YASEEN AHMED

THERE IS something much more important to decide than who will take the mantle of power come April 28. It is to decide which party really cares more for the nation. One commentator sums it up perfectly in saying that the two major parties “operate within a system that prioritises political survival over national progress.”

On the current election hustings we are seeing new faces and several “crossovers,” but by and large it is still the same flights-of-fancy promises, blame games and ad hominem attacks that seem to reign. Each political side appears to still believe deeply in the cult of personality and, strangely enough, the PNM is still trying to capitalise on the misdeeds/misgivings of the opposite party, even though the latter was booted out of office in 2015.

If the electorate in 2025 does not rise above these superficial gestures and learn to distinguish fact and performance from optimistic opinions or language merely cloaked in garb, in the end we will remain the losers. At this point in our post-colonial period, we, the important decision-makers of those who hold political office, need “patriotic warriors who are fearless, grounded in ethical principles, though not naïve” (in the apt words of Dr Indera Sagewan – July 25, 2024).

By way of illustration, on the PNM side, in the Aranguez meeting on March 29, new Minister of National Security Marvin Gonzales campaigned on a 30 per cent reduction in murders (since the start of the state of emergency – SoE – to now), promising that more will be done by the PNM government come April 30, once returned to power. What has happened to the murder rate for the nine years before the SoE?

He also spoke promisingly of equipping the prison service with more resources and providing more support in the fight against prisoners accessing drugs and calling hits – from cellphones – from inside the prison walls. That sounds excellent, but why was that great plan not implemented in the past ten years? What was previous minister Fitzgerald Hinds doing in the past four years during his tenure from April 2021 to March 2025?

Gonzales assured supporters that in three months time our law enforcement agencies will receive the support and confidence of regional/international crime-fighting agencies so that the war on crime can be ramped up. Couldn’t Hinds – whom Gonzales in the same breath publicly praised for doing an excellent job as national security minister – have taken the same initiative in the past four years? Also, why did the former PM not remove Hinds sooner – if he was found neglecting his duties?

These are the type of questions voters must ask themselves.

(A good point was scored, however, when the Minister of Health raised the issue of corruption in the last UNC alliance government, referring to the publication of a report that found there was the absence of proper procurement practices and overpayment for goods and services in the public sector – one named company received $34 million in payment despite no goods and services being rendered.)

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