One year ago today, the People's Partnership swept into power, winning the May 24, 2010 general election by 29 seats to 12, thereby ending the stewardship over Trinidad and Tobago of the People's National Movement. Last year's victory of the People's Partnership-which was an amalgamation of five political parties, led by the United National Congress-marked the first time a woman was given the reins of power in this country. There is no doubt that that woman, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, brought some refreshing changes to the style of governance practised by the previous occupant of the seat of power, Patrick Manning.
On the campaign trail, and in her first few days of government, Mrs Persad-Bissessar pledged that her administration would serve the people and that it would lead by listening. That caring, almost motherly, approach of government was best exemplified when the newly sworn in Prime Minister left the swearing-in ceremony, donned black, rubber boots and a rain coat and went to bring relief to homeowners and farmers in central Trinidad who had been flooded out by the torrential rains that lashed the country that week. There is much to celebrate in the year of governance.
Mrs Persad-Bissessar is credited with quelling the San Fernando doctors issue, which was just at the point of becoming a national embarassment and she was able to lead a negotiated settlement for public servants that will save the country millions in additional salary, backpay and lower productivity. The Prime Minister has been tested on two occasions in which she was called upon to make difficult decisions with regard to two people who worked to make the People's Partnership victory possible. She was tested when the chairman of the Police Service Commission, veteran attorney Nizam Mohammed, made some comments before a Joint Select Committee meeting which were perceived as promoting the interests of one group in the country over another.
To her credit, the Prime Minister issued a statement distancing herself and her government from Mohammed's comments and a week later his appointment was revoked by President George Maxwell Richards. Last month, the Prime Minister also acted promptly in revoking the appointment of Government Senator Mary King for failing to maintain an appropriate distance between herself and the award of a small contract to a company in which King was the corporate secretary and her husband was the chairman. She has shown herself to be a decisive leader and one who is willing and able to take tough decisions...at times.
There are other times when Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar has failed to take decisions when a decision was crying out to be taken. The Government has paid a price for failing to act swiftly when it became public knowledge that a junior 31-year-old official of an intelligence agency named Reshmi Usha Ramnarine had been appointed as the nterim head of the spy agency on January 14, 2011 after questions about her qualifications and her suitability for the job were raised. The continuing contestation on the Caribbean Airline board-involving the vital national airline, which has an annual budget of hundreds of millions of dollars-is another example of the failure by the leader to take a decision that all the advice she has received told her would be in the best interest of the airline.
The Government has also failed to reverse the decision, outlined in the 2011 budget, with regard to the Clico issue, which has led to the lives of thousands of policyholders of the insurance company being made poorer and more uncertain following the cessation of interest payment. Despite the mistakes and missteps, the Prime Minister and her team retain a large measure of the goodwill that she earned one year ago. With the record in the first year being decidedly mixed, it is appropriate today to extend happy birthday wishes to the thousands of people who worked hard to make possible the electoral victory of the People's Partnership and the scores of people who accepted Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar's call to serve both in Cabinet and on boards of government agencies, state enterprises and para-statal bodies. The country expects improvement in the second year in power.