Brain drain problem

The figures cited by Dr Tewarie are quite disturbing. Among the educated sector of the country, the migration figure is 50 percent, with this country having been identified as having the third highest brain drain in the world. Dr Tewarie identified several reasons for nationals leaving the country — the search for better opportunities; escape from crime and discrimination; a need for greater challenges; and a sense of alienation and lack of appreciation. But there are many other societies where people have all these motivations, yet the percentage of their citizens migrating to other countries is not nearly so high. For Trinidad and Tobago to have the third highest rate in the world, even given that the Caribbean region has the highest such rate overall, is the most potent indicator of our failure to build a real nation a half-century after the country’s first true national party took office.

The root cause is clearly not money. Trinidad and Tobago’s economy, even before the first oil boom in the 1970s, was never parlous enough for that alone to drive citizens away from her shores. So the root cause has to be political — in the wide sense that the arrangements made for the various groups to live together have failed to meet some fundamental non-material needs. In other words, alienation, discrimination, and a lack of appreciation, as identified by Dr Tewarie, may be the real factors behind our high migration rate, even if the high murder and kidnapping rates have lately catalysed it.

If this is so, it means that the country’s migration rate cannot be reduced, and development cannot happen, until these fundamental political problems are solved. In this light, the seemingly abstract problem of constitutional reform assumes an urgency which might not be immediately apparent from the discussions and consultations that have so far taken place, and certainly not from the throwaway suggestions that have come from our political leaders thus far.

But at least these leaders have agreed that reform is needed. However, the kind of reforms needed to solve the issues identified may not find favour with these self-same leaders. Studies of political arrangements in other societies have shown, for example, that citizens have a greater sense of belonging when local government bodies are more autonomous. Similarly, alienation is reduced the more democratic a country’s political arrangements — and a truly democratic arrangement is not one where power is vested solely in the Prime Minister nor, indeed, in the Cabinet. A constitutional democracy also gives people a sense that their society is run by principles of fairness — but such a democracy is one where power is vested in Parliament, whereas our parliament is just a rubber stamp.

All this is, however, moot unless the Government deals effectively with the issue of crime, poverty, as well as health and other services. But it may be that tackling the apparently abstract issues at the same time as the clearly concrete ones is crucial for dealing effectively with both. Dr Tewarie has suggested an incentive programme to nurture, develop, and retain talent. Rather than waiting for our migration problem to become completely chronic, the Government would be well-advised to start taking action now.