As the year draws to a close, it may be useful to assess the performance of the People's Partnership Government that assumed office on May 26, 2010 after the general election of May 24. The electorate of this country gave overwhelming support to the partnership that was presented to the electorate on April 21, 2010 at Charlie King Junction in south Trinidad. The symbolic signing of the agreement was designed to capture the imagination of the voters that this collection of individuals (some of whom were political enemies before) would be able to take the country forward to greater heights. Indeed, the clarion call of the partnership during the election was that "we will rise." Their use of a consociational model patterned after a Western European proportional representation coalition worked well in a first past-the-post electoral system such as ours.
This system of pre-arranged allocation and pre-arranged determination of who the Prime Minister would be left the voters of different political parties being able to vote for their party of choice or the partner of their party of choice. It worked. The early political capital remained largely intact up to the Local Government elections that were called for July 26. On this occasion, there were some hiccups with the continued use of the general election model and a few in-house skirmishes to make the point. However, the results were outstanding for the Partnership. With central and local government largely in the hands of the Partnership, there were still tasks that remained undone. One of the major ones was the appointment of members to State Boards which is still a work in progress. There are two major factors that will impinge upon the easy resolution of these appointments.
The Integrity Commission
One is the fact that there are many persons who are not comfortable with having to declare their assets and liabilities to the Integrity Commission. The other is the fact that there are many competitors inside the Partnership and arriving at consensus is not the easiest task. The creation of a Children's Life Fund was a major policy move by the Government that has created enormous goodwill. With ministerial salary cuts providing a source of funding for this, one must acknowledge the fact that this has been a measure where ministers have stepped forward to show leadership. The regulation of State intelligence and surveillance was a major accomplishment of the Government after the scandal that was exposed about it. However, that matter was left hanging by a faulty prime ministerial press release and a defiant Police Commissioner who distanced himself from that release. The most potent challenges facing the Government at the moment are the crime problem and the right royal rift between Jack Warner and George Nicholas III in relation to Caribbean Airlines.
Crime is not going to whither away and will require effective policy responses, while allegations of sweethearts and deals continue to bedevil the Nicholas/Warner showdown. The public sector negotiations and the resolution of the Clico and HCU matters have their own collection of challenges. The Government has offers on the table in both instances, but those offers seem not to be enough. As we look forward to 2011, there is no doubt that these two matters will command the attention of the nation as the PSA has vowed to step up its protest action while the Clico matter seems to be heading to court. In more recent times, the Prime Minister has had to express her utter frustration with the crime situation. The electorate must have known that the situation was not going to be fixed overnight and the government must also realise that there are no quick fixes available here.
Public Advocacy
The public advocacy of the death penalty by Jack Warner created some discomfort for the Partnership earlier this year when other Ministers started responding publicly in opposition to it. A retreat and also prime ministerial intervention quelled a chaotic public relations fiasco that was in the making. In assessing the Partnership, the weakest aspect of its operations continues to be its failure to have a highly-respected communications specialist attached to the Office of the Prime Minister who can co-ordinate all Government messaging and imaging. For a Government like the People's Partnership, this is an imperative as it is a multi-party Government which makes it susceptible to conflicting messaging as internal challenges arise. The surest glue that holds the Partnership together is the common dislike for the PNM.
With the most powerful adhesive being drawn from a negative emotion, the search for positive consensus must become a top priority in such a Government. At the moment, the Government functions on the basis that there is already a formula for internal opposition far less to face the official Opposition on the other side of the House. The fact that there have been some rumblings within the Opposition benches suggests that the Government is not being tested as sternly as they could be. There has been an extended honeymoon because the Prime Minister still enjoys considerable personal popularity, which may be somewhat different from the rest of the Government as a whole.