EARLY GENERAL ELECTION!

The country’s murder toll, 105 in the first 114 days of the year, is the highest it has ever been in the history of Trinidad and Tobago, colonial or Independent. In addition, more than 50 persons have been killed in vehicular accidents, while several individuals have been kidnapped to date for 2005. Additionally, last week a young man was shot and killed in broad daylight in Port-of-Spain’s financial district. Less than two weeks earlier hundreds of workers were rendered jobless when fire destroyed scores of business places at the People’s Mall and environs in downtown Port-of-Spain.

And while Manning has been boasting of the drop in the jobless rate since the launch of the Community Environment and Protection and Enhancement Programme (CEPEP), along with the continued Unemployment Relief Programme (URP), the jobs offered by CEPEP and URP have been short -term and are largely rotated.

In turn, the continuing increase in the price of crude on the international market, which recently soared above US$56 a barrel, has not been translated into appropriate State revenues for domestically produced crude as the proposed new oil and gas tax regime is not expected to be operative until June. And this, even as the high cost of crude, aggravated by demands by China and Japan, has pushed up the landed price of imports regionally and internationally and impacted adversely on Trinidad and Tobago’s already high cost of living.

The new minimum wage of nine dollars an hour, which represents an increase of 12 1/2 percent, and general across the board wage increases of ten, 12 and 15 percent have been largely wiped out by inflation, most of it imported. The above, along with other factors, suggests that Trinidad and Tobago, rather than being a beneficiary of social and economic pluses is instead faced with mounting minuses, hardly the climate in which to consider seriously an early General Election.

Yet only on Friday, Manning speaking at a rally for the PNM faithful at Tunapuna, hinted at the prospect of an early General Election, while Party Chairman, Franklin Khan, declared that the Party’s foot soldiers were ready to do battle whenever the Prime Minister announced the date.

It may be that the Prime Minister/Political Leader, with the clear support of the Chairman, is looking at the current disarray in the ranks of the Opposition United National Congress. Already, three senior Opposition Members of Parliament, Gillian Lucky, Dr Fuad Khan and Gerald Yetming, have expressed serious reservations about the Party, with Khan and Lucky declaring themselves UNC Independent members.

Nonetheless, Manning should remember that an early general election was called by him in 1995, one year ahead of it being constitutionally due. This was prompted perhaps by an improvement in the Trinidad and Tobago economy, after 15 years of decline, and heartening reports from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Monetary Fund. It saw the PNM rejected at the polls.