By Yvonne Webb

Prime Minister Patrick Manning said on Tuesday evening that neither protests nor objections will dictate the Government’s pace in this country’s development.

“Objections and protests per se cannot be a basis for this Government not to do what it believes to be right,” Manning said, at the commissioning of the Pleasantville Village Plaza in his San Fernando East constituency on Tuesday evening.

The Prime Minister, who has also signalled his intention to become a pastor upon his retirement from politics, said God would be their (the Government’s) only judge.

“God is our witness, God is our judge. So it has been in all things,” he said.

Manning said his Government had grown accustomed to objections, detailing instances from 1956 of the State’s decision to provide free education, to the 1972 institution of the Industrial Relations Act, the decision to export natural gas as Liquefied Natural Gas, the construction of the Brian Lara Promenade, the floating of the T&T currency, right up to the construction of the Village Plaza.

“As we seek to put in place one of the bases for a modern industrial state, we have objections for yet another time,” he said in reference to the proposed construction of two aluminum smelter plants, one at Chatham and the other at La Brea.

“But so be it. We are not unaccustomed to objections.”

The protests by a Chatham-based anti-smelter group and criticism from several quarters had caused Manning to agree to a symposium on the issue, promising to rethink the Government’s decision if the objectors were sufficiently persuasive.

He said on Tuesday: “We will hear what has to be said. We will separate fact from fiction and we will take a decision which we believe to be in the best interest of the people of T&T.”

Junior Joseph, the contractor who built the Village Plaza said even though it was plagued by environmental concerns and a shortage of material and increased prices, they were able to deliver on time.

San Fernando Mayor Kenneth Ferguson said the 45 outlets provided in the Plaza would create new opportunities for growth and improvement of the social and economic conditions of the area.

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