Next Monday August 10th the voters of Trinidad & Tobago would have a chance to undo the error made some 5 years ago, when the majority of the voting public made a collective error to replace the People’s Partnership with a PNM Government.
My reason for the suggested reversal is that based on a meritocratic system the People’s Partnership should have been rehired for a consecutive second term to continue the protracted social and infrastructural development they started in 2010.
Their successes were well documented and quite visible even up till today. One may argue that change administrations every five years is a plus as complacency have unproductive consequences. However, in the Trinidad & Tobago’s case whenever a solid development foundation is laid disrupting continuity would produce a more unfavorable result in the cost-benefit configuration. Indeed, assuming Trinidad & Tobago needs to compare one administration over the next at least one consecutive term would lay the ground work for a more meaningful comparison. After all, the PNM has been in charge of the economy for 48 years of the 64 years, with 6 consecutive terms since 1956.
So theoretically the PNM have had sufficient years to consolidate via consecutive terms in office.
No other political party has the luxury of consecutive terms to permit building and consolidating.
The closest to a consecutive term was a Panday administration, which imploded early in its second term.
Trinidad & Tobago is not the only country where a collective error was made by a plurality of voters. The Muslin Brotherhood elections in Egypt some dozen or so years ago and the election of Donald Trump is 2016 are but two such examples.
So now the citizens of T&T will be presented with a chance to correct the 2015 error on Monday as was done previously in Egypt and will most likely be done in the USA come this November.
Ash Maharaj
via email