So, the Prime Minister is not afraid of the unions. But it is not the unions that she has to be afraid of. There is nothing in the behaviour, or even threats of action that is aimed at the Prime Minister or her government. It is the anti-worker approach of her government that is under attack. It is the business elite that she should be afraid of.
They are the ones who have the country in its present state with their "greed is good" approach to making profits. They are holding the country to ransom with their failure to pay outstanding taxes, which the Inland Revenue Department seems unable to deal with, with their refusal to repatriate to Trinidad the vast sums they spirited away during the boom years, and with their demand for incentives and tax concessions before they invest in the economy.
Businessmen in T&T are merchants and traders, engaged in purchasing foreign products at low prices and importing them to our country to sell at high prices. Very little, if any, of what is available in Trinidad is truly indigenous, and even those few things are based upon copying foreign, especially American, products. That is the real reason why there is so little private sector investment in T&T and why the Prime Minister has to, in local parlance, "examine the horn" to find out of whom she really should be afraid.
Karan Mahabirsingh
Freeport