By Neil Gosine
IT’S sad to say, but our citizens are afraid to speak out against the many atrocities that have been put on the average households and businesses during this pandemic.
They are afraid to speak out because of fear of being victimised.
The PNM now one year through their second term in office is looking for ways to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic and its effects on the economic fallout, the unemployment level, the inequality of the less fortunate and the crisis seen in the economy from the retail sector due to the shutting down of the country for almost a year and a half.
The powers that be seem to be at a lost for any real ideas and solutions to tackle the issues and because of fear of victimisation, the people with sway in our society prefer to keep silent for trepidation of public ridicule from the PNM sycophants on Facebook or directly from being bouff by the prime minister or his ministers.
It seems to be a constant bouff session during their weekly press conferences, when they do not like the questions being asked or try to side step the issues without giving the much needed answers to the media personnel or the public.
The government attitude to anyone who does not agree with what it is doing means to them that you are against them, therefore you are unwelcome in their presence and that the full brunt, the full pressure of the state must come down on you.
This is a frontal attack on the very core of our society where any right thinking person deciding to speak up will face the weight of the government on their backs.
They have to be so careful to speak up against the mismanagement of the vaccines or the shutdown of the retail sector or the rising loss of jobs and its effects on the increase in prices of goods and services, the cost of food that is first on the list of items that we see drastic increases leading to the rise in the cost of living.
In these hard times, they are so fearful of the repercussions to their livelihoods and what little they have left, they prefer to stay quiet while our country burns.
The truth is that we the citizens, all of us, will suffer with this type of behaviour of bouff and attacks and blame of the people of Trinidad and Tobago for the predicament we are in instead of us working together, instead of the government doing the job it is paid to do to counteract the effects of the fallout we have faced these last two years from the pandemic, to focus on saving the lives and the livelihoods of our citizens.
As the government plays its politics, the country burns in front of our eyes and due to fear and ridicule, the influential people that have the sway with the government stay quiet toeing the line.
We are just not willing to put country first instead of self interest, our own wealth and wellbeing are our first priority especially with the politicians that represent us and so we lack the political will, good sense to come together and compromise for the good of the country, therefore we all will continue to be the losers in this game.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” This is a quote normally attributed to Edmund Burke however the essence of the quote can be traced back to the utilitarian philosopher John Stuart Mill, who delivered an 1867 inaugural address at the University of St Andrews.
Neil Gosine is an insurance executive, the North East Regional Coordinator of the United National Congress and a former chairman of NP. The comments and opinions expressed by him in this column are not necessarily those of AZPNews.com, a division of Complete Image Limited.
