Head start for reaching 2020

THE EDITOR: It has now become painful to observe the great lengths to which government officials go to absolve themselves of their responsibilities to the people of this country.

In the recent past ministers have fed us a constant diet of, “be calm, crime is under control,” “my Ministry is working on programmes to achieve a holistic solution to school violence”, “there is no dengue outbreak,” “what mystery illness?” and “ordinary people have nothing to fear.” Let us not forget, “I have no crime fighting capabilities — but I know what is required to be done.” Lately, the Minister of Public Utilities and the Environment even had the gumption to announce in the Parliament that the brown, nasty and often foul-smelling liquid that I pay to run out of my taps is safe to drink and meets “international standards.” I am sure the honourable Minister was not willingly misleading the House when she said that. I am also quite sure that the good men and women of our cabinet are strong in their resolve that we shall, despite the apparent decay of our public institutions and the almost total collapse of our social and security services, reach developed country status by the year 2020.

Let me therefore propose that our government “put its money where its mouth is,” so to speak and implement what I call Vision 2004, the main elements of which are as follows:-
1) At the next sitting of Parliament and at all future sittings of either House, the water glasses of members be not filled with the customary bottled water, but with the “internationally accepted” brown unadulterated liquid produced by the Caroni Water Treatment Plant. That water should also be served at the head tables of all public functions at which a minister is invited to speak and be proudly offered to all visiting dignitaries who should happen to call at President’s House.
2) When Ministers and retired heads of state fall ill, instead of jetting off to Cuba or Caracas at taxpayers expense, they will instead avail themselves’ of the excellently run public hospitals which we average citizens have the pleasure to endure.
3) While we decide what other names to call the “overpass,” when to build it and whether we need a more effective mass transportation system, all Ministers will give up their Priority Bus Route passes, police outriders and blue flashing lights and instead relax in the daily traffic jams.
4) All children of Ministers of Govern-ment will attend our well managed and secure local government primary and secondary schools where a holistic and sensitive approach is actively being taken to deal with the sensitive issues of education.
5) As a show of good faith, Parliament will be convened at every other sitting at a convenient but swampy location in South Trinidad — where there is no dengue outbreak, or Caparo Village, Caroni, where if it floods, NEMA will be quickly there to lend a helping hand.
6) That all persons in public life, including the Chairmen and members of the boards of state enterprises declare their assets for the years 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 to the Integrity Commission. After all, as our Honourable Prime Minister said in his address at the ongoing Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference in Nigeria, Trinidad and Tobago is the “beacon” of integrity in public life.
I am sure that this Plan 2004, if implemented in earnest, will surely give us the head start we need to reach developed country status by 2020, if not 2007.

DARRELL ALLAHAR
Port-of-Spain