Dictators get the nod

THE EDITOR: When one gets to the age where you have retired from the workforce and enjoy the luxury of sitting at home with not much to do and a great deal of time within which to do it, your thoughts often stray back to the good old days when this country was a peaceful and quiet place filled with civilised and friendly people who always found the time to exchange a friendly greeting or engage in light conversation.
You have time to reflect on what is taking place around the world and how things have changed over the years for better or worse, as well as the way people’s lives have been affected in the process.
During one of my idle moments, my mind strayed to the subject of governance and dictatorship and republics.
What I came up with in the course of my deliberations was that for the most part, dictatorships are usually the end result of some over zealous individual of limited capability but persuasive by nature, taking control of the armed forces and taking over the administration of a country by armed force. At least this appears to be the pattern in some of the South and Central American countries as well as in parts of the African continent.
Then it dawned on me that Trinidad and Tobago was perhaps unique in this respect, since it appeared to be the only country in which dictators were elected to office by popular public vote?