People are bigger than politics

THE EDITOR: The UNC is moving to a point where they will eventually lose a lot of their constituents. I say this as history has shown that people are bigger than politics.

They care about what concerns them now, who are going to take care of these problems. People are not concerned about futures. And this is where the UNC is failing. Could it be a last stance to bring new life into a damaged organisation? Is it an attempt by the leaders to show they have a unique agenda? Is it simply a stance that “we are the opposition and they are the government, and we must go against everything they do?” From the outside, our thoughts are that the UNC is more concerned about their agenda and not ours, the agenda of the people. Why?

Pressing problems now are (a) Caroni workers who will lose their jobs, (b) crime — crime — crime, (c) other industries that may become bankrupt and retrench even more workers, (d) doctors not providing medical care, (e) any  problem that affects us now. Sorry but talk about constitutional change is landing on deaf ears. We all know these things take months and even years, after all we don’t want to rush into some patch and glue fix-up of our constitution. So why is the UNC forcing people to wait until they get their wish for constitutional change when our major concerns are the five issues presented?

In the USA, the Democrats were adamantly against the war in Iraq, as the UN did not sanction it. Here we have the world’s greatest democracy, yet somehow the opposition ended up supporting the government for the sake of national unity and security. Why can’t the UNC take this lead? Even in the UK, where most of the people were against the war, everyone seemed to end up supporting their government for the same reasons, as Americans. But not in TT. No siree, a hundred or so murdered, another hundred kidnapped, thousands on the bread line and sick people dying is simply not as important or equal in value to the nation as constitutional change.

Talk about equity! Since when does a constitution bring equity when we already have laws against discrimination and hate? Equity, integration and harmony are an attitude of the people, not a legal document. Our leaders are the primary promoters of developing a just society that guarantees equity, racial, religious and social integration. We already have this.

Ask any Trini and they will make a claim that hatred and discrimination is rampant in TT. The only place we hear of these despicable problems is from the mouths of politicians. What we should ask the UNC is why in the name of building a better nation did they not address these “severe” issues when they held power for so many years. Why now, only when the election has been lost and the party is placed in the lower social rank of opposition? I see no problem addressing the current pressing issues with amendments to existing legislation.

I see no problem taking care of the priority issues the people have defined now. I see no problem why constitutional change cannot be evolved gracefully and properly over a period of time. Constitutions are not simple documents. They are the conerstones of nations. Rushing to create one before the next election is not productive or good for the nation. But no, Trinidad and Tobago must have a new one now. Let people die from murder, kidnapping or poor health. As far as the UNC is concerned this is a small price to pay for nation building. Wrong!

The PNM may not be perfect. How many governments are? But it is what we got as a result of a democratic vote and this institution should not be held hostage by undemocratic forces. Maybe one of the constitutional changes we need is to provide the government with more executive power so it can run the nation when it wins a free and fair election without harassment, stonewalling and political pettiness from other organisations. If the President of the USA can have veto power, then we ought to provide the same power to our Prime Minister. When your car shuts down, you fix it first before you look at getting a new one. So why can’t our nation be run under the similar and very basic principles?

MICHAEL ROBINSON
Caroni