(Trinidad Express) Business is down in Trinidad and Tobago “across the board” by at least 30 per cent, and some in the restaurant and hospitality sector have suffered a 75 per cent reduction in income since the declaration of the State of Emergency.
Even banks are affected.
So said Diego Martin North/East MP Colm Imbert as he contributed to the debate on the motion to extend the State of Emergency in the House of Representatives yesterday. He added that a number of businesses in Port of Spain had seen a 50 and 75 per cent reduction in revenue.
“People are out of jobs in certain establishments, the working hours of other persons are being reduced in hotels and restaurants because people can’t work at night anymore…there is an concomitant effect on their income and they can’t make their payments to the banks for loans for vehicles, for consumer items, for appliances. There is already a significant effect on the banking sector and I know that they (the Government) know that.”
But he said businesses were afraid to speak negatively about the State of Emergency for fear of being penalised. “From the research we have done, the consensus from the businesspeople who have been speaking to us privately, because they are afraid to talk. Remember you have imposed an emergency regulation that if one publishes anything that is critical of this government, that if someone says anything that would lead to disaffection, that they going to be locked up. That is in the Emergency Powers Regulation,” he said.
“What the business people tell us is that small businesses cannot sustain a three-month State of Emergency, medium sized businesses would be very hard hit and only large businesses and conglomerates are going to be able to sustain the negative effects of this three-month extension. That is going to be economic impact of the state of emergency. You going to have a number of small business people who are going to have to close down their businesses and retrench their employees,” he said.
He added that people were worried about what is going happen when the State of Emergency is lifted.
“They foresee difficulty with the security forces being able to revert to the pre-state of emergency norms of power, with the criminals striking back, a crippled economy and a traumatised and deeply resentful and angry black community,” he said.
Imbert said people wanted to know why people in high places have not been arrested.
And they believe that the State of Emergency had criminalised certain sectors of the society and exacerbated the racial divide, he said.
Imbert said drugs worth millions of dollars were coming into Toco every week according to the police report he had, but there was no curfew there.
He said anybody living in the southwest peninsula knew guns came into Cedros and Icacos from Venezuela, yet Government had excluded the Penal/Debe Regional Corporation from the curfew dragnet.
Everyone also knows that in La Horquetta there is criminal activity but the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Corporation was excluded.
There were also well-known gangs in Tunapuna, St Joseph, Maloney and Wallerfield, but the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation was also excluded, he noted.
He said the same applied to Rio Claro and Mayaro.
“There is no rhyme, no reason, no logic, no rationality in the areas selected for curfew,” Imbert said.
He said if there was this threat of a massacre, people who were going to shoot everyone on sight and create a bloodbath, Government was asking people to believe that “these criminals coming along the Eastern Main Road or whatever route they use, as they cross Uriah Butler Highway, they stop killing people, they stop dealing in drugs and guns.”
“The only conclusion is political: Government has singled out certain political regions. This Government which is driven by politics recognised that there would be a negative backlash from the people in their constituencies…They don’t care about the people in particular areas in the country…When you walk the streets that is what people are saying,” he said.
