Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) leader and Oilfields Workers Trade Union (OWTU) president general, Ancel Roget, yesterday announced plans for another amalgamation of civil, political, social to march through the streets of Port-of-Spain. The march, planned for December 5, is the second instalment of mobilisation efforts to highlight the actions of the “corrupt” People’s Partnership government, he said. Speaking at a media conference yesterday at the Amalgamated Workers Union office on New Street, Port-of-Spain, Roget declared that corruption is now spelt “with a capital K.”
The collaborative march, Roget said, will follow the same route as the May 23 edition which saw several union leaders marching with the People’s National Movement (PNM), the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ), members of the Independent Liberal Party (ILP) and a number of civil and social groups. “One march certainly would not do it,” he said. “We were quite prepared to continue our march for justice for all of the people of Trinidad and Tobago,” he said.
Roget and his JTUM team called on all “patriotic and T&T-loving” citizens to come out and join with them to show the Government how many people are disenchanted with the “PR gimmicks” that hide the corruption of the ruling party. “We have heard of numerous allegations of corruption. Corruption has been revealed, nothing has been done to persons who have been accused, or who are involved in state corruption and so the country continues to suffer,” the JTUM leader said.
He listed several examples of corruption, saying the net effect is poorer service for the tax-paying citizens. “Might I remind the national community that when you have state corruption, when you have corruption in government, it is not a matter that affects the government alone. Corruption in T&T redounds to the negative impact of all of the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago,” he said. Roget listed poor healthcare, unopened and under-resourced schools and poorly-run state agencies among the results of corruption. “So when you hear your government is working for you, your government is working hard with your money for their benefit,” he said.
Roget hinted at another example of corruption, talking briefly of the movement of US$300 million from an international bank located in Port-of-Spain to a remote account in Australia.
“I will talk more of that later,” Roget said when pressed for more information. The announcement of this action comes just days after Roget’s successor at Trinmar, Ernesto Kaesar, was dismissed from his job for not being at the office for four hours. While Roget steered clear of that issue, saying he was staying on the topic of the march, he hinted that the Government meted out harsh punishment to anyone who dared to highlight corruption. “If anyone attempts to stand up and speak out against the massive corruptions that is taking place, such a person is taken down, condemned by those who were condemning corruption in 2010,” he said.