People must unite for a better Trinidad and Tobago

THE EDITOR: It was during the wee hours of Thursday morning that I was looking at CNN, and the Nigerian situation was being shown where all the  Trade Unions came together, including the Nigerian police, to strike against the Government, until the Government decides to take action to ease the plight of the Nigerian people, because as they claim, Nigeria is too rich a country for the people to be suffering like that. I remembered saying to myself that we need the same approach here in TT. The blame game can only fool the party fanatics on either side of the fence, the average citizens understand that the Government do not have to beg the Op-position for its support to pass any legislation that is in the interest of the country.

There is a mechanism that supersedes a Parliamentary special majority and it is called a National Referendum. If a Government thinks that its policies are in the National interest and it needs a special majority of Parliament to effect the process then it calls a referendum and seeks that mandate from the people. That is the norm in developed countries. Are we not aspiring to achieve developed country status? It appears that the people must only give a mandate to govern, after that, those appointed to govern, and only them, will be mandated to decide the future of TT. All the Unions must come together so as to let the leaders know that there is too much wealth in TT for there to be so much discomfort amongst its citizens.

The government must be forced to use this new oil windfall to finance a retroactive nest egg so that every citizen will indeed benefit from the wealth of the country. What will happen when we open up our borders to FTAA and CSME?  Nest egg will help create a greater sense of focus amongst the nation’s youths, because there will no longer be the hook up about they studying hard to do minimum wage jobs. Nest egg will encourage them to look into the future with confidence because they already have a start. Maybe they can invest in other FTAA or CSME states. The blame game is like a broken record that the country has been hearing since the PNM and the UNC - which incidentally happens to be different sides of the same coin -worked their trick on TT to ensure that it is either a half dozen of us or six of them.

A country of 1.3 million people with a Budget of over US$4billion yet more than 30 percent of the population are living below the poverty line? Who is fooling who? So please Natuc and all others let sense prevail, the Police is ready to march against the Government, now is the time to unite for the masses, if indeed you have the interest of the masses at heart. The TTMA speaks about creating the environment for investment, but at the end of the day all they are prepared for is to pay minimum wages, no profit sharing and their plan clearly seems to be one of frustrating citizens until FTAA and CSME become fully operational so that their plot for cheap labour will become a reality. When one has the ability to change things and refuse, very often that ability is taken away. Let that not be the sorry tale of TT’s people.        

URSUS DANIEL
Arima