Is this the face of totalitarianism?

DIANA MAHABIR-WYATT

The influence of Mr Trump is fascinating to watch as it grows among world populations other than his own.

During a recent community workshop, a bitter complaint was made by one of the participants about the dictatorial behaviour of a supposedly democratically elected and popular Caribbean leader. It doesn’t matter if he was a business, political or religious leader, nor does it matter if he speaks Spanish, English, Hindi or Creole. His name doesn’t matter either, as he will be voted into power anyway.

Dictatorship or totalitarianism, I realised, is becoming accepted internationally as the political “flavour of the decade.” And it is more catching than a virus.

Did you notice a few years ago when Mr Trump proudly boasted he was so clever that he knew how to avoid paying taxes and how that statement was followed by an open “run” on tax avoidance in TT as well?

When I tried to do some research on this, I was told: “You ought to know by now there is nothing new about that in TT. Didn’t you notice lawyers and medical doctors in their cups boast of never paying taxes, because their fees are either paid in cash or by personal cheque so they do not have to report them to Inland Revenue? How do you think building contractors get so rich?”

I consulted a tax lawyer to be sure I was making a correct definition where, as LSE economist Professor Baroness Nancy Sears said, there is a clear distinction between “avoidance” and “evasion.”

I was told tax avoidance is defined as using legal measures in TT under our tax regime to find ways to pay the lowest rate of tax, for example, putting savings in the name of your partner to take advantage of their lower tax band. (Well, I didn’t have a partner with a lower tax band, so that didn’t affect me. I did, however, understand some very complex things, like why some toxic business partnerships and some failed marriages stay together.)

Tax evasion, by contrast, is taking illegal steps to avoid paying taxes, such as not declaring your income to the taxman.

That was a long time ago. I wondered afterwards if the government’s decision to set up the new Revenue Authority was so that tax evasion could not happen, but it took so long that I am not sure if anyone really wanted to change it. Many years have passed since then, while those in positions of authority who were profiting delayed any change. That is totalitarianism.

Pure naked power, of the kind that Mr Trump openly is looking for on the world stage, could not exist here, despite insinuations to the contrary. But those are not facts, although they are often used as bait to draw out the reactions of duplicitous players in the fascinating game of politics.

I tried to understand the concept of totalitarianism in the local context. And I saw examples of it all around me. And yes, there was “tax avoidance mas” playing it was harmless “tax evasion mas.” Not all devil mas is the same.

One man seriously told me, “Totalitarianism is not so bad if the right person is in charge.” Apparently, even slavery is acceptable if you call it “marital obligations.”

And it is the winner who defines the status. It all depends on who accepts it and how it is defined.

When banks won’t let you withdraw your own money that you have worked for, saved and deposited with them for safekeeping, that is not extortion. It is business. They keep it and invest it, earning interest which they keep and profit from.

Since they are doing you a service, is that all right?