The Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go is de­ter­mined to pro­ceed with the con­struc­tion of the Debe to Mon De­sir link of the Point Fortin high­way. How­ev­er, the na­tion needs to un­der­stand why the views of the pro­test­ers have been dis­missed. We, the peo­ple, must be told ex­act­ly why the gov­ern­ment is not en­ter­tain­ing the ap­peal to have this link re-rout­ed. We must know from the gov­ern­ment why the pro­posed al­ter­na­tive is bad, and why the one they have planned is bet­ter. I sug­gest that be­fore work con­tin­ues on this link, the rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the peo­ple must en­sure that they have re­al­ly pon­dered every pos­si­ble con­sid­er­a­tion, and that they have recog­nised the fol­low­ing:

• All the wet­lands/la­goons of Trinidad and To­ba­go must be con­served in as pris­tine a con­di­tion as pos­si­ble. Noth­ing should be done to pre­cip­i­tate the de­te­ri­o­ra­tion of the en­vi­ron­ment.

• The in­tegri­ty of our ur­ban and rur­al hu­man com­mu­ni­ties ought to be pro­tect­ed and en­hanced as much as pos­si­ble.

• The right of all cit­i­zens to have dif­fer­ent views from those of the elect­ed mem­bers of Par­lia­ment must be re­spect­ed and up­held.

• The right of all cit­i­zens to ex­press their views re­gard­ing any as­pect of life in our coun­try or else­where has to be re­spect­ed.

• The views of all cit­i­zens must be con­sid­ered, prop­er­ly ex­am­ined and ven­ti­lat­ed in an ap­pro­pri­ate fo­rum.

• The Gov­ern­ment of T&T must be frank and hon­est in com­mu­ni­cat­ing with the cit­i­zens of the coun­try about the projects be­ing un­der­tak­en on be­half of the peo­ple of T&T.

• The Gov­ern­ment of T&T must do every­thing in its pow­er to pre­vent and erad­i­cate cor­rup­tion in every area of its ad­min­is­tra­tion.

• There must be a pub­lic state­ment con­cern­ing the award of con­tracts and the re­la­tion­ship be­tween the re­cip­i­ents of con­tracts and mem­bers of Par­lia­ment.

• The EMA must be an in­de­pen­dent en­ti­ty, well staffed and equipped to han­dle en­vi­ron­men­tal ques­tions com­pe­tent­ly and fear­less­ly.

• The cost of all works and the source of fund­ing must be avail­able for pub­lic scruti­ny.

• All Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment must re­main true and faith­ful to their oath of of­fice and nev­er lose sight of the fact that they are rep­re­sent­ing the peo­ple of the coun­try who en­trust them with mak­ing the cor­rect de­ci­sions for the ben­e­fit of the peo­ple of the coun­try.

The fact that protests have con­tin­ued over such a lengthy pe­ri­od should demon­strate that the pro­test­ers are in pos­ses­sion of ideas and sug­ges­tions wor­thy of se­ri­ous con­sid­er­a­tion. A gov­ern­ment that cares would lis­ten to its peo­ple, and ex­plain un­equiv­o­cal­ly why the al­ter­na­tive route is not a bet­ter one. If all of the above were done, there would be no need for the bat­tle, ten­sion and stress that our cit­i­zens are forced to ex­pe­ri­ence. There would be greater har­mo­ny, peace and hap­pi­ness.

Sylvia Mood­ie-Kublals­ingh

Via e-mail