Ryan Hadeed
It's been three weeks since former prime minister Patrick Manning passed away. In the time since then, both praise and condemnation have been heaped upon his name, a testament that the longer a person stays in public serve, the more debatable their reputation becomes.
I make no attempt to ignore the criticisms contained in my past writings; using words like egotist and megalomaniac when describing his leadership style. But just for today, I shall refrain from my usual stance and leave history to be the final arbiter of his rightness. That being said, when I first learned of his passing, I imagined him in that room at the San Fernando General Hospital, receiving the very best that the staff and facility had to offer from the moment he was admitted till he drew his final breath.
It's a contrast to the reality that many citizens of T&T find neither comfort nor care from our nation's public health facilities, which lack beds, equipment, and even basic medical supplies. While Mr Manning will be remembered for his vision of our country achieving developed status, we should never forget that there were basic needs of our population that he, for whatever reason, remained blind to.
It was the Panday-led administration that established the practice of the State paying the medical expenses of presidents and prime ministers. And considering the extent of Mr Manning's national service, there's no disputing that he was most deserving of the assistance. Such was the case when he suffered a stroke in 2012, and the expenses for transport and treatment at the Walter Reed General Hospital in Washington DC were approved by the previous Cabinet. Therefore, the question of "how to afford it all" was one less thing Mr Manning had to worry about, enabling him to place all his efforts into recovery and rehabilitation. The same, however, can't be said for the average Trinbagonian when facing a medical crisis.
Life surely has its high and low points, but there are also times when it is outright cruel. A person can live frugally–go to work, pay their bills, have the occasional fun-fuelled expenditure, manage to save a little something for a rainy day, and then one piece of health-related bad news leaves their options limited by their means. A person shouldn't have to face abject poverty in exchange for the God-given desire to live. But unfortunately, that is too often the case. For once personal resources are exhausted they must then rely on the kindness of family, friends, and even resort to "begging" the national community in hopes of scraping together enough to cover the costs. And then it's sometimes only enough for one more surgical procedure, one more treatment, one more test. Worrying about paying for these things only adds to the severity of an already difficult ordeal.
A few years ago, I endured a series of medical "mal-ventures" (a word of my own creation, meaning "bad adventures"). As difficult as it was, and I won't bore you with the details, whenever I begin to feel even the slightest hint of self-pity, I remind myself that I had a lot of positives working in my favour.
My condition was caught early enough to be effectively dealt with. I had top notch physicians tending to my case. And most importantly–my parents had worked hard and saved over the course of their lifetime to be able to pay for my care.
Through it all, they always told me not to worry about anything else and to just focus on getting better. At the time I couldn't see past the pain and the fear and the anger to appreciate just how much of a blessing their sacrifice was. So with their coffers backing my cause and my fate resting in the hands of the Divine, all that was left for me to do was sum up the will to fight.
The real travesty isn't that healthcare is expensive, but that our government, regardless of whichever party is in power, has continually failed to ensure that every citizen has access to it. This is just another manifestation of our country's misplaced priorities–to spend money on monuments of wastefulness and corruption while our existing social infrastructure crumbles. A healthy society is a productive society, one in which the care for the common man matters just as much as our elected officials.
It should not be an issue that's defined by "haves" and "have-nots" because make no mistake, between their salaries and allowances, the political elites are part of the haves. As public servants, they are duty-bound to ensure that the same quality of living they would want for themselves is made available to everyone else.
For a career marred by fiscal mismanagement, it is ironic that even in death, Patrick Manning still managed to find a way to spend the country's money. Though callous it is to trivialise his death with a financial tongue-in-cheek comment, I believe it is well-deserved.
As a man who once described himself as the "father of the nation'," he ignored the paternal responsibility of providing for us at home the very thing he frequently enjoyed abroad. So maybe it is a good idea to attach his name to the famed Waterfront Complex; not only to honour his vision of a developed nation, but as a reminder of what he didn't think mattered.