I do not see that there is any other interpretation which any neutral observer can put upon the results of several opinion polls on the government’s performance after their first year in office.
The polls indicated that more people approve of the government’s overall performance than disapprove. People felt that the PP government had outperformed the PNM in many specific areas, including Crime, Education and the Ministry of Works portfolio: traffic, flooding, and the like.
But for me, the most significant data came from the following in the MFO poll: “Sixty four percent of the sample indicated that they respect Mrs. Persad-Bissessar….. but they said their perception was that only thirty four percent of the general public has respect for her”.
This speaks volumes about the perceptions of ordinary folk in T&T. People who are going about their business while the remnants of the PNM, sections of the labour movement, and some of the media work hysterically to attack and pull down the government at every turn.
The polls indicated that more people approve of the government’s overall performance than disapprove. People felt that the PP government had outperformed the PNM in many specific areas, including Crime, Education and the Ministry of Works portfolio: traffic, flooding, and the like.
But for me, the most significant data came from the following in the MFO poll: “Sixty four percent of the sample indicated that they respect Mrs. Persad-Bissessar….. but they said their perception was that only thirty four percent of the general public has respect for her”.
Significantly, this data was published in the absence of the actual question the pollsters would have asked. What is demonstrated here is that people remain in support of Kamla and her government, in spite of the torrent of innuendo and attack from several quarters, but they believe, because of the torrent, that they who support are in the minority!
This speaks volumes about the perceptions of ordinary folk in T&T. People who are going about their business while the remnants of the PNM, sections of the labour movement, and some of the media work hysterically to attack and pull down the government at every turn.
The noise they create, without producing a single hint of suggestion to assist the government in improving peoples’ lives, is suggesting that that this government inherited an efficient, wealthy, honest society from the PNM.
The reality, which the average person has acknowledged in the polls, is that the PNM demitted office leaving a mess of crime, flooding, dry taps, pathetic infrastructure, a betrayed labour movement, and a slew of tall, useless and unfinished buildings.
I accept that this government has reason to be criticized, and I have said so before. However, I cannot accept—and apparently neither can the majority of our citizens—that they deserve the constant stream of harassment and invective to which we have seen them subjected.
One newspaper, publishing the poll results, could not bring itself to say “well done, under very difficult conditions”. Instead they published a two-page spread, titled “The year in missteps”. However, how critical to our country were these “missteps”, and which, when exposed or discovered, were not corrected?
Did anyone ever compile a similar list after Manning’s first year in 2002? And why not? Little items like appointing his wife as a cabinet minister (never corrected); Handing over state lands to the Muslimeen (corrected after a cabinet revolt, for which Valley, Rahael, Beckles, Hinds, Seukeran and Eddie Hart were dumped in 2007); Abandoning the newly built Biche High School on spurious grounds, and refusing to publish the Inquiry Report he commissioned.
And what about Patrick Manning’s subsequent international jaunts on a private executive jet, which just happened to belong to Repsol, who was negotiating (along with other oil companies) a better tax regime for drilling here?
I accept that this government has reason to be criticized, and I have said so before. However, I cannot accept—and apparently neither can the majority of our citizens—that they deserve the constant stream of harassment and invective to which we have seen them subjected.
One newspaper, publishing the poll results, could not bring itself to say “well done, under very difficult conditions”. Instead they published a two-page spread, titled “The year in missteps”. However, how critical to our country were these “missteps”, and which, when exposed or discovered, were not corrected?
Did anyone ever compile a similar list after Manning’s first year in 2002? And why not? Little items like appointing his wife as a cabinet minister (never corrected); Handing over state lands to the Muslimeen (corrected after a cabinet revolt, for which Valley, Rahael, Beckles, Hinds, Seukeran and Eddie Hart were dumped in 2007); Abandoning the newly built Biche High School on spurious grounds, and refusing to publish the Inquiry Report he commissioned.
And what about Patrick Manning’s subsequent international jaunts on a private executive jet, which just happened to belong to Repsol, who was negotiating (along with other oil companies) a better tax regime for drilling here?
Incidentally, the Integrity Commission ruled that those flights were not a breach of the Integrity in Public Life Act! But today’s PNM is claiming that Kamla’s brief stay at the home of a friend was a breach, a position apparently supported by the chairman of the Integrity Commission?
The pressure that this government is receiving from labour must be compared with the docile acquiescence of labour leaders to the PNM’s statement in a time of plenty that “increasing wages would be inflationary”.
The pressure that this government is receiving from labour must be compared with the docile acquiescence of labour leaders to the PNM’s statement in a time of plenty that “increasing wages would be inflationary”.
Instead of treating with local workers, the PNM spent all of our money on those ridiculous, unfinished buildings, and to add insult to injury, they brought in workers from China to build them. And all of this under the watch of Calder Hart’s acolyte, Trade Union Leader Michael Annisette, who is now bleating for local workers! We nice yes!
But clearly, the people are not being fooled. Despite the torrent of criticism, people realize that a difficult task is being undertaken, and slowly, the incompetence of the PNM is being overcome.
And yet many of us are asking the government to move on, and to stop defending themselves. We should be asking the attackers to lay off for a while, because if the government does not answer, people will then claim that the accusations are true.
We have a responsibility to our country, and this includes monitoring and criticizing our governments. But this responsibility does not extend into the constant unsupported harping which we are being forced to endure.
But clearly, the people are not being fooled. Despite the torrent of criticism, people realize that a difficult task is being undertaken, and slowly, the incompetence of the PNM is being overcome.
And yet many of us are asking the government to move on, and to stop defending themselves. We should be asking the attackers to lay off for a while, because if the government does not answer, people will then claim that the accusations are true.
We have a responsibility to our country, and this includes monitoring and criticizing our governments. But this responsibility does not extend into the constant unsupported harping which we are being forced to endure.
It is time to join the mainstream now identified, to work for a better T&T and better governance from those whom we put there.
And this must include analyzing the criticisms of the saboteurs instead of just publishing them as “fact”.
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