00:01I'm asking the government to declare Shagaramas a nature reserve.
00:07You can have all kinds of activities in it.
00:09There are all kinds of areas where you could have a FET, you know.
00:12Just don't put 20,000 people down there.
00:15Degu Martin North East MP and former Finance Minister Colm Imbert
00:18speaking during the opposition's media conference.
00:21As the hours of traffic gridlock FET goers and others in Shagaramas suffered
00:26before and after the stink and dirty FET at the military base in the area on Saturday
00:31has now turned into a political football.
00:34The event was held the last day at the Brian Lauer Stadium in South Trinidad
00:37where the government has since banned FET as part of its war on noise pollution.
00:43Degu Martin West MP Hans Deveens also spoke at the opposition's media conference.
00:48I want you all to know and understand as media
00:51that these same event promoters that are under these pressures
00:55because of this government's wicked policies.
01:00Those ministers are having their people come and call these promoters
01:04and asking for 20 and 30 comps, you know.
01:07Prime Minister Kamala Pasad-Besessa told the Express
01:09that the people complaining now had no issue
01:12when the FETs were at the Lauer Stadium in South Trinidad
01:15and caused traffic to back up on the Solomon Ho-Choy Highway for miles.
01:20The Prime Minister also told the Express that the complainers and critics
01:23need to take up their arguments with their PNM MPs and councillors
01:27whom they elected for their areas as well as with the promoters.
01:31In the words of full blown, Prime Minister, the responsibility is respectfully yours.
01:37It does not lie on the MPs or the councillors.
01:41We did not set the policy to push as many FETs as possible to Shagaramas.
01:48Somebody in government made the decision to put 17,000 people
01:52in what is called a cul-de-sac, a dead end.
01:5817,000 people down there and made no proper arrangements for traffic management.
02:0518 hours of traffic gridlock.
02:07And that was punishment for the people of West Trinidad.
02:11TV6 News and other media outlets reported that Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander
02:15said he reviewed the comprehensive plan and was satisfied that,
02:19from a policing standpoint, everything that could have been done was done.
02:22And while some people may go around saying that it is a, it's a norm for there to be events,
02:32FETs,
02:33festivals at military facilities, not at a detention centre.
02:41MP Imbert elaborated on that point.
02:43You look at any other country in the world, FETs concerts are held in sporting arenas.
02:52Any Taylor Swift concert, for example, is in a sporting arena.
02:56I know you know that name.
02:59There are 50,000, 80,000 people in those concerts because the stadium can accommodate.
03:04They're built for that.
03:05They have parking facilities built for that.
03:08They're put in locations where you have more than one access route in and out.
03:12Prime Minister Prasad-Basasa told the Express that the usual critics and PNM MPs for Digo Martin
03:18were the ones who cried for FET promoters when the government clamped down on the noise pollution
03:23and that, if she recalled correctly, the PNM even went as far to use false claims of racism and attack
03:30on the culture.
03:31Digo Martin Central MP Simon Ninobriga defended the opposition.
03:35Any time the People's National Movement raises an issue where we think culture is being affected,
03:43the UNC government translates that into a race issue.
03:48The Homeland Security Minister was reported as having said,
03:51he spoke to both the police commissioner and an assistant police commissioner
03:55and was advised that no event of that magnitude of stink and dirty can be held in Shagaramas again.
04:03Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
04:05Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
04:05Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
04:08Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
04:09Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
04:10Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
04:10Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
04:10Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
04:10Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
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