HAVE black people become more or less economically empowered after 28 years of the black-based PNC rule in Guyana or some 50 uninterrupted years of the black- based PNM ruling Trinidad? Maybe Trinidad is an excellent case study to logically indicate if there is a racist policy to keep blacks out of private business or entrepreneurship.

Currently, most of Trinidad’s major businesses are privately owned and controlled by local whites and Syrians.[see Trinidad stock exchange].
Indians are scattered in mostly the smaller grocery shops at the street corners. The rice and cocoa industries do not exist and the PNM shut down the sugar industry without any Indian rioting or revolting.
They were promised state lands but the PNM never delivered.

Something could be fundamentally wrong where blacks with better Opportunities; better education; an ethnically stocked favourable government bureaucracy; excellence in the English language; complete political emancipation; and many legislated freedoms are still unable to originate and manage businesses, creating a perception which measures  threatened  Indian progress to demoralise their otherwise magnificence.

With so much talent, what can be the reasons for Trinidad’s black people not excelling in private business just as they are unable to skilfully do the same in Guyana or even in the Caribbean?

These observations are by no means a criticism of black people’s economic aspirations with which I have no problems, conceding that they have every right to be just or even better than others. But both the PNC and PNM engaged in massive black ethnic stocking of the public service and armed forces conditioning them into a comfort zone of unparalleled lethargy. With black workers safely ensconced in cushy 9 to 5 jobs with guaranteed super- salaried incomes regardless of whether they produced, performed or procrastinated was there any incentive to enter private enterprise? Perish they could not with the state under their complete control. Trinidad’s Dr Eric Williams earnestly believed that blacks have patrimonial, exclusive rights and ensured it within the state. Most present- day black leaders reinforce such expectations long after Dr Williams and even without Forbes Burnham making it popular.

But race alone cannot be the most pre-eminent qualifying criterion forsuccess in economic well-being nor does culture, or other factors such as intermarriages play much significant roles? Black history has previously reinforced a proud legacy of successful empowerment to proactively own land, e.g. Victoria,Buxton and farming as their head start.

Recent PPP/C government initiatives to nurture black business enterprises must be accelerated whereby they overcome any reluctance and face all the risks of growing in private business.
What can therefore negate the conclusion that a state dependency culture and an old time, outdated leadership mentality is actively militating against black hopes and aspirations for their entry and success in private enterprise?
With the PNC now headed by a man of war as their leader possessing absolutely no knowledge of private enterprise, economics and government can Indians still be guilty for black inadequacies? Indians still strive for progress even outside Guyana where the PPP has absolutely no power.

With entry into the government sector strangled by black power, (it still continues) Indians simply had no alternative except to continue in back-breaking, sun-drenching and muddy agriculture or go into private business. All the financing capital vital for the Indians were from their personal savings, made by their thriftiness and sacrifices anyway.

Until the current tainted black leaders and their Indian impediment supporters become less influential in shaping black people’s destiny, they would always be perpetually stuck in the public sector. Absolutely, none of these leaders have any knowledge or experiences whatsoever how to facilitate, nurture or manage private enterprise! How are they honestly expected to make black people wealthy or successful in business?

Even with the PNM management of Trinidad’s Caroni sugar industry where the mostly Indian working class were employed, things did not go well.  When the industry started to fail, Prime Minister Patrick Manning wanted to privatise it but old guard PNM leftover Mr. Overland Padmore warned that divesting control of the public sector would not be in black People’s interest! Manning scrapped the industry and dismissed all the Indian sugar workers.

Obviously with the current black leadership in Trinidad and Guyana squandering a respective 50/28 year advancement in black  power and education, black unfulfilment can hardly be ever blamed on Hinduism as per Dr Kean Gibson’s despised racist attacks on Indians.  Haiti has no Indians so what makes them so glaringly impoverished?

This historical, enslaved tethering to an outdated black leadership can only be  changed  by a  proactive new generation of leaders sufficiently empowered to change black thinking and cultural practices  away from state dependency.

Black U.S. Nation of Islam founder Elijah Mohammad transformed young black youths into bowtie-selling street businessmen completely changing their outlooks. Such changes must begin within and among black people as a necessity for a new emancipation. In the meantime, what prevents them from utilising the better business opportunities that the PPP/C is now offering?