- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - Aujourd'hui 04:49

What is wrong must be put right

FERDIE FERREIRA SHORTLY after the death of prime minister Dr Eric Williams on March 29, 1981, the selected prime minister George Chambers made the following comments: 1. What is right must stay right, and what is wrong must be put right. 2. Fete over, back to work. 3. Houses before horses. The year was 1981 with seven months before the general election held on November 9, 1981. Chambers took the PNM to an unprecedented victory, winning 26 seats in Trinidad. Except for the no-vote campaign in 1971, PNM had never won more than 24 seats in Trinidad. Let’s not forget our history. Five years later in 1986 the PNM suffered its worse defeat in its political history, 33-3, including the historical defeat of the prime minister and its political leader. In our sometimes emotional reaction in both victory and defeat, we conveniently ignore and/or otherwise forget the record of our political history. In democracies such as ours we change/throw-out governments based on our perception of their performance. It was no different on April 28. The electorate was dissatisfied with the PNM government and voted overwhelmingly for the Kamla Persad-Bissessar-led UNC and expects, like the Chambers government in 1981, the UNC to keep what is right and put what is wrong right, to get the nation back to work, to be more innovative, productive, and consistent with its successful mantra, “When the UNC Wins, Everybody Wins,” and to be more people-oriented with its social and economic priorities. Of course, platform rhetoric is not always consistent with realities. With the election defeat the PNM lost nine seats in the House and ten in the Senate. Several hundred selected PNM appointees became automatic casualties as the incoming government and its supporters look forward, consistent with our parliamentary tradition, to replacing them. So, in fact, everybody cannot win. What is important, however, is how the winners treat the losers, and this brings me to the “still early” style adopted by Kamla Persad-Bissessar and her government. The Prime Minster is no stranger to government, she is an experienced leader, a successful victim of both internal and external party and government convulsions. I merely wish to express my concerns re: some of her early actions and utterances: 1. Even before her success at the polls, she not only congratulated US President Donald Trump, but criticised Joe Biden and the Democrats. As a former prime minister, she should know the protocol. 2. Her approach so far carries many comparisons to Trumpism. 3. Decisions by executive order to scrap the Revenue Authority, the property tax, the demerit point system, the plan to reclaim the Debe Campus from the University of the West Indies, the renaming of the National Security Ministry to Homeland Security, the establishment of a Ministry of Defence, all when our major problem is our personal safety and security from within. We face no territorial threats, no invasions. Why a Ministry of Defence? To defend who or what and at what cost? 4. Her sometimes negative references to the one per cent who, like the rest of us, belong here and are legitimately entitled to be winners too. 5. Her controversial statement of responding with full force to a friendly neighbour with a history of good-neighbour relations. Since the days of Gen Pacheco, president Jimenez, TT has not only been a sanctuary for Venezuelan political outcasts, but an education centre for Venezuelan students to learn English. In response to a question after a recent Cabinet meeting, the Minister of Labour pulled out his pen and stated, “That’s the end of the oppressive Revenue Authority Act.” The Revenue Authority Act was removed by the stroke of a pen; shades of Trumpism. Then there is her recent statement of her government’s undivided loyalty to the US under the unpredictable Donald Trump, and her open criticism of President Muduro. Persad-Bissessar is an experienced politician. Experienced politicians always keep their options open. The Dragon deal is still an option. I respectfully wish to ask the Prime Minister if she is aware of Trump’s concept and perception of people like us. On June 3, I publicly stated the following: “I did not support the government. However, I respect the right of my fellow citizens to elect the government of their choice." I also expressed the view that "the government should be given the opportunity and time to carry out the mandate that the electors gave them on the critically and controversial non-populist decisions on crime, the energy sector, inclusive of enforcing the full force of the law to all offenders guilty of lawlessness, fearlessly and without prejudice; no one is above the law.” However, I am concerned with some of the government's early actions and utterances. It is still early and, as I said before, she is an experienced political gladiator. My concerns, rightly or wrongly, should be taken in the context of an old patriot hoping for the best. After all, when the UNC wins, everybody wins. The post What is wrong must be put right appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.