Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 09/Jan 03:20

'We will find the money' – remember this?

PAOLO KERNAHAN THE NUMBER of people who believe sharp increases in traffic fines are meant to improve road safety and save lives won’t be enough to save this government from the almost certain fate of indefinite political exile and, possibly, a truncated term in office. This country has no shortage of fools, but obviously nothing near the reserves this UNC administration is depending on. It should be made clear that increased traffic fines can’t be digested in isolation, as fees across the board have been hiked, doubled in many cases. Are increases in customs fees, birth registration fees, firearms application fees, passport fees, etc, also intended to save lives? Most reasonable minds can only conclude, on the evidence, that the raft of increases points to a problem far more serious and menacing than peak-time roadblocks. Raging debate has been so heavily centred on the motoring public and the pitiable yet errant coconut vendor that most folks have completely missed the looming point. The desperation behind the hikes suggests government discovered something on attaining office that they were not prepared for, but should have been. On the campaign trail, Kamla Persad-Bissessar excoriated the PNM for "parasitising" citizens with tax, tax, tax! The UNC had an unlimited armoury of ghastly PNM policies on which to draw during the election. Persad-Bissessar said the UNC had a plan to rebuild the economy and that plan wouldn’t involve further fiscal vampirism – a brand of which was practised with giddy gusto by previous finance minister Colm Imbert. To further bind compounding public anguish to political ambition, Persad-Bissessar dangled wage increases for public servants. Commentators and economists at the time questioned how, in light of persistent economic challenges and an economic downturn (that’s now officially an economic “turn”), the opposition would deliver on that inducement. Not even the PNM was so reckless, offering instead a decidedly flaccid six per cent. Undeterred, the then opposition leader said, “We will find the money!” Brevity in communications is usually a good thing, but in this case, no one would have pulled her up for being overly talkative. What has most probably happened, and speculation isn’t out of bounds here, is that the government waded into the disastrous state of the nation’s finances and panicked like a frightened horse. Oil and gas hold the same distant, if not spectral promise they did when the PNM was shopping around that watered-down optimism; the same optimism strafed by the UNC when they sat on the other side of the same coin. It’s like when you order KFC, only to open your wallet and discover a solitary $20 staring back at you like a crapaud in the toilet. Faced with a mountain of debt and unpaid bills the administration can never hope to summit, and wage promises to lock in the vote that were still warm to the touch, the government doubled down on the PNM’s “fiscal” measures. While it isn’t unusual for politicians to back-pedal on general election platform foreplay, this chaotic cash grab is more akin to falling over backwards. And what of the economic recovery plan the elusive PM spoke of to grease the vote? To date, there is no conclusive evidence of the application of any such plan through the apparatus of governance. To quickly dismiss the “just obey the law!” posse in defence of this madness, that posture is easily torpedoed. The law was already being enforced. Under the PNM administration, money traps were routinely set by officers across the country who were printing out tickets with lethal enthusiasm. The fines have merely been doubled. The sales pitch of increased fines to combat increased lawlessness is terribly weak. What do increased passport fees accomplish…law-abiding travel? In a knee-jerk news conference, Transport Minister Eli Zakour told journalists, “The opposition is against the fines and what we’re doing.” Sounds familiar? When the PNM was in office, clear public outrage at that government’s costly incompetence was dismissed as opposition mischief and fear-mongering. Zakour said further, “The government cannot be subjected to a popularity contest when lives are at stake.” That’s a good mindset to cultivate, as this administration is on a fast track to becoming the most unpopular government in our history. It was understood by many, but certainly not all, that the grave economic challenges at our throats would require a team of high-octane intellects and creative thinkers. Where are they? All electoral contenders were aware that oil and gas wouldn’t rescue us the way they did in previous recessions and slumps. “We will find the money!” It appears they have. The post 'We will find the money' – remember this? appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.