Good Morning, Antigua and Barbuda.

Good Morning to the rest of the world who are with us via the Internet.

The decisive mid-term endorsement President Hugo Chavez received in the Venezuelan referendum on his turbulent rule is of considerable relevance to CARICOM.

Prime Minister The Hon. Baldwin Spencer President Chavez has demonstrated unwavering commitment to tangible action to insulate Antigua and Barbuda, among other CARICOM countries, from the economic setbacks that can result from rising fuel prices.

I have had talks with President Chavez about the Government of Antigua and Barbuda's ongoing intervention to protect motorists from any rise in the price of gasoline at the pump.

This intervention is also aimed at averting sequential increases in services and goods throughout the Antigua and Barbuda economy.

Related to this, President Chavez recently sent a Venezuelan aircraft to fly Antigua and Barbuda's Attorney General to Venezuela for high level talks on these matters.

In extending congratulations to President Chavez last week on his referendum victory, I reminded him of our bi-lateral talks in Mexico at the end of May, when we discussed an official visit to Antigua and Barbuda by the Venezuelan President.

During my visit to the Dominican Republic for the Presidential Inauguration, last week, President Leonel Fernandez, who has been returned to power in that country, responded with spontaneous enthusiasm to my invitation for him to visit Antigua and Barbuda.

Antigua and Barbuda and the Dominican Republic are both hosts to significant communities of immigrants from the other country.

Immigrants from the Dominican Republic comprise a significant section of our plural society.

President Chavez and President Fernandez both have legions of admirers in Antigua and Barbuda.

While in the Dominican Republic last week, I had talks with the President of Brazil, "Lula" Da Silva.

Our discussions were dominated by the current situation in Haiti.

I was impressed by President Da Silva's insight into and concern over CARICOM'S current division on engaging with the interim administration in Haiti.

My view on Haiti is now globally known.

We insist that the government of Haiti and those of all member CARICOM states must be democratically elected.

At the same time, we cannot ignore the plight of the Haitian people.

All of us in CARICOM are indeed our brothers' keepers and our sisters' keepers.

The Caribbean Community can only help the Haitian people by a constructive engagement in the current United Nation Reconstruction effort in Haiti.

With all of this, I recognise that a community of interests now links the English speaking Caribbean with all of Latin America.

The United Progressive Party is, of necessity, committed to broadening affinities with Hispanic communities in the Americas.

In this context, it is not by coincidence that ABS TV and Radio will have Spanish language presenters on staff from next month.

The Haitian situation, President Fernandez' return to power in the Dominican Republic, the Referendum in Venezuela are all of regional, and indeed, international significance.

These items should therefore have dominated the news across the Caribbean and across the Americas last week. They received relatively fleeting attention.

This is readily understandable.

Despite such happenings as the Olympics and widespread storm and hurricane disasters of major magnitude around the world, regional and global attention remains riveted on the Presidential Election Campaign in the United States.

A striking feature of that campaign is the seemingly increasing reliance on opinion polls for strategic campaign and for planning and media coverage of the Presidential Elections.

It is instructive to see the extent to which opinion polls inform the reports and comments of television hosts, campaign strategists and political analysts in the United States.

Those programme hosts, political analysts and campaign strategists all seem to relate their comments to the findings of opinion polls.

This obviously tempers the subjectivity of their commentaries on elections issues.

The use of public opinion polling is not restricted to election campaigns.

They are also used to inform business, government policy and media policy.

Our political pundits and other media commentators appear to get by with far less reliance on measured public opinion than do their American counterparts; or for that matter, their Canadian counterparts and their British counterparts.

Politicians in our part of the world appear to be ambivalent, at best, about opinion polls.

Many politicians in our part of the world are dismissive of any opinion poll that does not flatter whatever narcissistic views they have of themselves.

The results of the March 23rd Antigua and Barbuda General Election would have established the credibility of Mind of the Nation polls, the CASURO polls and the CADRES polls.

They all predicted a United Progressive Party landslide; which is precisely what the voters delivered.

Those results should have underlined the continuing relevance of reliably measured public opinion.

As the United Progressive Party completes the fifth month of our first term in government, we can use the full report on last Month's "The Mind of the Nation" study as a reality check on how the Antiguan and Barbudan people feel about this government.

In spite of all of the noise in the marketplace, the Antiguan and Barbudan people are giving the UPP administration very favourable ratings and a "thumbs up" on key indices.

This is across all subsets of the society.

A solid majority of the population, native born and foreign, male and female, young and old, poor, middle class, and wealthy, college graduates and high school dropouts, rates the UPP government very highly on most scores.

On a number of issues, approval for the Government is at the level of the late sixties to seventy percent.

Rejection of strident Opposition claims of victimization is virtually double the extent of acceptance of those allegations.

