2 weeks Ago By Roy Mitchell
It is unconscionable to say nothing or do nothing while unscrupulous politicians strain every sinew to callously and diabolically poison the minds of the nation’s young citizens. It is much more devastating when the offence is being committed by leaders who have all benefited, some beyond their wildest dreams, from PNM policies and programmes that have brought success, fame, fortune and glory to their own lives. Such is the demeanour of those who unashamedly lure the nation’s youth to the voting booth focused only upon two self-serving missions: power and money.
In a society overwhelmingly enlightened and abundantly favoured as Trinidad and Tobago, what manner of mind can lead privileged adults to feed upon the innocence of their less endowed young fellow citizens, with no regard whatsoever for their ultimate welfare and well-being, exploiting their ignorance and concurrently jeopardising T&T’s glorious future? That is what GE2025 boils down to, choosing between good and evil. On the other hand, picture our young citizens growing up together with an intelligent, professionally successful, young, visionary prime minister coincidentally named Young, all contemporaneously bent on writing a new chapter for country and self. A more formidable force may never again be so seamlessly created.
Never before has T&T’s ducks been so perfectly lined up. Listen to Prime Minister Young: “Prosperity for us is not just economic growth. It means ensuring that the single parent, the retired, the homemaker, the recent graduate, the job seeker, the person with a disability and the small business owner all have equal chances to succeed and that no one is left behind.
True prosperity is rooted in inclusion, collaboration, and transformation in changing how we operate so we can do better, be better and go further together as we write the next chapter.” I can think of no other statement made throughout the GE2025 campaign, that, in my humble opinion, says it all. It epitomises what should be expected of genuine leaders seeking the electorate’s endorsement of the hands in which to place the nation’s future.
Compare this with Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s outrageous outburst: “When UNC wins, we coming for them,” recklessly vowing retribution against the nation’s mass media for allegedly having offended her coalition. The two vastly contrasting approaches to governance speak volumes for themselves. Persad-Bissessar’s latest assault upon the mass media is taken, not out of Donald Trump’s playbook.
It is the whole book, loyal and dedicated. Recalling any PNM leader vowing retribution of the kind presents a challenge. But, that is what happens when unhinged leaders are not reined in: they that threaten their cohorts to “put party before country or go to hell” and now vow “when the UNC wins, we will come for them” (the mass media), a glaring case of mout open, tory jump out.
These costly slip-ups, however involuntarily induced, expose the UNC’s subterfuge, a governance model now being haphazardly inflicted upon the US electorate, gone completely out of control. It’s what accounts for the UNC’s wild election promises and largesse, their cesspool of lies, moreover, the greatest conspiracy of all, exploiting the ignorance and innocence of the nation’s youth, perpetrating the myth that “de guverment eh do nutt’n fuh we”. Amazingly, this is in stark contradiction of the just-concluded successful Carifta Games staged, against all odds, at T&T’s world-class sporting complexes, young Trinbagonians proud to exhibit their prowess, breaking records in the process.
It belies thousands of young citizens who only recently sat the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA), vying for placement in choice schools; that over the past ten years, the current PNM administration spared no effort reinstating the youth camps and apprenticeship training institutions all heartlessly discarded by the UNC 2010-2015 administration, shoving them dismissively into the jaws of avaricious wolves in sheep’s clothing. Aren’t T&T’s youths accorded opportunities for higher education at The UWI, St Augustine, UTT, USC, COSTAATT, etc? Did the musical genius proudly displayed at the multiple steelband Panorama competitions just fall out of the sky, PNM multifaceted support no longer valued? Don’t T&T’s youth excel against the world’s best, emerging way above and beyond, far superior in creativity and intelligence? Isn’t it time for patriotic citizens to fight back, especially against those whose privileged stations were made possible mainly through PNM socio-economic and cultural policies and programmes: every single one of them? From one free college entrance in 1956 to universal free secondary education today, free and assisted tertiary education, free transport and meals, grants for books and uniforms, furthermore, free healthcare and medical supplies: opportunities and privileges at will, regardless. In every sphere, young citizens being given priority.
Just grab it. A simple question young people should ask is: why shouldn’t we, likewise, benefit from the wealth of PNM initiatives that made these exploiters the success they are, today? Young citizens, beware. • Roy Mitchell is a former special adviser and co-ordinator, National Tripartite Advisory Council (NTAC).
.
