RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Ahead of the gen­er­al elec­tions, the Move­ment for So­cial Jus­tice (MSJ) has re­sumed its Cit­i­zens’ As­sem­bly, tak­ing its cam­paign to Preysal over the week­end.

Dur­ing the ses­sion at Preysal Sec­ondary School, MSJ po­lit­i­cal leader David Ab­du­lah said the as­sem­bly is in­tend­ed to raise pub­lic aware­ness and break the cy­cle of trib­al vot­ing. He said based on the dis­cus­sions, crime, un­em­ploy­ment, and fail­ures in the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem are the key is­sues af­fect­ing cit­i­zens.

“The MSJ is reach­ing in­to the heart of com­mu­ni­ties and will take the as­sem­bly to oth­er parts of the coun­try. Ma­jor in­sti­tu­tions are falling apart, and there must be ac­count­abil­i­ty,” Ab­du­lah said.

“There has been a huge re­sponse from the pub­lic, who want to dis­cuss the is­sues af­fect­ing us. Trade union lead­ers and oth­ers rep­re­sent­ing var­i­ous or­gan­i­sa­tions are speak­ing out about the state of the coun­try. This coun­try is in cri­sis, and the ma­jor­i­ty of peo­ple are dis­tressed.”

Ab­du­lah em­pha­sised that uni­ty across eth­nic di­vides is cru­cial for progress.

“This is the on­ly way for­ward. As work­ing peo­ple, those who are mar­gin­alised must join us to bring about jus­tice for all,” he said.

Shi­raz Khan, pres­i­dent of the Carlsen Field Farm­ers As­so­ci­a­tion, raised the strug­gles faced by small farm­ers.

“Big farm­ers with com­pa­nies are re­ceiv­ing tax con­ces­sions, while small farm­ers with­out land tenure have no such ac­cess. We can’t get fund­ing, can’t grow, or ex­pand in­to the mar­ket,” he ex­plained.

Khan said over 25 farm­ers in Carlsen Field have ex­pe­ri­enced home in­va­sions, and 30 farm­ers have lost an­i­mals—some poi­soned, oth­ers hit by cars or at­tacked by dogs.

“Mean­while, big farm­ers and busi­ness­men with po­lit­i­cal con­nec­tions prof­it, while we’re left to fight for land tenure,” he said.

Em­pha­sis­ing the need to raise aware­ness among farm­ers about the short­com­ings of the po­lit­i­cal sys­tem, he added: “We need sup­port in key ar­eas where we can tru­ly rep­re­sent our in­ter­ests.”