Poll’s perception matches reality

Indeed, political parties ranked at the bottom of the list of institutions that citizens have confidence in, with only six percent of those polled expressing confidence in the parties. Next lowest ranked was Parliament. The only institution in which a majority of citizens (51 percent) expressed confidence was the church.

MORI chairman, Professor Robert Worcester, pointed out that the poll did not reflect reality, just perception. But, in terms of issues, perception more or less matched reality. Between 2002 and 2004, people have become more worried about crime, employment, health care, and poverty. Which is entirely correct, since the hard statistics show that indicators in all these areas have worsened.

But the low confidence in various institutions reflects another reality which undermines a society. This is what is called "social capital." The concept, developed by Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam, measures cooperation at the societal level. It embodies trust, reciprocity, a lack of hostility, and a heavy participation in organisations for a common good. It occurs at the level of community rather than individuals or individual social networks. So a liming group does not reflect social capital, but a cricket league does.

Significantly, one of the key factors which destroys social capital is a wide gap between the rich and the poor. This is why the common expression of astonishment — that Trinidad is so wealthy yet has so many problems — both hits and misses the point. Our oil and gas wealth would indeed allow us to solve every pressing social problem. Except that it is a truism that energy-rich countries tend to be more corrupt than countries without natural resources. And official corruption, as everyone knows, skews the distribution of resources. So the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. And a wide gap between rich and poor, not poverty per se, is a main factor underlying violent crime.

Government apologists would no doubt argue that programmes such as URP and CEPEP help redistribute the country’s wealth. That may be so, but it seems that the negative effects outweigh any good. Despite the defensive rhetoric of Local Government Minister Rennie Dumas, the URP is itself a centre of corrupt activities, which the government seems unable to control. Moreover, there is some evidence that the URP helps fuel the gang wars in Laventille, and again the government seems unwilling to take stringent action to investigate, let alone sever, that possible linkage.

Programmes like CEPEP, even if not actually corrupt, also help skew market forces. It may well be that the rising inflation rate, most obviously reflected in rising grocery bills, is a consequence of Government overspending. But, even if there are other factors at play, it is irrefutable that the energy dollars are not making the country better off. And the low confidence of citizens reflects this perception of an increasingly dismal reality in Trinidad and Tobago.