Prime Minister Patrick Manning could not hide his feeling of vindication and national pride as he opened the $480 million controversial National Academy for the Performing Arts yesterday.

There was vindication over his strategy of using UDeCOTT, its executive chairman Calder Hart and Chinese contractors, such as Shanghai Construction Group, in pursuing Government’s massive construction programme; and pride over what this has accomplished thus far.

Delivering the feature address at yesterday’s opening of the National Academy for the Performing Arts, Manning spoke of the ’slings and arrows’ he endured, the public scepticism and cynicism. But, he noted triumphantly, all this was changing to pride as the facilities were being completed.

He teased the ’doubting Thomases’ in the country who he said, never believed that they would live to see such a ’magnificent structure’ in Trinidad and Tobago. And he hit back at those who ’were upset that Government refuses to be part the ’lynch mob’ (against UDeCOTT and Hart), paying special tribute to UDeCOTT and particularly, Hart. ’Many can talk, but few can build. As the Bible says, ’By these deeds we shall know them’,’ Manning stated.

’So many of us like Thomas have to put our finger in the wound,’ he said. ’Many of you said ’Who is Manning trying to fool. They would never build that in Trinidad and Tobago’ when the design concept was revealed. ’Well,’ he stated, ’Manning was not trying to fool anybody, we have built it in Trinidad and Tobago’, he said to applause from the audience, which included the President George Maxwell Richards, former presidents Sir Ellis Clarke, ANR Robinson, the entire Cabinet and other dignitaries.

Among those absent were Opposition members and Diego Martin West MP Dr Keith Rowley who boycotted the event.

Manning, undaunted, said there was a change of attitude from public criticism to praise when Government opened the Hyatt Conference Centre, and before the Prime Minister’s residence and Diplomatic Centre,’ he added. ’It appears as though many of us could not see the vision but as the facilities become available, things become clearer,’ Manning said, saying it would happen in San Fernando when the Performing Academy is opened next year.

The Prime Minister said that, step by step, the transformation anticipated by Vision 2020 was falling in place. It was never haphazard or random, he said. And in a dig at Rowley, Manning said it was clear for all present to see that the hotel at the Academy was not an afterthought, but was an integral part.

Manning said now that the physical transformation was in train, Government planned by next September to begin a nationwide highway programme. He said ’priority number two’ was water, then electricity and then Information and Communication Technology.

Manning who said when all the costs were added the two Academies for the Performing Arts in Port of Spain and San Fernando, amounted to US$130 million (TT$820 million). He said 60 per cent of this cost was expended on the Port of Spain facility.

Manning pointed that although Shanghai Construction Group built the Academy, some $100 million of the contract price was spent on local contractors, ’contrary to popular opinion’.

Manning said the next major construction would be the Cultural Centre at Queen’s Park Savannah and restoration of the President’s House.

’It is not a question of the President’s House not being done because somebody had a plan to do away with ....(the Presidency as we know it to make way for an Executive President),’ he said, his voice fading with the laughter in the audience.

Manning who said he initially came for war, but was giving way to the guidance of Almighty God and sticking to peace because of the ambiance and atmosphere. He thanked his Cabinet colleagues, past and present, for their support, provoking more laughter from the audience.

He said the design concept was the national flower the Chaconia and the shining skin was designed to make a connection to the steelpan. He said the stage was the only one in the world specifically designed for pan.

Planning Minister Emily Gaynor Dick-Forde, who spoke before Manning, said that as she reflected on the controversy surrounding the facility compared the project to a ’woman announcing her pregnancy in a climate of antagonism’, enduring the ’pain, the ring of fire and then the joy of a successful delivery’. She said the Bible said there were a time for everything and today was the time to celebrate the ’delight of delivery’. She too ’celebrated’ Hart and ’prophesied’ the facility will take the arts to higher and higher development.