Spending taxpayers’ money to buy political support

THE EDITOR: Is it correct, moral, or legal to spend taxpayers’ money for wages to workers in “make work” programmes (URP and CEPEP) in exchange for their political support? What are we doing to this nation when people are obliged to blindly support a political agenda in order to retain employment? Is this not a return to slavery, mental slavery, on occasions such as the one at McBean?

Work is fundamental to human existence. Quite apart from providing the means to satisfy human needs, work is important for health and life itself. It is through work that many people demonstrate their individuality, gaining recognition by what they do. Work gives people opportunities to experience fulfilment, self-expression, and accomplishment. It affords people the feeling of being useful members of society. Many people who cannot find work become desperate and vulnerable, willing to surrender all vestiges of dignity in exchange for work.

In an effort to reduce and perhaps eradicate poverty, a government can stimulate the economy to create work. Government can also provide quality education and training so that people can be prepared to access the jobs that are being created. Quite apart from poverty reduction to progammes, a government can engage in poverty alleviation by providing various forms of social relief. In TT we have devised “make work” programmes where pseudo jobs have been offered to the poor. These jobs often arise from environmental projects, paralleling and overlapping jobs that exist in the corporations and boroughs. Some might question whether these projects really contribute to economic growth, but I have no doubt that such jobs in the URP and CEPEP really place food on the table for many people.

However, the provision of work to alleviate poverty does not give any government the right to disrespect the human dignity of these workers by denying them their freedom to think and to take their own decisions. I have been very critical of the previous regime for busing URP workers to wave flags and inflate the attendance at political meetings. Now I am grievously disappointed to find that CEPEP workers have been mobilised to show support for government’s position in the Caroni (1975) issue. This shows a prevailing political culture that assumes that the provision of work to disadvantaged people justifies their mental enslavement. Is this the way to become a developed nation by 2020? The McBean incident pits worker against worker, and sets the stage for conflict, reckless widening the rifts that politicians have already instigated in our society. Furthermore, this massing of the troops totally contradicts the Hon Minister’s posture of goodwill and fair play. Again I ask whether it is correct, moral, or legal to spend taxpayers money in wages to purchase political support?

DAVID SUBRAN
Chaguanas