Rowley must go where no one has gone before

It is critical to note that there are sectors of our society that will find nothing good about anything proposed or done by this PNM administration. These sectors will only be happy if the Prime Minister resigns and calls a new election.

For them, it does not matter what the Christian Mouttet investigation discovers. Nothing short of the firing of the Port Authority Board and the Minister of Works would satisfy the thirst of those seeking to replace the PNM administration.

In this land of wonderful people of many races, different faces and a callaloo of cultures, we have no choice but to work together if we wish to overcome the global economic, social and political challenges that confront us.

We must overcome the management inefficiencies that led to the embarrassing effort to acquire a boat to service our sea bridge.

We must find a way to rise above the agenda of those who seek to divide us into percentages of class, race, wealth, religion, and political affiliation for self-interest.

Moreover, we must start working on moving forward.

For too long we have stood by as politicians wasted our national wealth on investments with minimal returns. The insatiable appetite of those who thrived on government programmes like GATE, CEPEP, URP, food cards and contract labour can never be filled.

While we still have the ability to access international credit and our foreign exchange reserves are still healthy, we need to make a concerted effort to prepare for the future.

We need to stimulate the economy by partnering with our business community. We need to inject investment into a carefully planned approach to agriculture and tourism.

WASA must no longer be allowed to be an economic black hole where water wastage and management inefficiencies are common. A new network of roads need to be accelerated rather than placed on hold. Government must change from being a burden on taxpayers to a source of hope. Efforts must be made to make government services easily assessable and less punitive.

These decisions will entail making choices like that of asking Mouttet, a member of our business community, to investigate our management practices.

The Prime Minister must reach out beyond his political base, outside of his traditional pool of political support and embrace all our citizens from Blanchisseuse in the North to Moruga in the South, from Claxton Bay in the West to Mayaro in the East, from Scarborough to Charlottesville in Tobago.

All of us must be red, white, black and ready to rebuild our nation.

At this time, only one man, PM Dr Keith Rowley, can do that.

He needs to go where no one has gone before. If he fails to take the initiative, we will do it under new leadership after the next general election.

The historical unhealthy divisiveness of our politics must end.

STEVE ALVAREZ via email