Who will make the change?

The question is who will step up to the challenge of focusing on doing what is right and necessary to bring about the changes we need.

We are burdened with an old colonial- style system of running our affairs.

While we continue to hear about constitutional reform over and over, we persist in operating within an ancient and archaic constitution.

Why are we still fighting up with a “Hollywood-style” Commissioner of Police? These people have been acting all their professional lives in the most critical crime-fighting office in our country. Who will make the change? We have been hearing about term limits, right of recall and local government reform for years.

The talk about campaign finance reform and reforming the parameters of the Elections and Boundaries Commission all seem like political campaign appetizers.

Corruption continues to withhold our economic progress as we probably lose about 20 percent of our budget to corruption.

A budget of $50 billion therefore would mean that $10 billion is lost to corruption every year and never finds itself in productive public sector economic activities.

The main course at the political table however is the promise of diversification of the economy.

People are losing hope that this will ever happen with the support of government intervention.

Now we are feeling the effects of procrastination on these fronts as our livelihoods are all being affected by increases in the cost of living, salary cuts and job losses.

If we as a country depend on the PNM and UNC to fix these longstanding issues, then we may as well prepare to leave things the way they are, to our demise. History is there as evidence to prove that party politics has taken precedence over country and patriotism.

Who will make the change? We citizens must do our part to make these changes by standing up and getting involved in the politics that shapes our society and economy.

RONALD HUGGINS St Joseph