There has been a wide­spread im­mer­sion by those on the po­lit­i­cal pe­riph­ery that coali­tion gov­er­nance is not tai­lored for Trinidad and To­ba­go. Up­on po­lit­i­cal in­tro­spec­tion, one would re­mem­ber that a coali­tion gov­ern­ment was formed in 1995 un­der for­mer Prime Min­is­ter Bas­deo Pan­day and last­ed the en­tire du­ra­tion of its term as al­lowed un­der the Con­sti­tu­tion, five years. Ac­cord­ing to Wikipedia, a coali­tion gov­ern­ment is a cab­i­net of par­lia­men­tary gov­ern­ment in which sev­er­al par­ties co­op­er­ate. A coali­tion gov­ern­ment is typ­i­cal­ly formed in a time of na­tion­al dif­fi­cul­ty or cri­sis, for ex­am­ple dis­en­chant­ment with the in­cum­bent regime and the need for a vi­able al­ter­na­tive to the main­stream par­ty. It should be not­ed that no po­lit­i­cal par­ty or fig­ure is in­fal­li­ble and as such the mind­set must be that: "it is okay for prob­lems or dilem­mas to arise, what is more im­por­tant is how we deal with the prob­lem that sur­faces.

In­stead of heav­i­ly en­gag­ing in a furore, we should find vi­able and ap­pro­pri­ate chan­nels in which to present our con­struc­tive feed­back." Many coali­tion gov­ern­ments across the globe have ex­pe­ri­enced rul­ing longevi­ty be­cause of their ob­ser­vance of cer­tain cru­cial prin­ci­ples: (1) di­vi­sive is­sues are dealt with by all par­ties open­ly and trans­par­ent­ly; (2) the es­tab­lish­ment and fre­quent use of cab­i­net com­mit­tees and oth­er for­mal process­es by all par­ties; (3)for­mal and ef­fec­tive com­mu­ni­ca­tion chan­nels must be es­tab­lished and im­ple­ment­ed; (4)the for­mu­la­tion of coali­tion agree­ments must be com­posed and known by all con­cerned so that se­nior pub­lic ser­vants and politi­cians are cog­nizant of the gov­ern­ment's ob­jec­tive.

There are count­less po­lit­i­cal par­ties uni­ver­sal­ly that have joined al­liances to gov­ern a coun­try and they have been quite suc­cess­ful. In con­ti­nents like Africa, we have coun­tries like Kenya for in­stance that saw the as­sem­bling and ce­ment­ing of six po­lit­i­cal par­ties to form the gov­ern­ment:-Par­ty of Na­tion­al Uni­ty, Or­ange De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Move­ment, Kenya African Na­tion­al Union, Fo­rum for the Restora­tion of Democ­ra­cy, Unit­ed De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Move­ment and the Na­tion­al Rain­bow Coali­tion. In Brazil, six par­ties al­so merged to gov­ern the coun­try and they are:-Work­ers' Par­ty, Brazil­ian De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Move­ment Par­ty, Pro­gres­sive Par­ty, De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Labour Par­ty, Brazil­ian So­cial­ist Par­ty, Com­mu­nist Par­ty of Brazil and Re­pub­lic Par­ty.

In Eu­rope, there are 32 states/coun­tries that are be­ing gov­erned by coali­tion forces. In Asia there are 18 coun­tries that are ruled by coali­tion gov­ern­ments. These in­clude Cam­bo­dia, Ar­me­nia, In­done­sia, Malaysia, Lebanon, Is­rael, Japan, Iraq, In­dia, Bangladesh, Pak­istan, Nepal, Mal­dives, Sri Lan­ka, Thai­land, Pales­tine, Tim­or-Leste.

It is against this back­drop, that I ask all cit­i­zens to se­ri­ous­ly con­sid­er that with an evolv­ing so­ci­ety such as ours, with cit­i­zens pos­sess­ing in­tel­lec­tu­al prowess and for­ti­tude through ac­cess to the elec­tron­ic me­dia, ter­tiary ed­u­ca­tion and ac­cess to a myr­i­ad of ex­ter­nal in­flu­ences that we re­al­ize that coali­tions are rapid­ly be­com­ing a norm. Cit­i­zens are no longer will­ing to ac­cept the old style of pol­i­tics of one par­ty gov­er­nance or a one-size fits all ap­proach syn­drome. The key to suc­cess is to have in­tel­lec­tu­al­ly stim­u­lat­ing dis­cus­sions on na­tion­al is­sues and poli­cies. This must tran­spire be­hind closed doors and when a de­ci­sion is made it must re­flect one that is well-thought out and car­ries one voice. Most im­por­tant­ly, the Prime Min­is­ter must al­ways be re­spect­ed and re­gard­ed as the Man­ag­ing Di­rec­tor/CEO/Chair­man of the Cab­i­net. Giv­en our cur­rent re­al­i­ty in Trinidad and To­ba­go, I know that Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad Bisses­sar has quite a mon­u­men­tal task on her hand with Trade Union jefe Er­rol McLeod, out­spo­ken Makaan­dal Daa­ga, po­ten­tial leader Anil Roberts and forth­com­ing Ash­worth Jack. Good luck Prime Min­is­ter and may God and all the deities be with you.

William Stollmey­er

One Wood­brook Place