PRIME MINISTER THE HONOURABLE BALDWIN SPENCER

TELEVISION AND RADIO ADDRESS

DECEMBER 2, 2004

My fellow Antiguans and Barbudans;

Residents and Friends of Antigua and Barbuda:

Budget 2005 sets out measures to provide a solid foundation for a fresh start for Antigua and Barbuda.

A fresh start is necessary for a nation that has been battered by a long period of mismanagement, extravagance and extensive corruption in government.

A fresh start is necessary for a nation in which unemployment passed 12% at the end of 2003, and is rising, our young people the largest group among the unemployed.

A fresh start is necessary for a nation so deeply buried in debt, and so delinquent in its obligations to its creditors, that it has no credit-worthiness anywhere; could only raise support from local Banks, and could only attract support from external financial institutions after the recent change of government.

This is the grim scenario facing Antigua and Barbuda.

The way forward, and ultimately the way upward, calls for recognition of Antigua and Barbuda’s stark economic realities.

A recognition of the grim realities facing the Antiguan and Barbudan people will drive home the fact that the Government has few options for rescuing the economy and moving the country to growth and the people to prosperity.

We are faced, essentially, with three critical imperatives.

We must reduce government expenditure.

We must increase government revenue.

We must attract private investment to drive development.

The current circumstances of the nation are accurately depicted on the front page of today’s Daily Observer.

The headline reads:

“Pay us Our Money”

The story reports a development that is now commonplace in Antigua and Barbuda.

Workers are demanding money due from a government that cannot pay what it cannot borrow.

Juxtaposed with the “Pay Us Our Money” headline is a photograph of students from the Antigua Girls High School at yesterday’s AIDS March.

The group is led by two students carrying a banner bearing the message:

“Beat The Ignorance. Walk Away From Trouble-Makers”.

The faces of those young girls reflect the optimism of the innocent.

Those children do not appear to be troubled by the problems that their parents, their grand-parents and the wider society and the government have to face.

They are confident that their future is in good hands.

Such concerns as the future of those students from the Antigua Girls High School, the future of all our nation’s children, the economic pressures that their parents face, seem to be receiving little attention in the current radio discourse on the Budget.

The Government does not have the luxury that the critics enjoy to ignore those concerns.

Every week, every meeting of Cabinet starts with a member of clergy leading members of the Cabinet in prayer.

Every week, we pray for God’s guidance in the policies we meet to formulate and in the actions we take.

Every action we take is meant to be in the interest of the people.

I do not recall a single meeting of the Cabinet when the cries of constituents for jobs and financial assistance did not come from someone at the Cabinet table.

The Cabinet recommendation that the government should proceed with the economic opportunities that would result from alliance with the Stanford Group was an economic decision.

I was in China when the matter came before the Cabinet.

I endorsed the Cabinet position, and I acted promptly in negotiating the numerous agreements of the members of Cabinet who were present at the meeting.

I have taken the time to listen to the radio debate on the Alliance for Development through Education and Empowerment that the Government has struck with the Stanford Group.

Some of the slander, the defamation, of decent, upright people on the radio talk shows, has been shocking and deplorable.

It is unfair and it is wicked.

The imputation against the Minister of Finance that was permitted, if not encouraged by the radio station is reprehensible.

The insinuation that there was misinformation of the reporting of government debt to the Stanford Group is equally offensive.

A proper reading would have confirmed that IMF reported external debt due to the Stanford Group.

Locally borrowing through the Bank of Antigua were not reflected in the IMP calculation.

It is not my intention to get into legal intricacies that surround the Dato Tan deal with the previous administration.

I would observe however, that the range and scope of the entitlement to which the previous government assented in the Asian Village Agreement are repugnant to any concept of sovereignty.

Those entitlements will form no part of the eventual agreement with the Stanford Group and development of the lands that were ceded to Dato Tan Kay Hock by the previous administration.

I am confident that any development of those lands by the Stanford Group will be of the character and the standard they have established in this country.

The government has given approval for the Stanford Group’s development of the land-package in the north of Antigua.

The land does not belong to the state.

Dato Tan Kay Hock’s interests hold the title to the land.

The status is that the bulk of the money due on the sale of the land to those interests remains unpaid.

The Government has filed court action to recover the land on separate bases.

We have no control over how long that process will take; nor can we control its outcome.

Acquisition of the land from Asian Villages is an option open to the government.

We have the obligation to establish the circumstances in which the land was acquired for the sole purpose of passing it to Dato Tan.

Those options will be explored.

One option we do not have the liberty to explore is to turn away a legitimate investor with a plan that will generate some 2000 jobs in this country.

Should that happen with enough regularity, we may all then begin to see more clearly than many of us do now.

There are some very vocal who would forbid that one blade of grass be cut; one leaf, one scrub be disturbed on Guiana Island or on any island on our coast. The problem with that is while the grass is growing the horse is starving as unfortunately will untold number of Antiguans and Barbudans.

I have spent my life in Gray’s Farm.

I know the pain of poverty.

My mother cleaned the streets of the City of St. John’s

I still live in Gray’s Farm.

I know the sound of baby’s cry from hunger pangs. I know the humiliation that our senior citizens suffer when they are alone and virtually penniless. I know the anger, the frustration and the hopelessness of young people without job prospects. I know the pressure on police officers who operate in sub standard conditions, with obsolete equipment. I know the challenge facing patients and nurses at Holberton.

I cannot ignore the pain and suffering of the poor in our society.

The Stanford Alliance offers opportunities for small business.

The Stanford Alliance offers funds that can greatly assist in solving the economic problems so many people face.

It offers free secondary education for hundreds of young Antiguans and Barbudans.

It offers at least two thousand jobs.

It is not difficult for me to know what decision will do the greatest good for the greatest number.

I led the fight to stop the Asian Village Project.

I did not lead that fight because I oppose development.

The Asian Village Agreement simply gave away too much for too little.

To this day, I owe over a Million Dollars in the costs the court assessed in the legal action through which I sought to stop the Asian Village deal.

To this day, I still do not have the means to pay off the money I owe because of my fight to quash the Asian Village Agreement.

None of this gives me the right to reject an offer that will bring immediate benefits and open up opportunities to thousands of Antiguans and Barbudans.

I stand by the decision to proceed in partnership with the Stanford Group in development through education and empowerment.

If there is a political cost to come from a decision, that will put bread on the table of more than a thousand households in this country, and ignite a resurgence of the economy I am prepared to pay that cost.

I trust the wisdom of the Antiguan and Barbudan people in this, as in all other matters.

I ask you to trust me to always do the right thing for you, for all in our Antigua and Barbuda.

In this, as in every decision I make as your Prime Minister, and as your Chief Servant, everything I do, I do it for you.

Thank you.

Goodnight.

God Bless you and your loved ones.

God Bless Our Nation.