The unheralded social partner

It makes good business sense these days, when a defeated politician is confronted with an uphill task for which to identify support, to select a popular subject of dissatisfaction and target a virgin object of blame.

The major political parties are at one another’s throats blaming each other for any shortcoming instead of moving on and showing the way.

Labour continues to focus its own and its members’ attention on employers, so Carson Charles, the deputy political leader of the National Alliance for Reconstruction, had no trouble in identifying the business community as the only other social partner upon which to pin blame for the awful state of crime in the country in a not too recent article in the press.

The Chamber does not propose to devote this entire column to describing the numerous initiatives taken by the private sector directly, indirectly and anonymously, too, in the interest of developing, fostering and improving its relationship with communities—we would not have enough space to do so.

What we can say is that from the sponsorship of steelbands and sporting events to each barbecue and walkathon on the block, businessmen of every colour, creed and race have always viewed their communities as extensions of their businesses, not only in terms of customers in the marketplace, but as a pool of skilled and unskilled resources from which to draw on for work in industrial estates, oilfields, the former sugar, cocoa, coffee and copra industries and what’s left of our fishing and agro industries in the rural and suburban areas.

They all attest to this. Not unlike the Industrial Revolution, urban businesses attracted all others.

Surely, the business community is aware that it cannot make money out of everything, as Charles complains, but he must also understand that raw material and investments in time come with a cost, even in the public sector and this, too, is an important lesson to impart to these communities of which he speaks, inclusive of the potential criminal elements resident therein.

While crime ought not to pay, T&T could just be the exception which proves the rule.

While he may not also be asking businessmen to build a basketball court in preference to buying two basketballs for youth, who may otherwise succumb to the temptation of deviance, the Chamber’s philosophy is not to give fish but to teach them how to fish. This private enterprise addresses through Junior Achievement, Jumpstart, mentorship, Servol, RBTT Young Leaders and Republic Bank Youth Link, by way of example.

Not only is this the first move, Mr Charles, as you invite the private sector to make, it is a continuous campaign at great cost and, perhaps, we may eventually get you, and what’s left of your party, to follow in the footsteps and mould of the Naz Ahamads, Russell Tesheiras and Ram Kirpalanis of tomorrow.

When you counsel business people to make this first move, remember that countries of this world were not built by governments, but by the people, by entrepreneurs. Our manufacturing, insurance and service sectors are full of them, but governments remain the agents to facilitate their birth, existence and success.

You need to commit this to memory should you and your party ever walk the corridors of power once more, and have to make decisions about taxation, incentives and anti-business legislation, similar to the consequences of the Integrity in Public Life Act, which now effectively prevents the majority of the private sector from serving on State boards, despite the best intentions of the legislators.

While the entire country waits with bated breath to learn about the contents of the Government’s Memorandum of Understanding with Alcoa for construction of the aluminium smelter plant, you can bet your bottom dollar that Alcoa’s stake in the project is not a socialist one.

The private sector has always volunteered to the Government its know-how in these types of negotiations, which should win for the future of the country major local components and a fair return on investment of its resources, so that when the same resources are depleted, the resulting revenues would have been invested by a responsible government in industry, the education and training of youth with skills, which make them mobile in the global market for services.

The Chamber, like you, Mr Charles, harbours its own suspicions about the value of the CEPEP programme and its objectives. Members of its management recently visited with us and demonstrated the elements of training, commerce and management in the programme.

Time and an independent audit of productivity, quality and return on investment are what will inform a final judgment, as you will be only too well aware as a former Minister of Works and with your experience with the LID programme.

While the Chamber admits that some societal relationships may, like family life and the teacher/pupil relationship, have broken down, many of our leaders who have been elected by the same society to lead and represent its members have not done so from the front.

They have not set living examples of loyalty, respect for one another, integrity and care. They have not put country before self, identified the common national interest and worked towards it. Crime is the fitting example.

It affects the lives of every one of our people and, perhaps, even the criminals, for some of them seem to have consciences, as the police recently learnt from the man who confessed to have responsibility for transporting kidnap victim Saada Singh.

What are the private sector and the Chamber doing about crime? Your next question, Mr Charles? With the support of the Government, we have launched and support the Crime Stoppers programme. All we want is your information, not your name; phone 800-TIPS or 800-STOP. If you continue to read our column, you will learn all the more.

The Chamber asks you, Mr Charles, what is your or the NAR’s plan for the togetherness of our people while the party coughs and sputters, having once squandered the precious opportunity to give everyone a stake in T&T and to make them feel they belong?