My response to this poll is to look at what the government has been doing right to have earned such widespread approval from the national community.

Parallel with this, I am also looking at the areas of demonstrated concerns that the poll turns up.

We will improve what is right, and what is wrong we will put right.

The government will work to improve its performance in the areas where the population is expressing approval.

Parallel with this, we will work assiduously to dramatically alleviate causes for discontent.

The Mind of the Nation findings are heartening.

They confirm that the Antiguan and Barbudan people understand and approve of the policies, measures and institutions that the UPP is strengthening; and the new ones that we are establishing.

We continue to establish mechanisms for fiscal responsibility.

We have introduced integrity legislation in Parliament.

This is on the agenda for Thursday's sitting of the House of Representatives.

We will shortly introduce Freedom of Information legislation.

This is in delivery of the UPP's sworn commitment to transparency and accountability.

The Opposition leadership and Opposition sympathizers wish to hear nothing about accountability where their past management of the nation's affairs is concerned.

Of late, however, they have seized upon the word "transparency".

They are either deliberately misrepresenting it, or they are woefully under-informed about the concept of transparency as a pillar of good governance.

We must remember that they have had no experience with either transparency or good governance.

They know only too well that the sale of the Royal Antiguan is bound to be the precursor to in-depth investigation of all the maneuverings surrounding the funding, construction, land distribution, debt management, and other scenarios involving former high government officials.

Similarly, with the court action regarding the Dato Tan Asian Village deal.

Knowing this, they seek to manipulate the media and to incite fanatical supporters in the most obnoxious ways.

A convicted drug felon is using a Bird owned radio station to routinely vilify, defame and scandalize and shred the reputations of decent people, including investors, foreign as well as local.

It is now patently clear that the opposition will go to the most extreme lengths to derail direct foreign investment.

Their manifest and stated purpose is to ferment discontent in the society.

Democracy, for those people is entitlement without responsibility, license without limit.

Investigation of the Royal Antiguan and the Asian Village apart, the sale of the Royal Antiguan and it's upgrade, with new facilities, will measurably enhance the country's tourism plant.

The operator of the Royal Antiguan as it now stands, made it clear to the Government that he was not prepared to continue to operate the property, which has been losing money; and that he was prepared to hand over the keys.

This meant that an already run-down property would continue to deteriorate; visitors would be increasingly disappointed; and the country's reputation in the tourism market place would suffer irreparable damage.

The construction of a modern convention facility and the new owner's leverage in the meetings and conventions sector will mean additional tourism revenue for the country.

All of this apart, it would be useful for us to look at the concept of transparency as a pillar of good governance.

Transparency in government is not a matter of moving Cabinet meetings to a stage erected at East Bus Station.

Transparency in government is not a matter of going to the people for permission to carry out the very functions that the people elected the Government to discharge.

The aim and function of transparency as a fundamental mode of governance is to eliminate corruption.

Corruption over which the recently defeated dynasty presided has had dire economic and social consequences for the Antiguan and Barbudan people.

Corruption over which the recently defeated dynasty presided has trapped untold numbers of people in structural poverty and in untold misery.

Corruption over which the recently defeated dynasty presided has undermined democracy and the rule of law in this country.

Corruption over which the recently defeated dynasty presided destroyed good governance.

Corruption over which the recently defeated dynasty presided has destroyed ethics in the private sector.

Corruption over which the recently defeated dynasty presided bred the social and economic crises that now confront the nation.

Corruption over which the recently defeated dynasty presided has led directly to serious threats to domestic and international security.

Corruption over which the recently defeated dynasty presided has retarded social and economic development in our country.

Corruption over which the recently defeated dynasty presided has compromised the sustainability of our natural resources.

The United Progressive Party Government sees transparency and accountability as powerful tools in:

Fighting corruption. Reducing poverty. Promoting social injustice. Strengthening democracy. Fostering open government. Promoting sustainable development; and Protecting the environment. In keeping with international standards of transparency in government, the UPP Administration also aims to establish more effective procedures for tracing, freezing and recovering funds transferred abroad by corrupt officials.

On a very urgent basis, we are taking legislation to Parliament this week to give effect to a number of the measures to deal with violent crimes, including gun related crimes, which I announced in my recent address to the nation on law and order and public peace and safety.

The Build Up Business Bill, which will guarantee small business twenty five percent of all Government procurement and contracts, including major direct foreign projects, is also on the agenda for Thursday's sitting of Parliament.

My good Friends; Brothers and Sisters:

I am Baldwin Spencer.

As leader of the United Progressive Party, I am the Chief Servant of the Antiguan and Barbudan people.

Thank you for joining me today.

Please tune in next Sunday, same time, same station.

Wherever you are at this moment, may God richly bless you and your loved ones.

Let us join in praying for God's richest blessings on the Antigua and Barbuda that we all love.