unheard of in any previous governments as the assets were given away without the approval of the people. He also accused the Prime Minister of "buttering up" the CDA chief executive officer, Jocelyn Hargreaves, by increasing her salary.
Rowley said the CDA was now telling the public that the convention centre was infested with termites, but he would like to know what new breed of termites was capable of eating through concrete.
Independent Liberal Party leader Jack Warner and Movement for Social Justice leader David Abdulah were also present yesterday.