A Loveless Thing

The plan to expand and “improve” the programme is as retroactive as the belated back pay our smiling PM confidently dished out in his budget speech. The original idea was that these unskilled workers would be taught a skill or trade during the mostly unused afternoon period. They would then be weaned off CEPEP, because this programme was not a source of permanent gainful employment, but simply a stepping stone towards greater things.

The laudable idea was to empower the less fortunate and teach them a skill, so they could become self-sufficient and independent and earn a decent living on their own. Politically, CEPEP workers are to the PNM, what Caroni workers were/are to the UNC. It is a significant bloc vote comprising young, energetic youth who can enthusiastically (and perhaps, aggressively, if necessary), campaign and mobilise support in a general election.

If a political paternity test was done on CEPEP workers, the word “PNM” will have to be inserted in the column for father.

I remember listening to former Prime Minister ANR Robinson criticising the PNM for the mental enslavement of its own people. This was in the days when the NAR administration was encountering difficulty in selling the YTEPP to people who had become accustomed to living without working and working without living.

YTEPP was a success. CEPEP is not.

Whilst there are many positive measures in the budget, the retroactive back pay and salary increase given to CEPEP workers on the eve of a general election is the most vulgar abuse of public funds. It is an obscene attempt to “bribe” a significant and important section of the electorate. They might as well just collect their pay packets at Balisier House!

CEPEP has actually created an artificial labour shortage on the local market, as businessmen and state corporations are forced to resort to importing skilled labour from as far as China, India and the Philippines to work in the construction and health sectors. Would CEPEP workers actually face the harsh political reality about their allegiance? Do they realise that they are no better off today when compared to their parents who solidly supported the PNM since 1956 to the present?

Which parent dreamed of having his or her child become a CEPEP worker? Is this what the original grandfathers in PNM heartland areas expected after almost half-a-decade of PNM rule? Surely, the dream was that their grandchildren will be the ones driving past in air-conditioned cars on their way to work, waving to the less fortunate in our society who are forced to resort to cutting grass by the roadside to make a living!

There is no future in CEPEP. It is a dead-end road. It is not a serious career option. It does not add value to the economy. To perpetuate this dependency syndrome is a crime against humanity and makes the PNM “a loveless thing.”

The increase in old age and NIS pension, disability and public assistance grants and the minimum wage are welcome and commendable.

The frivolous, but inventive, approach to agriculture simply reinforces the pain and suffering of ex-Caroni workers, who now find themselves having to deal with the reality that the VSEP monies were not the endless pot of gold they thought it was.

Food prices will continue to rise.

The failure to spend any time or money to improve the criminal justice system, especially in the Magistrates’ Courts, is painful. Crime will not decrease until swift justice is possible. The PM sidestepped this important issue, but the almost daily murder statistics remain a potent reminder that crime is prevalent and cannot be solved by helping the police alone.

The time has come for the PM to spend some time on what his Government intends to do to improving the timeliness and effectiveness of the administration of criminal justice.

The PNM failed to diversify the economy during the oil boom and seems set to repeat the mistake. The architecture of macro-economic framework is such that unless lots more oil and gas are found in the near future, the lines to join CEPEP will increase.

Repeating the mistakes of the past might invite the recession of the 1980s, when oil and gas prices or production decrease. This time, the beast of crime will make things a lot worse.

By Anand Ramlogan 2007-08-26