Letter from the Publisher

Nirvan Balkissoon

Undoubtedly the situation in Trinidad and Tobago is not getting any better. The crime plan that the PM has put in place is not working as many of the people held are being released due to a lack of evidence to convict.

Kamla’s crime plan is nothing more than a method of diverting the people’s attention from current mess that the PP Government find themselves in and that being there’s no real crime plan.

T&T just celebrated Republic day on September 24th, although Trinidad and Tobago became a Republic on August 1st, 1976. The event is celebrated as a public holiday on September 24th because this is the date when the first Parliament met under the new Republican Constitution.. so, after 35 years we still can’t get it right, the country continues to be plague with corruption and criminals and still no concrete crime plan from Kamla and the PP Government.

Some of you may think that I am hard on the PM and the Government but they are the ones who promised to make changes and correct the problems that have plagued the country for years. People are frustrated and I am seeing another migration of people leaving Trinidad and Tobago, but it’s the rich who can afford it and escape, the poor will stay and face the reality of what Trinidad and Tobago has become.

Last Saturday’s march in San Fernando was clearly a sign that people are not happy, these are the facts, I am not making these things up. Michael Harris of the Trinidad Express who has been for many years a writer and commentator on politics and society in Trinidad and the wider Caribbean wrote about his assessment of the Government performance.

As far as my assessment is concerned, the most remarkable fact about the tenure  of the People’s Partnership Government after 16 months in office is just how little  has changed in terms of policies and programmes from those pursued by the previous administration. The biggest change has clearly been in the cast of characters. From the Ministers down to the members of the board of the lowliest state enterprise there has been comprehensive change in personnel. But in terms of the script which is being followed it is as though the Manning administration never left.

In whichever sphere of public administration we care to examine, there is not to be discerned any significant change in policy or direction. It is as though the steering mechanism of the ship of state is welded into one position and no matter whose hands are on the helm the direction remains the same. 

This is so whether we look at the overall style of governance or examine each of the functional areas of administration. As far as the overall style of governance is concerned nothing of significance has changed. The dominance of the central executive is still intact and transparency, accountability and consultation are still only terms to which lip service is paid. 

Nothing has been done with regard to even beginning the process of local government reform. Nothing has been done with regard to changing the public procurement processes or even implementing any of the provisions of the Uff report. Nothing has been done with regard to opening up the channels of information. 

And on the issue of constitutional reform the silence from the Government has been deafening. The economy is in stasis. After a short flurry of activity from the previous Minister of Planning on the issue of innovation, economic planning has been reduced to inviting proposals for the development of Invaders Bay. If this proceeds it is going to be no different from Mr Manning’s grandiose waterfront projects.

The Minister of Finance is content to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor in office and rely more and more on deficit financing to keep intact a structure of expenditure which long ago ceased to be sustainable. Not a single one of the hundreds of state enterprises has been shut down; not a single one of the welfare subsidies has been reduced; and CEPEP and URP have more employees today than in the hey-day of the Manning administration.  

In the sphere of education absolutely nothing has changed. The Minister threatened to make the teaching of religion compulsory in schools and secondary school pupils now get laptops. That’s it. No discussions on revamping the curriculum, no discussions of the fact that so many of our students are functionally illiterate, no discussions on how the education system must be overhauled.

In health the story is the same. In fact wherever we look, whether it is in social services, community development, works and infrastructure, transport, tourism, what have you, it is all the same ole!

The only significant difference introduced by this Government as compared to the last is in the area of tackling crime and, in that regard, the introduction of the State of Emergency. And while there may be grave doubts that the State of Emergency will achieve the stated objectives at least it represents a departure from the policies of the previous administration.

It is a well known saying that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and to expect different results. How could this government which campaigned so vigorously against the PNM and all its works, simply come into office and continue with all the structures, the policies and the programmes of the PNM without skipping a beat? And, given that fact, how could anyone declare themselves to be satisfied with the Government’s performance? 

The answer has to be that the different views of the performance of the Government start from different premises as to what is expected of government. Now there was clearly a lot to be said against the style of that administration. So that it is not to be expected that a new government can come into office purporting to have a different style of governance and maintain the same old policies. If the style does not guide the substance then sooner rather than later the substance will surely guide the style.