The Daily Observer ( Antigua and Barbuda )
14 December 2022 ( Page 16 )
To ease the squeeze
It was quite a press conference mounted by the
United Progressive Party
(UPP) yesterday morning,
and once again, the party of
ideas and initiatives to move
Antiguans and Barbudans
forward, did not fail to deliver. Seems, while the incumbency is mired in
internecine wrangling [See
MP Asot Michael’s latest
court victory over the Antigua Barbuda Labour Party
(ABLP)], and totally bereft of
anything of substance, the
UPP is on a roll. The momentum is with the UPP,
while the ABLP is a spent
force. They have NOTHING
to offer.
The UPP is ready, indeed,
has been ready for the bell to
sound, and for the election to
be called. The frustrated citizens of this fair State are quite
eager for the polls to open so
that we can finally cast our
ballots to rid ourselves of the
millstone about our necks.
With the legion of broken
promises, the half-truths and
lies, the ugly and distasteful
‘cussin’ and maligning of
those with whom they disagree, it is manifest that the
political dialogue has been
coarsened. What a lowdown, dirty shame! Mercifully, we have had enough of
that cheap, unstatesmanlike
politics, and we will take
steps to rid ourselves of that
sort.
Anyway, coming on the
heels of the conclusion to its
hugely successful Small
Business Pull-up initiative,
the aforementioned UPP’s
press conference saw a
timely call for the government to step up and do right
by the people. Said the political leader in his opening remarks, “We are here to place on
the table recommendations for
relief, recovery and shared
prosperity. We say that where
there is a ‘you’, there is a ‘way.’
So let us work together to fix the
jobs, the water, and the cost of
living.” Indeed! These are
three of the most vexing
areas in our precipitous decline as a nation. Not to mention the horrible roads, the
unfinished bridges and culverts, the lack of proper
street lighting, the failure to
fix the LIAT problem, and the
ongoing impasse with public
servants and their remuneration. Ask the Clarevue workers. Ask the Fiennes workers.
Ask the contractors. They’ll
all tell you of the straightened conditions under which
they are working, and the
penury in which they find
themselves. It is not a pretty
picture, and Antiguans and
Barbudans are ready for an
easement To date, only a
handful of the chosen few,
those in high places, are experiencing any prosperity.
The rest of us? Well, crappo
smoke our pipes.
Mr Lovell cited the many
occasions in recent times
when He of a High Place
boasted about monies that
were to become available
from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the
US$200 million bond, and so
on and so forth, and Lovell
called on His Highness to, in
light of the improved access
to funds, “immediately extend
the (Antigua Barbuda Sales
Tax) ABST relief to four consecutive weekends.” It is a welcome call to struggling
Antiguans and Barbudans.
How could a government
that is supposedly on a
sounder financial footing be
so very stingy with the ABST
relief for 2022 - one measly
week-end for Christmas?
Talk about a lump of coal in
our stockings. Sigh!
Another welcome call by
the UPP was for this ‘poorboast’ Administration to reduce the current
unconscionable price of gasoline ($15.54) by $3.04 to its
pre-Russia/Ukraine war
level of $12.50. The people are
bawlin for relief, and this ‘deaf,
blind and dumb’ Administration continues to see and hear
no evil in its “failure to provide
any relief or any stimulus to the
people of this nation, at a time
when we are witnessing the low
prices of crude on the world market.” A similar call was made
for a reduction in the cost of
diesel. How can this Administration not see the incongruence in falling crude
prices on the world market,
and continued sky-high
prices at the local pump?
Help us, Lawd!
On the question of remuneration for government
workers, the UPP Political
Leader declared, “The government workers have been crying
out since 2018 for a salary increase and for back pay, which is
due to them. We challenge the
Labour Party government to
match the 17% increase given
under the UPP Administration
during our time in office. And
we roundly condemn the paltry
offer of a total of 7% offered by
the government to public servants. This represents a mere
2% on the interim increase of
5%, which was granted in
2018.” Hmmmm! This is a
heartless Administration that
will make-up story to suit its
agenda, even as it jerks
around the workers. Its spin
on the ‘protracted negotiating
process’ ought not to be believed.
Actually, the UPP is suggesting that, “the government
immediately pay the back pay,
which is due, and which is not
dependent on the negotiating
process.” The UPP is also calling on this Administration,
which has a nasty habit of
welching on its debts, to pay
“Vendors and service providers
at least 50% of what is owed to
them.” And let us not forget
Carnival entertainers and
winners. Last we heard, they
too were bawlin for their
money. Chupz!
Of course, the festering
LIAT impasses continues,
and the former workers, over
four hundred of them, bawl.
So too, the Caribbean Airport
Services (CAS) workers, over
sixty of them. They are crying
for upwards of EC$2 million
in severance owed to them.
The political leader is urging
the Administration to make
these folks whole. Come up
with a workable plan, and dialogue with them and their
representatives in good faith.
Not cuss them off, and make
offers that they supposedly
can’t refuse. This is not Don
Corleone! At least, the government should not be making like La Cosa Nostra,
giving workers ‘take-it-orleave-it’ ultimatums.
In so many areas where
Antiguans and Barbudans
are feeling the squeeze, the
UPP is calling on the Administration to do right by us. It
cannot be that those in high
places are doing well, while
everybody else is catching
hell. . . . The UPP press conference struck the right notes.
[To be continued]
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