Crisis in Trinidad and Tobago: Commentary by Capil Bissoon October 11, 2022
If this government is becoming unstable it is because there is a crisis of leadership, trust, integrity and credibility. This PNM Administration, in just seven years, has reduced T&T from a developing, progressive country to one that is now near failed-state status.
The greatest misfortune of Trinidad & Tobago is that the PNM has been in government for most of our 60 years since independence.
The greatest disaster to befall Trinidad & Tobago in the 21st century is this Keith Rowley-led PNM Administration which has taken this country, blessed with natural resources and had a per capita GNP higher than most developing countries to perilous economic times.
Unfortunately, the reality is becoming pellucidly clear that this Administration has no plan(s) to take us out of the economic crisis in which we find ourselves, far less to take us to the next level of development.
Our government has become so politically toxic as it is in total disarray and is impotent when it comes to offering practical and workable solutions to the many challenges facing the country.
The PNM, best at political distraction and intolerant of even the mildest criticism or dissent, has failed in the most important areas of economic management, social issues, crime-fighting and health care services and delivery.
It has been a failure after failure, scandal after scandal, misstep and mistake; the daily message now is not if the government will fail but when, where and how.
This Administration with its team of Cabinet Ministers led by Prime Minister Keith Rowley has the dubious distinction of getting people into poverty, of taking successful private sector enterprises and bringing them on the brink of bankruptcy and taking big businesses and making them small ones.
If this government is becoming unstable it is because there is a crisis of leadership, trust, integrity and credibility.
In 2015, the PNM misled citizens by its promise to “rebuild our country and our economy, restore confidence, equity and social justice, enhance and improve every area of national life where all citizens will get their fair share of national resources and receive good, honest, equitable and transparent Government, society where integrity and morality in public life is of the highest priority and the Government serves the public good above all else and where decisions are made and actions taken by the Government in the best interest of all concerned.”
They have done the total opposite in the past seven years… it has been and continues to be a political litany of mismanagement, corruption, incompetence, cronyism and nepotism.
This was so clear in its last Budget presentation and the contributions of the PNM MPs during the ensuing debate.
The Government was once again no match for the Opposition during the debate and the PNM owes much to the very partisan and pro-PNM Speaker Brigid Anisette-George who has now made the Parliament an extension of the Executive. This supposedly impartial Chair was interrupting Opposition Members to quote standing orders on behalf of the Government!
But the Government continues to be “successful” in its narrative to blame the Opposition for its gross mismanagement and failures!
There are those who voted for the PNM but wants to hold the Opposition UNC accountable for the PNM’s continued mismanagement and state of (unaccepted) affairs.
Trinidad & Tobago is being shunned by all and sundry.
The EU has blacklisted us.
Guyana calls us a nation that is falling apart.
A Danish Minister calls us a “corner of shame.”
And travel and trade advisories from many countries are telling their citizens to avoid Trinidad & Tobago.
This PNM Administration, in just seven years, has reduced Trinidad & Tobago from a developing, progressive country to one that is now near failed-state status.