Let's hold hands to rescue T&T, Kamla tells DOMA

Kamla Persad-Bissessar has told the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA) that business and politics must mix.

In a speech to the business group, the opposition leader stated that politics must facilitate the business environment to make the business community successful, adding that "when the business community is successful then the rest of the nation is successful.”

She said developing a good relationship is a necessity in establishing good governance. The opposition leader was DOMA's special guest at a luncheon in port of Spain, Tuesday.

"We must hold hands to walk this pathway now if we are...rescue our nation, she said.She said the Manning administration has failed the business community.

"How can anyone trust a government that fails to collaborate with its business sector or to consult with interest groups or even conduct proper research on large scale, multi-billion dollar projects such as the Rapid Rail?

“How can anyone trust a government that ignores its own local construction sector and labour force and arbitrarily imports foreign contractor and labour on projects defined by corruption, design flaws, quality issues and cost over-runs; projects that were ill-conceived to begin with?” she declared.

The UNC leader wondered how anyone could trust a government that "arrogantly dismisses and condemns anyone who dares to question its decisions or policies."

She said the Manning administration has refused to protect citizens from criminals and to provide them with adequate health care or basic needs and suggested that the real problem is that no one in authority is listening or seems to care.

"The situation has deteriorated to the extent that there is an uncomfortable relationship between the business community and government," she observed.
Persad-Bissessar noted that governance is not just about laws and budgets.

"Governance is also about the efficient use of resources; it is about empowerment of those who live on the fringes of society; it is about defeating the challenge of albatross bureaucracy that stifles initiative at all levels.

"It is about partnership with the NGO’s, civil society, the business community and labour; it is about collaboration and consensus building; it is about equality of opportunity. Governance is also about ethics," she said.

"It must be hard to pretend political neutrality when as businessmen and citizens of Trinidad and Tobago you, perhaps more than anyone else, know how wrong things are in our country."

She suggested that a genuine business-government partnership could have prevented many of the problems that the business community faces today.
"Can you imagine what we could achieve together if a partnership of interests is genuinely established, one that takes into account the greater good of all?

"There can be no development in our nation once there is a contemptuous disregard for the business sector.

"We cannot advance in self sufficiency once there is no harmonious relationship with our farmers, with our workers, with our business community.

"We cannot build a nation once there is an adversarial relationship with the local construction sector.

"In short, we cannot move forward together unless there is a healthy regard for the contribution made by all interest groups that comprise our very unique society," she declared.

Despite all that she said in her presentation, the opposition leader concluded that she is not the expert.

"I came here today to do something that seems to be all too rare these days; I came here mostly to listen and to learn from you," she said.