(Trinidad Guardian) Farmers are given a raw deal in T&T and treated with contempt, leader of the Progressive Empowerment Party (PEP) Phillip Alexander has said.
Alexander was at the time speaking when the party opened its Couva South Constituency Offices along the Southern Main Road, California on Saturday.
He said the food prices are skyrocketing because of corruption and the failure to deal with issues surrounding the farming community.
Alexander said T&T suffers from a high level of importation that includes food that should have been produced locally.
He said, “If yuh eating an avocado, a mango and yuh tell yuhself that this is Caribbean food, that’s Caribbean food that we import from up the islands, we growing nothing.”
He added, “Bharrat Jagdeo did not lie, he couched his words. I want to tell Bharrat Jagdeo that what you don’t know brother, is corruption that caused Trinidad and Tobago to fail.”
Alexander said importers are bribing officials to pressure farmers so they can cash in.
“Talk to Dhano Sookoo and she will tell you that the farmers in this country are treated like enemies of the state. Farmers are not given support.”
He said there should be legislation requiring retailers to produce receipts as part of a move to protect farmers from theft.
“If I find you on the side of the road selling a pick-up of orange you should be able to tell me if you are a farmer or (b) this is the receipt I buy it.”
He said once farmers are treated with respect T&T can become self-sufficient in five years. Alexander said diplomatic appointments are another way the state coffers are being drained.
He said diplomatic appointments are nothing more than jobs for politically aligned people. He said there should only be five diplomatic missions serving the major continents. He said the internet and related communications technology has made some of these post redundant.
Alexander said young men in T&T have a higher level of mental illness and suicide especially when frustration creeps in.
He said, “Young men when they slam into the reality of what Trinidad really is and how hard life is, don’t make it worse they get somebody girl child pregnant, because to get somewhere to live…they want a job, a job to pay the bills, why are our people so badly paid, why is our dollar so weak?”
Alexander said employees in T&T are the worst paid when compared to workers outside T&T. He said, “T&T’s money is toilet paper and nobody can tell you why. Nobody could tell you why a Bajan dollar, who eh have no oil, no gas, they have tourism, their dollar is two to one, our dollar is 13 to one, don’t tell be about no six to one. Six to one is the exchange, the value what you get for that money is 13 to 1.”
The PEP also announced that they would be going to all electoral constituencies and called on persons to offer rent-free spaces to the party.
