Today, T&T breathes a collective sigh of relief as Election 2020 is finally over, even though this campaign only took place over six weeks—one of the shortest election seasons ever to my memory. It seemed like it lasted forever and the refrain “I can’t wait for this to be over” was all too prominent.
For some, the sigh was for relief from the political ads and campaigning that intruded into your already stressed life trying to balance COVID-19. It was a new frontier for political campaigns and while there were no mass gatherings, the advent of social media and virtual meetings meant that no one was immune to campaigning. This also meant that campaigning limits for the parties were removed as persons capitalised more than ever on memes, songs, parodies, and a slew of social media devices to reach their publics and the undecided.
What was debilitating though was the uncouth and unsavoury messages that were sent via social media platforms and the commentary of armchair and desktop politicians and party supporters that actually pushed some non-voters to vote against it. Thank God that’s over.
For others, it was a sigh of relief that we are going to continue forward with the Prime Minister, Health Minister and CMOH that has steered us through difficult waters with hard decisions. For a change in government to have taken place amidst the pandemic may have pushed us into some very uncertain waters especially for key players in many Ministries that are responsible for public health. We all know that politicians are NOT SUPPOSE to get involved with human resource management at the ministries but thank God that did not happen.
For Tobago, some are breathing a sigh of relief that PNM won against Watson Duke in Tobago East and West. While many in Tobago are anxious for change and development the question has been: is Watson Solomon Duke the right person to effect that change?
The cause for concern about his treatment of women was, even more, exacerbated on Saturday night before the election with his damming words against those who oppose him when he said: “dutty stinking girls” and that he “hated the PNM”. While it was not the most malicious words we have heard in election campaigning these words were received as evidence of a characteristic that Tobago does not want to represent them.
For others still, they breathe relief from the uncertainty of international relations had there been a shift in government. As the pandemic shows no sign of slowing and the world economy struggles to get on its feet, like a newborn deer, our international policy cannot afford to change or be unstable at this point. The PNM government has made some key stances on the Venezuela situation and our place in the global oil market and for some other government to come tinker with that at this point would only take us back to the drawing board. Like it or not, admit it or deny it when government changes, policies must change, not because they have to, but because someone want to say “is we do that” or to prove an egomaniacal point.
Let us all thank God and breathe a heavy sigh of relief that there were no derailing incidents in the voting process that may have to lead us down the path of Guyana who waited five months for a winner to be declared and sworn in. (No more on that, don’t want to blight it.)
But, in a year like 2020, this sigh will most definitely be short-lived as the economic impact of COVID-19 still looms large coupled with the fact that our second wave or phase or peak (call it what you will) is still here with us and just the fact that 2020 seems to have ALL the disasters rolled into one character-building year.
Thank God for his wisdom to challenge us to be better.
Breathe in, breathe out, but keep your mask on.
God bless T&T.
Verne R Extavour
Broadcaster
via email