"Voiceless" business community will rise against government: Dookeran

Winston Dookeran says business people in Trinidad and Tobago have now become "voiceless" because of fear of being victimized by the government.

The Political Leader of the Congress of the People (COP) made the comment Tuesday night at a COP meeting in San Juan.

“The business community is so afraid that they have gone silent in their legitimate voices, that they shall rise against this government. I say that without fear of contradiction,” he said.

Dookeran said the fear comes from a feeling that they would either be “personally victimized” or “made a scapegoat.”

“The business community is so afraid that they have gone silent in their legitimate voices, that they shall rise against this government. I say that without fear of contradiction,” he said.

Dookeran said the fear comes from a feeling that they would either be “personally victimised” or “made a scapegoat.”

The former Central bank governor added, “There are so many frightened people, many of them at the University of the West Indies—frightened to be scholarly—many of them in the corporate sector—frightened to speak their minds in public.”

Dookeran also criticized Prime Minister Patrick Manning's plan to establish a political and economic union between Trinidad and Tobago and Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States.

He predicted that Manning's plan would generate illegal immigration.

Health matters

In another unrelated development, the party's health spokesman has cautioned the country's health minister about the possibility of "economic hitmen" profiting from the Swine Flu outbreak.

In a news release, Dr. Navi Muradali said “the media hype, both internationally and locally" has created an opportunity for financial predators to try to profit from the flu outbreak, especially in developing countries like Trinidad and Tobago.

Muradali said Trinidad and Tobago may not necessarily need Swine Flu vaccines "due to the low lethality" of the virus since both Swine Flu and the common flu have similar symptoms, and both can mutate to other forms which may be resistant to vaccines.

He said more research is needed, including a cost-benefit analysis, to ensure that money is not wasted on vaccines.

Muradali warned that if the well-established immunization criteria of International Health agencies is not followed, Trinidad and Tobago may well be at risk of spending large sums of tax-payers dollars to multi-national pharmaceutical companies who may benefit more on the hype than on the reality of the flu outbreak.