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Friday, July 25, 2025

Time to move beyond the 'red versus yellow' narrative

by

Guardian Media Limited
10 days ago
20250715

The lat­est war of words be­tween the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) and the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) over the Com­mu­ni­ty En­vi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion and En­hance­ment Pro­gramme (CEPEP) and the Un­em­ploy­ment Re­lief Pro­gramme (URP) is an ex­am­ple of how po­lit­i­cal ri­val­ry con­tin­ues to over­shad­ow re­al is­sues fac­ing T&T.

Both pro­grammes, orig­i­nal­ly con­cep­tu­alised to pro­vide short-term em­ploy­ment, have be­come con­ve­nient po­lit­i­cal foot­balls. In re­cent weeks, ac­cu­sa­tions have been trad­ed with the gov­ern­ing UNC claim­ing the for­mer PNM ad­min­is­tra­tion has weaponised the pro­grammes to re­ward loy­al­ists, while the PNM has coun­tered that the UNC is en­gaged in mis­in­for­ma­tion and hypocrisy.

But while politi­cians spar, thou­sands of work­ers are caught in the mid­dle–men and women who can­not find reg­u­lar em­ploy­ment else­where, who de­pend on these jobs to pay bills, send their chil­dren to school, and to keep their fam­i­lies afloat. The un­cer­tain­ty that po­lit­i­cal bick­er­ing gen­er­ates does noth­ing to ease their dai­ly strug­gles.

Both CEPEP and URP were con­ceived as so­cial safe­ty nets. CEPEP, launched in 2002, was in­tend­ed to beau­ti­fy com­mu­ni­ties, clean pub­lic spaces, and en­gage work­ers in mean­ing­ful en­vi­ron­men­tal projects. URP, in ex­is­tence since the 1970s with a few name changes over the years, was de­signed to pro­vide short-term em­ploy­ment for un­skilled work­ers, es­pe­cial­ly in times of eco­nom­ic hard­ship. 

On pa­per, these pro­grammes have mer­it. In prac­tice, how­ev­er, they have be­come syn­ony­mous with in­ef­fi­cien­cy, cor­rup­tion, and—per­haps most de­struc­tive­ly—po­lit­i­cal pa­tron­age.

In­stead of con­fronting these chal­lenges head-on, both par­ties seem more in­vest­ed in scor­ing po­lit­i­cal points.

This is not to say that scruti­ny is un­war­rant­ed. CEPEP and URP have, over the years, cost tax­pay­ers bil­lions of dol­lars. How­ev­er, scruti­ny must be root­ed in con­struc­tive crit­i­cism and pol­i­cy re­form—not par­ti­san mud­sling­ing. 

The core is­sue lies in what these pro­grammes have come to rep­re­sent: not just tem­po­rary em­ploy­ment, but a form of po­lit­i­cal pa­tron­age. In­stead of be­ing step­ping stones to­ward self-suf­fi­cien­cy, these pro­grammes of­ten trap peo­ple in cy­cles of low-wages and short-term labour with lit­tle chance of up­ward mo­bil­i­ty. Worse yet, they fos­ter a po­lit­i­cal cul­ture in which cit­i­zens feel com­pelled to tie their liveli­hoods to par­ty colours.

The UNC, as the rul­ing par­ty, has a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to en­sure CEPEP and URP op­er­ate with ac­count­abil­i­ty, fair­ness, and pur­pose. The PNM, as the op­po­si­tion, must of­fer cred­i­ble al­ter­na­tives and sup­port bi­par­ti­san re­form. Both par­ties need to re­mem­ber that these pro­grammes are not tools to con­trol votes—they are life­lines for the vul­ner­a­ble.

Ul­ti­mate­ly, the most im­por­tant ques­tion is: Should CEPEP and URP con­tin­ue in their cur­rent form? Or should the coun­try shift to­ward pro­grammes that gen­uine­ly em­pow­er peo­ple through skills train­ing, ap­pren­tice­ships and path­ways to per­ma­nent jobs in both the pri­vate and pub­lic sec­tors?

There must be a cul­tur­al shift away from see­ing pub­lic em­ploy­ment pro­grammes as po­lit­i­cal spoils. Cit­i­zens de­serve to work with dig­ni­ty and with­out fear that the out­come of the next elec­tion will de­ter­mine whether they eat or not. 

T&T must ma­ture be­yond this de­struc­tive cy­cle, where ba­sic pub­lic ser­vices and em­ploy­ment are ma­nip­u­lat­ed as tools of elec­toral ad­van­tage.

The peo­ple of T&T de­serve bet­ter than po­lit­i­cal the­atre. They de­serve pro­grammes that are run trans­par­ent­ly, man­aged pro­fes­sion­al­ly, and geared to­ward gen­uine up­lift­ment, not elec­toral cal­cu­lus. 

The con­ver­sa­tion about CEPEP and URP must move be­yond 'the red ver­sus yel­low' nar­ra­tive and fo­cus in­stead on build­ing a fair­er, more pro­duc­tive sys­tem that serves all cit­i­zens.

Let CEPEP and URP serve the na­tion, not par­ti­san agen­das.


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