Kamal worried about Caroni’s scenario

Describing the dismantling of the old Caroni system as “one of the biggest events in the history of Trinidad and Tobago,” former Government Agricul-ture Minister Kamaluddin Mohammed said yesterday that Government had to “guide and help” those 9,000 people whose lives would now be “completely upset” by the transformation process. He added that no amount of promises about “30 per- cent more” in severance benefits could mitigate against the traumatic impact of “asking generations to change their patterns.” “And I am not taking any political sides...I think it (the restructuring) was rushed. “ It should have been given more time ...But the Gov-ernment now would have to have a serious responsibility to guide these people and really help them to embark on things that they would be able to make a living with,” he said. Mohammed said he was very very worried about the whole scenario. “Really it is not an easy thing,” he stated, adding: “People brush it off and say okay the Gove-rnment waste so much money on Caroni. But look at it not in political terms but in realistic terms.

“The criticism made by some people is that Government is prepared to spend $400 million in CEPEP. They (Government) say that Caroni is losing $500 million. But the people at  Caroni were doing something...they were occupied.”  Mohammed suggested that former PNM leader Dr Eric Williams  continued to sustain Caroni because “he himself did not want a social problem...That is why he was saying he wanted to get a plan that would work,” Mohammed stressed. The former Minister said he thought it was a “colossal mistake” not to go with the  (UNC) plan to sell parts of Caroni to private enterprise. “For example, if Angostura had bought out part of Caroni,  it would not have involved displacing people, just changing owners,” he said. Mohammed said if one went down to the area and saw how the people lived, in places like Orange Field, working hard and educating their children, one would understand. He stressed that while there was need for change, Government should set up machinery and organisations to help people continue to be productive in their own enterprise. He said the far-reaching effects would not only be felt in the area of Caroni but “outside.” “So many businesses places and people’s way of life “would be affected.” And he sought to link what would happen to  Caroni, with what had  happen in Caroni after the highway was built and there was no stop-over crowd as people made their way to San Fernando.

He recalled that when Point Lisas was built and the highway was created, the whole of Couva went dead. “It never recovered from that time, he added. Before the highway was built people used to pass through Couva and engage in different activities. But after the highway was constructed, Couva lost a lot of commerical activity. He added that for those working at Caroni, getting a secure income for decades, it was not easy going home, with no plan of what they would do. “It is a revolutionary thing. And I really hope that the Government and the unions get together and help those people because it is going to be a big, big blow to them,” he said.“You can’t say ‘we sever you, go and open up a parlour’. Who you going to sell to? Because the very people are displaced who you going to, they have no income,” he noted. Mohammed said if even Government gave each worker a piece of land, it would not be easy for them “to grow something and sell it right away. It would require a lot of organisation. You just can’t say everybody would go and plant...Plant what? Eddoes? Beans? The market is flooded.” Mohammed said now that everyone — union and workers — had accepted what the Government had decided upon,  Government could not afford to take the position of “pay them off and let them do what they like.”

Asked whether many of the workers were enterprising, Mohammed said a livelihood in independent farming had to be planned. Citing the farmers of Aranguez and Debe, he said, “Sometimes when you grow tomatoes the prices are so cheap it does not cover the cost of production.” They need a psychological, sociological and economic plan to fit these people in, he said. During the 1981-86 period while Mohammed held the portfolio of Agriculture Minister the then PNM Government began the diversification of Caroni into citrus and rice aimed at using some of the workers  involved in the planting of cane in the production of other crops.  But the plan failed. Mohammed said it was never implemented properly and there was no follow up. But he said he could not remember much of the past and preferred to look to the future.