The Move­ment for So­cial Jus­tice (MSJ) said too many cit­i­zens are strug­gling, even as T&T marks 49 years as a Re­pub­lic.

In its Re­pub­lic Day mes­sage, the par­ty point­ed to what it de­scribed as a “failed ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem,” not­ing that half of stu­dents do not pass crit­i­cal ex­ams such as SEA and CSEC. Many young peo­ple, it ar­gued, are left un­em­ployed or trapped in low-paid, short-term jobs that do not match their tal­ents.

“Too many cit­i­zens can’t make ends meet, can hard­ly make it to the next pay day, and very many don’t have mon­ey to put food on the ta­ble,” the MSJ said, warn­ing that pover­ty and lack of hope are fu­elling crime.

The par­ty al­so crit­i­cised the way de­ci­sions are made by those in pow­er, cit­ing the clo­sure of Petrotrin, job cuts in CEPEP and URP, and the with­draw­al of steel­band spon­sor­ship as ex­am­ples of poor gov­er­nance. It fur­ther point­ed to Par­lia­ment’s fail­ure to ad­dress press­ing is­sues, de­scrib­ing de­bates as po­lit­i­cal point-scor­ing rather than mean­ing­ful dis­cus­sion, and high­light­ed a back­log in the jus­tice sys­tem that leaves cit­i­zens with­out re­course.

The MSJ ar­gued that the in­sti­tu­tions and sys­tems es­tab­lished in the First Re­pub­lic of 1976 have failed and called for sweep­ing re­forms to po­lit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic struc­tures. “Af­ter 49 years, it’s time to evolve to the Sec­ond Re­pub­lic,” the state­ment said, out­lin­ing the par­ty’s vi­sion for a re­formed Trinidad and To­ba­go.