For the last four days, the ministers of the Government of the People's Partnership have been on retreat at the luxurious Coco Reef Hotel in Tobago.
Do not begrudge them their comfort. If the four-day retreat in Tobago helps them to do a better job on behalf of the citizens then it would have been worth it.
Indeed, not only was this retreat a much-needed intervention but the Government should seriously consider scheduling similar retreats on a regular basis to enable them to take stock of their performance.
Whether or not such a performance review was part of the agenda for this just-ended retreat I do not know but nothing prevents the citizens from conducting their own performance review of the Government.
This Government has been in office over three months. Such a period is the usual time given in business for probationary assessments in the case of senior managerial employees.
The country has employed a brand new set of senior managers and it is only right and proper that we conduct our own assessment.
In this regard we can usefully seek to evaluate the Government by identifying those attributes which have emerged over the last three months as their demonstrated strengths and weaknesses and then seeking to analyse how those strengths and weaknesses might impact their future performance.
In terms of the Government's strengths I am clear that at the top of the list is their willingness to reach out in active service to the people as was demonstrated by their reaction to the flooding crisis a few weeks ago.
The sight of ministers wading through filth-strewn waters to bring hampers and other forms of relief to devastated citizens was one so absolutely unique that it must have made a lasting impression on the entire country.
We are aware, of course, that the flooding problem is not easily solved and the Government has announced certain long-term prevention measures.
How they will perform with regard to the implementation of these measures remains to be seen but they have bought themselves a ton of goodwill by the alacrity, the compassion and the genuineness of their efforts to "serve the people" which they demonstrated during those difficult days.
The second strength which this Government has demonstrated over the last three months is that it possesses within its ranks two politicians of significant calibre. (There may be others but thus far only two have truly demonstrated their worth.)
The first of these is clearly Jack Warner. The country has known Jack Warner to be a significant political operator ever since the days of the RamJack insurrection in the UNC.
What we did not know is whether those skills, demonstrated in the relatively unregulated environment of opposition politics, would translate over into government. Thus far it seems as though they have.
Two instances will suffice. I wrote recently about how easily Mr Warner ignited a debate about hanging in Trinidad. Any politician who can drag such a red herring across the public space even to the point of trapping some of his cabinet colleagues in this fruitless debate has to be really good.
The debate about hanging in Trinidad is a red herring because all it serves to do is divert attention from all the real issues of crime and the Government's lack of plans with regard to those issues.
The second demonstrable instance of Jack's political skill came just last week when he publicly declared that he would leave government if he could not fix the flooding problem in five years.
This was a rare piece of political genius in which Jack, at one stroke, removed the burden of unrealistic expectations from his back and set his own timetable for accomplishment.
The second politician of significant calibre in the Government is Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar. In the three months she has been in office she has consistently portrayed a certain persona and style which has won and continues to win the trust of the population.
She has kept on message, she has yielded no ground to her critics and the velvet whip she used recently to chastise some of her cabinet colleagues for speaking out-of-turn on the hanging issue, shows that she is indeed boss without having every day to prove it.
Kamla's political skills are very different from Jack's, but hers may prove to be the more important ones as this Government goes forward.
When we turn to the Government's weaknesses the first thing which stands out is the lack of discipline demonstrated by so many Cabinet members over the past three months.
For a period there were so many ministers, talking so much rubbish about so many different issues that the administration appeared to be like the proverbial "chicken with its head cut off".
The problem was not the many voices that we were hearing. That in itself was a refreshing change. The problem was the lack of coherence and consistency in what was being said. The Government looked like a bunch of amateurs and lost serious respect and credibility in the eyes of many.
The second major weakness is perhaps in part responsible for the first. As I have been saying from the very beginning of their tenure in office, this Government came to office without any integrative philosophy, without any comprehensive plan.
The result has been that in the three months they have been in office, the country has not had, from any of their spokesmen, a single statement as to the direction in which they intend to lead the country, the reasons for so doing and the steps they will take to get us there.
This weakness, if allowed to continue, will prove more formidable than the Government's strengths.
If they cannot pull together quickly some coherent philosophical framework, resilient enough to serve as a guide in policy formation and resource allocation, they shall soon find themselves operating on the basis of the worst kind of adhocracy and expediency. From there it is a short step to corruption.
This country has had enough experience of "government by vaps" to know it when we see it. It is only to be hoped that in its just-concluded retreat the government found some time to seriously address this weakness.
If they did not they may soon find themselves praying for some kind of crisis so they can show their willingness to serve the people.
Michael Harris has been for many years a writer and commentator on politics and society in Trinidad and the wider Caribbean. He is a long-standing member of the Tapia House Group and works as a human resource executive.
