MSJ Political Leader David Abdulah is critising the social injustice that comes from major conglomerates and banks posting record increases in revenue and profits while ordinary citizens haven’t seen improvement in their personal circumstances. He quoted the Mighty Sparrow saying, “too many are ketching their backsides!”
Abdulah said Ansa McAl and Massy posted increases, “the income of the vast majority of citizens –workers, small and medium size business-people, the self-employed, farmers and fisher-folk – remained the same,” he said. “And most have not had an increase in 10 years!
He said retirees remain vulnerable, while unemployed people have stopped looking for work.
“In simple terms the information about how well the big conglomerates are doing compared to what is happening to the wages of workers, and the incomes of the majority, is that the rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer,” Abdulah lamented.
Abdulah said the Minister of Finance’s boasting of the improvement in the economy does little unless what is really discussed is, who is beneftting most from the “improved economy.”
He called on political parties to change the status quo of who controls economic power and who benefits from that control.
Abdulah noted, “All the big companies in T&T – the energy multinationals; the big conglomerates; the banks and insurance companies; the big food importers; the large contractors; and others – are favoured by whichever party is in office. This is why these companies thrive regardless of who is in office.”
He tied the economic circumstances to crime, saying people don’t feel like they ahve a fair stake in the country and they don’t feel like they have an opportunity fo benefit from its wealth.
He said until this changes, “we will have some, mostly young men, who feel so dispossessed that they will stop at nothing to dispossess others of everything including our lives.”
