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Speaker:The Honourable Basdeo Panday, Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
Date: July 11, 2000
Occasion: Presentation of the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Report 2000 at the Prime Minister's Office, Whitehall, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
The UNDP�s Human Development Report 2000, as was the 1999 Report, is a welcome audit and a welcome affirmation of Trinidad and Tobago�s success in our efforts for social justice for the people of our Republic.
It is gratifying that the UNDP, in the Human Development Report 2000, recognises our efforts to overcome poverty.
It is most gratifying that on our success in overcoming human poverty, Trinidad and Tobago, measured at the end of 1998, was ranked Number Five among the developing countries of the world.
Not only has our success in reducing human poverty earned us the ranking of Number Five among all developing nations, Trinidad and Tobago has also earned a better ranking than such developed countries as the United States of America, Ireland,and the United Kingdom in overcoming poverty.
Among the measures which my administration has used in our poverty reduction programmes, are relief on the tax on food and other consumer items, increases in old age pensions, and the establishment of a National Minimum Wage of $7 an hour.
Our achievements in the fight against poverty are not the only index on which Trinidad and Tobago is notably successful.
By the UNDP�s Gender Empowerment Measure, Trinidad and Tobago is rated Twenty-Second among all 174 countries, developed and developing, that are evaluated in the Human Development Report 2000.
This places us ahead of such countries as Singapore, Italy and Japan on the Gender Empowerment Measure.
My Administration�s development policies are driven by our manifest crusade for social justice, integral to which is equal opportunity.
This concern has driven my own political history odyssey.
I am therefore extremely gratified that this year�s Human Development Report places specific focus on full and equal rights for all as a fundamental, a vital component of human development.
The opening overview statement of the 2000 Human Development Report could not have been more timely.
I quote:
"Human rights and human development share a common vision and a common purpose to secure the freedom, well-being and dignity of all people, everywhere."
"To secure freedom from discrimination by gender, race, ethnicity, national origin or religion".
End of quote.
More than 2 years ago, on March 13th, 1998, the Government laid the Equal Opportunity Bill in Parliament. The Equal Opportunity Act is intended to prohibit acts of discrimination on the grounds of gender, race, ethnicity, disability, origin and religion in particular fields, namely, employment, education, the provision of goods and services, and accommodation.
Directly relevant to this, the Human Development Report 2000 estimates that in the past decade, civil wars have killed 5 MILLION people, worldwide.
Commenting on this unfortunate phenomenon, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Dr. Kofi Annan, expresses the view that these wars have often been driven by political ambition or greed, and that these wars have preyed on ethnic and religious differences.
The great challenge we face in Trinidad and Tobago is the management of a multiplicity of such differences.
The greatest challenge facing the world is the management of diversity. I have often stressed this.
In this context, I met, yesterday, with leaders of the Pentecostal and Evangelical faiths to discuss their concerns over Clause Seven of the Equal Opportunity Bill.
In my view, the proposition before us was and is straightforward.
Do we try to manage diversity by democratic, orderly, legal process?
Or, do we risk the eruptions that, so sadly, we have witnessed, and are witnessing, in other countries?
There are those who would say "That couldn�t happen here".
I would remind such persons of the army mutiny of 1970.
I would also remind them of the murderous attempt by a fundamentalist group to overthrow the constitutionally elected government in an effort to take control of the country.
Civil societies such as are envisaged by the Human Development Report must, of necessity, be societies of laws.
It follows that civil societies should be governed by laws that promote inclusion.
The Evangelical and Pentecostal leaders with whom I met yesterday made the point in an oblique but quite persuasive manner.
They pointed out that the Equal Opportunity Bill, while prescribing that the Equal Opportunity Commission should reflect a balance of race and gender, did not include religion in that balance.
It was a point well made.
It was a point that I immediately took.
All of this is consistent with the UNDP�s commitment, and my Government�s commitment, to identifying a comprehensive range of all rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural, for all people.
One of those rights, one of the truly salient of those rights, is the education of the child.
The decision, and the implementation of the decision, to provide a place in a secondary school, and a programme appropriate to the needs of every child, is a recognition of that obligation to the children of the nation.
Without a good education throughout the lives of our children and young people, they would have no chance to ever realise their God given potential.
It is heart-rendering to see the plight of young people who, through no fault of their own, are not equipped to fill any of the jobs that are available in the wave of prosperity that�s sweeping across the nation.
Hence my focus on education, training and life-long learning.
My Administration�s various measures to enhance the rights of all citizens pre-date the UNDP�s current critical focus on human rights as an essential component of human development.
The Human Development Report 2000 asserts that without the rule of law and the fair, (and may I add, the timely) administration of justice, human rights are no more than paper.
That is why, without any prompting from external entities, my Administration has introduced the Freedom of Information Act.
For the same reason, we introduced integrity legislation mandating transparency, integrity, and accountability in public affairs.
Directly related, last month, the Commission of Enquiry into the administration of justice conducted its hearings.
The findings of the Commission will, I am confident, be translated into effective measures to ensure equal justice for all, irrespective of means.
A careful reading of the Human Development Report 2000 will uncover even more that is relevant to our society.
A case in point is the assertion that advances in the 21st century, will be won by human struggle against divisive values and against the opposition of entrenched economic and political interests.
Apt though this assertion might be when applied to Trinidad and Tobago today, it can readily be applied to the engagement between developed countries and developing nations in the new global economic system.
I should like to see the UNDP, the United Nations, the World Bank, the World Trade Organisation, all the forces that direct the current state of globalisation, held to a meaningful balance between the entitlements demanded, accorded and levied by developed nations, against the responsibilities imposed on developing countries by the international agencies.
That confrontation, perhaps, may well be the theme of a forthcoming Human Development Report.
Concerns of this nature are dramatically defined in the ongoing call in South Africa, for example, for affordable prices for drugs for the treatment of AIDS.
The Seattle protests, and the more recent demonstrations against World Bank policies also make the point.
As the UNDP continues to raise the consciousness of the peoples of the world, it would be to the great benefit of global civilisation if special attention was given to awakening the conscience of the global corporations for whom virtually all barriers to trade were effectively removed in the globalisation process.
With this petition, I wish, through the UNDP Representative, Mr. Hans Geiser, to thank the United Nations Development Programme for the Audit, and for the tacit Approval, of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago�s efforts to improve the lives of the people of our Republic.
I also thank the UNDP for the validation of our resolve to ensure, in the broadest possible sense, true equality, human rights, and equal justice for all in our society.
We will continue to work vigorously to these ends.
I am confident that future Human Development Reports will chronicle our success in their efforts.
Thank you, Mr. Geiser.
Thank you, colleagues.
Thank you officers of the Public Service.
May God Bless You all.