Mick­ela Pan­day

This week marks one year since the Gov­ern­ment won of­fice on a promise of change, re­lief and re­newed hope. Their cel­e­bra­tions this week­end are un­der­stand­able. Elec­tion vic­to­ries are sig­nif­i­cant mo­ments in any democ­ra­cy and an­niver­saries nat­u­ral­ly in­vite re­flec­tion. But re­flec­tion must in­clude more than cel­e­bra­tion. It must in­clude per­for­mance.

Many cit­i­zens are re­flect­ing not in halls, but in gro­cery lines, traf­fic, hos­pi­tal wait­ing rooms and house­holds un­der grow­ing pres­sure. When the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go vot­ed for a new ad­min­is­tra­tion, they did so in the con­text of se­ri­ous na­tion­al con­cerns. Crime, ris­ing liv­ing costs, eco­nom­ic un­cer­tain­ty and de­clin­ing con­fi­dence in pub­lic in­sti­tu­tions. The elec­torate was not seek­ing slo­gans. It was seek­ing so­lu­tions.

Cit­i­zens want­ed a gov­ern­ment that un­der­stood the ur­gency of every­day life, safer streets, low­er costs, bet­ter ser­vices, stronger lead­er­ship and re­newed con­fi­dence in the fu­ture. The new Gov­ern­ment re­spond­ed with bold com­mit­ments. Cit­i­zens were told the coun­try would be­come a safer and hap­pi­er place with­in six months. We heard promis­es of jobs, eco­nom­ic re­lief, low­er costs, stronger ed­u­ca­tion sup­port, im­proved health­care de­liv­ery and ur­gent at­ten­tion to flood­ing and in­fra­struc­ture. Those promis­es cre­at­ed un­der­stand­able ex­pec­ta­tions.

One year lat­er, the fair ques­tion is not whether every chal­lenge has been solved. No se­ri­ous per­son ex­pects decades-old prob­lems to dis­ap­pear in 12 months. Crime, eco­nom­ic di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion, health­care re­form and in­sti­tu­tion­al ef­fi­cien­cy do not yield to in­stant so­lu­tions.

The re­al ques­tion is whether cit­i­zens can now clear­ly feel that the coun­try is mov­ing in the right di­rec­tion with ur­gency, com­pe­tence and mea­sur­able progress. That is how or­di­nary peo­ple ex­pe­ri­ence gov­ern­ment. They ask prac­ti­cal ques­tions. Do fam­i­lies feel safer in their com­mu­ni­ties? Is the cost of liv­ing mean­ing­ful­ly eas­i­er to bear? Are jobs and op­por­tu­ni­ties ex­pand­ing? Are hos­pi­tals and pub­lic ser­vices im­prov­ing? Are roads and drains be­ing man­aged more ef­fec­tive­ly? Is con­fi­dence re­turn­ing? These are not par­ti­san ques­tions. They are na­tion­al ques­tions.

To be fair, every in­com­ing ad­min­is­tra­tion in­her­its con­straints. Fis­cal pres­sures, bu­reau­cra­cy, de­layed projects and dif­fi­cult glob­al eco­nom­ic con­di­tions do not dis­ap­pear on elec­tion night. Gov­ern­ing is al­ways hard­er than cam­paign­ing. Yet an­oth­er truth must al­so be ac­knowl­edged. This Gov­ern­ment did not come to of­fice un­pre­pared. It spent five years in gov­ern­ment and nine and a half years in op­po­si­tion, where it de­bat­ed nine na­tion­al bud­gets, scru­ti­nised poli­cies, crit­i­cised de­ci­sions, chal­lenged pri­or­i­ties and re­peat­ed­ly as­sured the coun­try that it pos­sessed bet­ter an­swers and a clear­er plan. That his­to­ry mat­ters.

A gov­ern­ment that asks to be trust­ed on readi­ness must rea­son­ably ex­pect to be judged on readi­ness. Time in of­fice to­day may now be one year. Time ask­ing the coun­try for trust was 15.

That decade and a half of prepa­ra­tion cre­at­ed an ex­pec­ta­tion that pri­or­i­ties would be clear, teams would be ready and ex­e­cu­tion would be­gin ear­ly.

That is why the pub­lic ex­pec­ta­tion for vis­i­ble de­liv­ery is nei­ther un­fair nor ex­ces­sive. It is the nat­ur­al re­sult of promis­es made and con­fi­dence re­quest­ed.

To say this is not to dis­miss all ef­forts made in the past year. There may well have been ad­min­is­tra­tive re­forms, pol­i­cy re­sets and ground­work laid be­hind the scenes. But cit­i­zens do not live be­hind the scenes. They ex­pe­ri­ence gov­ern­ment in gro­cery bills, traf­fic de­lays, hos­pi­tal wait­ing rooms, fear of crime, wa­ter short­ages and the dai­ly strug­gle to make ends meet.

Many al­so feel pres­sure from new tax­es, high­er charges and in­creased penal­ties at a time when re­lief was ex­pect­ed. And so, pub­lic judge­ment is shaped less by an­nounce­ments and more by out­comes.

This first year should not be treat­ed as a fi­nal ver­dict, but nei­ther should it be treat­ed as be­yond scruti­ny. Democ­ra­cies re­quire both pa­tience and ac­count­abil­i­ty. Gov­ern­ments de­serve a fair op­por­tu­ni­ty to gov­ern, but cit­i­zens de­serve an hon­est as­sess­ment of re­sults.

The sec­ond year now be­comes more im­por­tant than the first. The tran­si­tion pe­ri­od has passed. The learn­ing curve ar­gu­ment weak­ens with time. The pub­lic will in­creas­ing­ly look for mea­sur­able ev­i­dence. Sus­tained re­duc­tions in crime, stronger eco­nom­ic con­fi­dence, vis­i­ble im­prove­ments in health and ed­u­ca­tion, faster pub­lic ser­vice de­liv­ery and a broad­er sense that na­tion­al in­sti­tu­tions are func­tion­ing with pur­pose.

Sup­port­ers will point to ob­sta­cles in­her­it­ed and progress un­der­way. Crit­ics will point to promis­es un­met and ex­pec­ta­tions un­ful­filled. But the coun­try needs some­thing greater than ei­ther ap­plause or hos­til­i­ty. It needs re­sults.

Re­sults are not ab­stract. They are seen when fam­i­lies feel safer, when busi­ness­es feel con­fi­dent to in­vest, when young peo­ple see op­por­tu­ni­ty and when pub­lic ser­vices be­gin to work with ef­fi­cien­cy and pur­pose.

Cit­i­zens are pa­tient when they be­lieve progress is re­al. They be­come frus­trat­ed when promis­es re­main ahead of per­for­mance.

Trinidad and To­ba­go’s chal­lenges are deep­er than par­ty pol­i­tics and old­er than any sin­gle ad­min­is­tra­tion. They re­quire se­ri­ous­ness, dis­ci­pline, con­ti­nu­ity and lead­er­ship will­ing to place na­tion­al progress above per­ma­nent cam­paign­ing.

As the Gov­ern­ment marks its first an­niver­sary, the coun­try is en­ti­tled to ex­am­ine the record of its first year.

But the peo­ple al­so have every right to ask what that con­fi­dence has pro­duced.

Be­cause, in the end, elec­tions choose gov­ern­ments. Trust must be earned in of­fice.

Mick­ela Pan­day is the Po­lit­i­cal Leader of the Pa­tri­ot­ic Front and At­tor­ney at Law