Just a Thought about the Election

In order for a democracy, any democracy to function in the best interest of all its’ citizens the basic facts surrounding  the fundamental issues that shape the hopes, aspirations, and vision of the people must first be communicated within the body politic. There must be real public debate of these issues. Citizens may disagree as to which policies must prevail and take priority for the implementation of the resolution of these issues to move the country forward, but they neither posses the right  to remain uninformed, nor  can they choose to be ignorant of  what is happening in their own country. Knowledge of the political issues in a democratic society eventually crystallizes into public sentiment, and thus gives rise to the unified voice that is representative of the will of the people. In essence knowledge of political issues is the very currency of citizenship, and a governmental parliamentary process that is both transparent and accountable is the market place where this currency is traded.

 Patrick Manning as holder of the office of Prime minister and head of the People’s National Movement articulated a particular vision for Trinidad and Tobago, Vision 2020 was communicated to the body politic, but there was never any relevant and spirited public debate that resulted in a public consensus, therefore the Manning government never had nor does it now have an overwhelming popular mandate to implement vision 2020. As a citizen who happens to be a progressive liberal there are large swathes of this document with which I personally disagree. There are also several social and economic issues which I think it should immediately address; such as privatization of state owned corporations, the separation of church and state, a woman’s right to abortion and homosexual and transgender rights, clearly it does not now do so. Even so I gave it my guarded support and waited for its’ implementation thinking there would be much more consultation on line items to help shore up support for something that did not have the approval of the majority of the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago. My hope was that this document was the beginning of a work in progress that would somehow be expanded to include the hopes, dreams, and aspiration of the vast majority of the people of Trinidad and Tobago. Needless to say I have been extremely disappointed by the display of arrogance by the Manning administration towards any criticism of vision 2020 which has reviled a very autocratic, uncompromising style of management quite out of step with the political ideals expressed in our constitution. He has taken every criticism of the implementation of line items of vision 2020 and transformed them into a referendum of his own performance.   So I would now like to take the opportunity to add to Mr. Manning’s distress by highlighting some of the areas where in my opinion this document has fallen short or has been found wanting for substance.

Land and other property reform which for the first time would allow every citizen the equal right and opportunity to own or hold  land, home, business, and part of our natural resources, is by far the single most important issue that directly affects the prosperity of everyone who lives in Trinidad and Tobago. Yet after seven years it still has not been addressed by the Manning government. One would think since vision 2020 is an outline to get us to developed country status this would be a leading issue for which legistration would be enacted. Instead they have placed the cart before the horse by attempting to pass property tax reform first. They have failed to divest themselves of state owned properties, and commercial and industrial investments via the Trinidad and Tobago stock Market which would have the effect of transferring billions of dollars of wealth from the state to their rightful owners, the citizens of this country. They have also failed to rewrite the tax code for the oil and gas industry, and the oil and gas subsidy remains biased in favor of corporations and the wealthy. Land and other property reform who am I kidding not in my lifetime.

 I guess I could explain that every home that is built on land for which the homeowner does not have a valid deed or leasehold contract is for all intent and purpose a zero sum asset that not only arrests prosperity but wastes it. Or that a gas subsidy that is paid at the pump rather than an oil and gas royalty that is paid directly to families perpetuates citizen inequality and so is both unfair and unjust, but why bother.

Crime what else is there to say? It appears that the Manning government has taken the same hands off, laissez faire approach to this as they have taken with so much of everything else. We needed to at least double the size of the police force seven years ago, to date this has not yet been undertaken far less accomplished, and as a matter of fact the head of our national police force is still acting in a temporary capacity after several years. The construction of modern police stations still needs to be seriously addressed. Even after the expenditure of several hundred millions of dollars that may well run into the billions of dollars by now for an Island wide radar system, helicopters, and fast gun boats, the importation of Canada’s and England’s finest, as well as expensive consultants from the USA  crime continues to rise unabated.

Our criminal justice system is now a joke. Anyone who commits murder in this country has a ninety eight percent chance of not being caught by the police. That needs repeating, yes anyone who commits a murder in Trinidad and Tobago has a ninety eight percent chance of not being caught by the police, and the two percent that do get apprehended can rest assured that the conviction rate is less than fifty percent. Look at it this way a woman taking birth control pills in Trinidad and Tobago who meticulously and scrupulously follows all her doctors’ instructions and recommendations runs a greater risk of becoming pregnant than a murderer has of being convicted for killing someone. To say that things have gone horribly wrong would be an understatement, and yet the minister still has a job he goes to every morning while citizens are dying by the hundreds each year, are you kidding me.

The paradox of the existence of both Municipal Corporations, cepep and the urp. Municipal Corporations exist to manage the capital assets of a community or county such as public buildings, playgrounds, and parks. They also manage and maintain the infrastructure such as roads, bridges, sewage, drainage, and garbage removal. These corporations are generally funded by property taxes.

If for example the Diego Martin Municipal Corporation is fully staffed and so has all the management,  manpower, equipment, machinery, and the building and road supplies it needs to properly maintain the county’s infrastructure why are there cepep and urp gangs in Diego martin county? What are they doing that cannot be done by the full time employees of the Municipal Corporation? What unique set of expertise do they posses that cannot be passed on to the workers at the Municipal Corporation?  Why are they getting paid? Is it that the Municipal Corporation is not fully staffed or perhaps it’s’ managers and administrators are incompetent in some way as to make them unfit to fulfill their responsibility to the citizens of Diego Martin county? If so rather than create a whole new shadow bureaucracy of part time workers, managers, and administrators at an annual cost of billions of dollars wouldn’t it make more sense to simply have the Corporation hire the full time workers it needed and fire and replace the incompetent ones or maybe train the employees to the skill level that is required.

Why would the Manning administration saddle the citizens of Diego Martin or any other county for that matter with a shadow bureaucracy to their existing Municipal Corporation? What would make this a necessary course of action when it has been public knowledge for sometime that these same bureaucracies over the last seven years have not contributed in any significant way towards eliminating the poor road conditions, or the flooding problems experienced by the people of Diego Martin or any other county? Rather they have proven themselves to be violently criminal in nature and responsible in part for increasing the murder rate in these very communities. Is this also part of vision 2020?   

This election has provided the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago with an opportunity that has long eluded them. Not since the first general election between the PNM and the DLP have I been so hopeful. Now as then there is a true coalition of progressives, liberals, and labor, united in its’ purpose which is to stop the slide into the conservative abyss and reset the balance between the public interest and capitalism. I know there are some who would say they don’t have a plan beyond getting rid of the PNM, but that is exactly why this is an opportunity so full of promise. History informs us when governments as well as the citizens expectations of the role of government are in transition, this is precisely when the knowledge of political issues are most widely disseminated throughout the body politic .This is precisely when the most important conversations that encompasses the hopes and aspirations of the people are at their most engaging. This is precisely when politicians are most unconstrained in allowing citizens to direct the course of such debates. This is precisely when transparency and accountability are made resolute. This is when real nation building is forged.