There is already political excitement as it seems evident that the population is fed up with the present administration.
There are alliance talks aplenty and individuals with political ambition are already seeing themselves in governance. But what are the roles that the population expect from the next government?
First there must be an undertaking that the next government must seek to improve the quality of life for all citizens and not use their position to benefit supporters and financiers.
There must be clear objectives and a realistic path to those objectives.
Among the many must be:
· There must be structured police patrols with modern policing using international best practices.
· Births and deaths must once again be registered in the communities where one lives, and that information sent to a central location for perusal and the production of official certificates. Those can then be retrieved at the community registration office.
· Citizens must pay for the water they use. It is punitive to ask citizens to pay for water they do not receive.
· Vehicle registration must be simplified using international best practices.
· One should be able to renew their driver’s licence online.
· One should be able to transfer their vehicle to the new owner by signing over an official certificate of ownership to the new owner and that owner should be able to take that document to the licencing office and be given a new certificate of ownership.
· Ther MUST be Government issued licence identification plates. Making one’s own plate is unthinkable in a developing country.
· With the introduction of internationally acceptable machine readable passports the long immigration form for entry into Trinidad & Tobago must be discontinued.
· There must be a survey of all lands and the issuance of new certificate of ownership and or deeds on forms similar to birth certificates for every parcel of land in Trinidad & Tobago. That must state form of ownership, leased, owned, squatter with rights etc.
· There must be real local government reform where the local body can raise funds independent of the State. For example, thousands of vehicles park on the streets, communities should charge for parking and lower rates for overnight parking.
· There must be a change of water distribution where community by community are transitioned to a gravity fed system that delivers water 24/7.
· The court system must allow for swift justice. Separate courts for gun violence and murders. All cases over 15 years must be subject to immediate plea bargaining or dismissal.
· A school bus system operated by the school management must be in place to address the very high volumes of traffic caused by transporting children to and from school.
· The tourism package must be restructured in partnership with local and foreign businesses. They should immediately manage the swamps and tours, caves, the pitch lake, hiking trails, access to the mountain summits, rivers, waterfalls and Chacachacare.
· Agriculture must be restructured to allow for large scale production of cocoa, coffee, citrus, sugar cane for rum and molasses, corn, coconuts and rice.
· Farmers must be encouraged to enhance their production of fruits and vegetables.
· All roads must be repaired to international standards.
· There must be a new roadway from Sangre Grande to Mayaro and one from Port of Spain to Chaguaramas over the sea or mountains.
· The complicated medical assistance system must be replaced with State insurance like the USA’s Medicare system.
Unless these and other fundamental changes are made, a change of governance would be useless.
God Bless Our Nation.
Steve Alvarez