Hosang: No one deserves to be kidnapped

Cro Cro’s controversial song “Face Reality” reared its ugly head at the Employers Consultative Association’s forum yesterday in which the challenges facing the business sector in 2004 were discussed .

 In his address at the Hilton Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturing President Anthony Hosang said the song was “ill-conceived” and “vicious.” In the song, Cro Cro suggests that corrupt politicians and businessmen should be kidnapped. “As a manufacturer, an employer, and a businessman in Trinidad and Tobago, I do take exception to the idea that is being propagated that corrupt businesspeople and politicians should be kidnapped,” Hosang said.

He said, “This vicious directive is at best, ill-conceived, and perpetuates some dangerous and evil preconceptions: that businessmen and politicians are corrupt and that they deserve to be kidnapped. “No one,” he said, “deserves to be kidnapped. And all right-thinking people should be horrified by the prospect of anarchy that such a commentary proposes and should reject it outright. Other panellists included Richard Young, Scotiabank managing director, Dane Darbasie, ECA president and Prestige Holdings CEO, and businessman Christian Mouttet. During the question and answer session, one businessman suggested businessmen and women “put their money where their mouth is” by investing in the community. In response, Hosang said they supported any initiative by the Government that seeks to deal with crime.

He also  urged Government to take the steps necessary to bring legislation up-to-date before the advent of FTAA. “We need competition or fair trading laws, and updated anti-dumping legislation,” Hosang said. He also called on Government to streamline and strengthen the regulatory bodies —  Bureau of Standards and the Food and Drugs Department, Customs and Excise Division, and the Vat Administration — to deal with FTAA. He lamented that products that are likely to be “dumped in our markets are bought and brought here by our own importers and agents and urged the business community to “resist the quick buck.” He said the US had committed itself to a supporting strategy for its ailing manufacturing sector:  to improve their competitiveness, noting that TT manufacturers should expect no less from the Government.

Young, in an overview of the economy, said he expected high liquidity levels to be here for some time and expected to see a further reduction in borrowing costs. He also warned investors against shifting to risky investments to get higher returns, noting that there was the temptation to spend and not save.