Answer is leadership

The reason why things are bad is due largely to the poor quality of leadership we have in public office over the years.

In TT and many other countries lately, leaders are elected to office based on factors like race, religion, culture and popularity rather than competence.

Consequently, ineptitude reigns while the leaders are protected through the media or by communities from the scrutiny necessary to improve the quality of their management.

In TT while murders increase, the economy falters and our infrastructure degenerates. One ought to ask our leaders: * Why is there no legislation passed or contemplated to deal with the backlog of cases in our courts? * Why are there no structured policing in our communities? * Why are simple things like State-manufactured and controlled licence plates not in place? * When are communities likely to be managed in a manner like those in the developed world? * When are we likely to have an alternative access to Chaguaramas? * Why is there no effort to have special court sessions for dealing expeditiously with gun-related offences and revised gun laws to allow an easier path to obtaining legal firearms? * Why is there no concerted urgent effort to make tourism and agriculture major contributors to earning foreign exchange through investment in conjunction with our business community? One can go on and on but the answer is poor or inept leadership.

When one sees the shanty at the Mucurapo Foreshore in the view of everyone being left to grow, the uncontrolled illegal backfilling of the lands in Carenage ignored, the lands of Caroni left unattended, and our infrastructure allowed to deteriorate due to a lack of a structured maintenance programme, it must be clear that our problem is leadership. Will the Government ever tell the nation what is the total cost of repairs to the Red House to date? That is rumoured to be over a billion dollars.

Nothing can or will get better until we unite in seeking to elect leaders with a vision for the proper management and development of TT . We have the personnel. What we need is the political will to break from traditional ethnic support of incompetence.

Steve Alvarez via email