Do not begrudge them their comfort. If the four-day retreat in Tobago helps them to do a better job on behalf of the citizens then it would have been worth it.
Indeed, not only was this retreat a much-needed intervention but the Government should seriously consider scheduling similar retreats on a regular basis to enable them to take stock of their performance.
Whether or not such a performance review was part of the agenda for this just-ended retreat I do not know but nothing prevents the citizens from conducting their own performance review of the Government.
This Government has been in office over three months. Such a period is the usual time given in business for probationary assessments in the case of senior managerial employees.
The country has employed a brand new set of senior managers and it is only right and proper that we conduct our own assessment.
In this regard we can usefully seek to evaluate the Government by identifying those attributes which have emerged over the last three months as their demonstrated strengths and weaknesses and then seeking to analyse how those strengths and weaknesses might impact their future performance.
In terms of the Government's strengths I am clear that at the top of the list is their willingness to reach out in active service to the people as was demonstrated by their reaction to the flooding crisis a few weeks ago.
The sight of ministers wading through filth-strewn waters to bring hampers and other forms of relief to devastated citizens was one so absolutely unique that it must have made a lasting impression on the entire country.
We are aware, of course, that the flooding problem is not easily solved and the Government has announced certain long-term prevention measures.
How they will perform with regard to the implementation of these measures remains to be seen but they have bought themselves a ton of goodwill by the alacrity, the compassion and the genuineness of their efforts to "serve the people" which they demonstrated during those difficult days.
The second strength which this Government has demonstrated over the last three months is that it possesses within its ranks two politicians of significant calibre. (There may be others but thus far only two have truly demonstrated their worth.)
The first of these is clearly Jack Warner. The country has known Jack Warner to be a significant political operator ever since the days of the RamJack insurrection in the UNC.
What we did not know is whether those skills, demonstrated in the relatively unregulated environment of opposition politics, would translate over into government. Thus far it seems as though they have.
Two instances will suffice. I wrote recently about how easily Mr Warner ignited a debate about hanging in Trinidad. Any politician who can drag such a red herring across the public space even to the point of trapping some of his cabinet colleagues in this fruitless debate has to be really good.
The debate about hanging in Trinidad is a red herring because all it serves to do is divert attention from all the real issues of crime and the Government's lack of plans with regard to those issues.
The second demonstrable instance of Jack's political skill came just last week when he publicly declared that he would leave government if he could not fix the flooding problem in five years.
This was a rare piece of political genius in which Jack, at one stroke, removed the burden of unrealistic expectations from his back and set his own timetable for accomplishment.
The second politician of significant calibre in the Government is Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar. In the three months she has been in office she has consistently portrayed a certain persona and style which has won and continues to win the trust of the population.
She has kept on message, she has yielded no ground to her critics and the velvet whip she used recently to chastise some of her cabinet colleagues for speaking out-of-turn on the hanging issue, shows that she is indeed boss without having every day to prove it.
Kamla's political skills are very different from Jack's, but hers may prove to be the more important ones as this Government goes forward.
When we turn to the Government's weaknesses the first thing which stands out is the lack of discipline demonstrated by so many Cabinet members over the past three months.
For a period there were so many ministers, talking so much rubbish about so many different issues that the administration appeared to be like the proverbial "chicken with its head cut off".
The problem was not the many voices that we were hearing. That in itself was a refreshing change. The problem was the lack of coherence and consistency in what was being said. The Government looked like a bunch of amateurs and lost serious respect and credibility in the eyes of many.
The second major weakness is perhaps in part responsible for the first. As I have been saying from the very beginning of their tenure in office, this Government came to office without any integrative philosophy, without any comprehensive plan.
The result has been that in the three months they have been in office, the country has not had, from any of their spokesmen, a single statement as to the direction in which they intend to lead the country, the reasons for so doing and the steps they will take to get us there.
This weakness, if allowed to continue, will prove more formidable than the Government's strengths.
If they cannot pull together quickly some coherent philosophical framework, resilient enough to serve as a guide in policy formation and resource allocation, they shall soon find themselves operating on the basis of the worst kind of adhocracy and expediency. From there it is a short step to corruption.
This country has had enough experience of "government by vaps" to know it when we see it. It is only to be hoped that in its just-concluded retreat the government found some time to seriously address this weakness.
If they did not they may soon find themselves praying for some kind of crisis so they can show their willingness to serve the people.
Michael Harris has been for many years a writer and commentator on politics and society in Trinidad and the wider Caribbean. He is a long-standing member of the Tapia House Group and works as a human resource executive.
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