WE congratulate Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar on her second anniversary as UNC political leader, even as next May her People’s Partnership (PP) Government will also mark its second year in office, or its midterm.
While the Opposition has a role to constantly question the Government’s performance and to stand ready to provide an alternative government, nonetheless we must caution about how easy it is to throw around “mauvais langue” in a small society such as TT, when one is not in the hot seat of having to make things happen.
However, one must never forget the huge debt that the nation owes Mrs Persad-Bissessar and her team in having the courage to halt the runaway train that was the former PNM administration.
Crime, profligacy in mega-projects and threats to constitutional rights (such as the attempted subsuming of the powers of Head of State by the Head of Government, plus subsequent revelations about the phone- tapping of prominent citizens) were all the order of the day under the former regime.
Mrs Persad-Bissessar had the strength and the personal courage to take on and beat the very founder of the UNC, Basdeo Panday, to become UNC leader and then Opposition Leader, and then beat the then-ruling PNM under Patrick Manning.
It is an epic story, of the courage of a woman. In the last general election, not only was the PP able to attract traditional floating voters but also a large swathe of the population that never votes, much to the credit of Persad-Bissessar.
She is also to be congratulated for her role in quickly getting together the leaders of the five entities making up the PP — the UNC, COP, NJAC, TOP and MSJ — and just as importantly, in keeping the whole team together.
This is no mean feat. In fact whether the PP Government survives and whether it wins a second term in office will likely depend just as much on the dynamics between the five PP parties, as upon the issues of the day that the Government is trying to tackle, such as the perennial crime issue or the near-global fears of stalled economic growth.
From day one, the PP’s cohesion has been monitored by the PNM and correctly so, as without accountability a government becomes a runaway train.
It was said of the former ONR (and to an extent the former NAR) that if the PNM could not beat them on “the issues”, then the PNM would try to turn their political opponents into an issue, as done in George Chambers’ dubbing the ONR to be “a wicked and nefarious group of men”. This may be why Mrs Persad-Bissessar has spent so much time on crafting the image of the PP Government and herself.
While some may say a woman is weak and docile, and while others may subscribe to a gender neutrality view of the workplace and political arena, we think much of Persad-Bissessar’s success is actually due to her having brought her attributes of womanhood to bear to her job.
She is also to be congratulated for her role in quickly getting together the leaders of the five entities making up the PP — the UNC, COP, NJAC, TOP and MSJ — and just as importantly, in keeping the whole team together.
This is no mean feat. In fact whether the PP Government survives and whether it wins a second term in office will likely depend just as much on the dynamics between the five PP parties, as upon the issues of the day that the Government is trying to tackle, such as the perennial crime issue or the near-global fears of stalled economic growth.
From day one, the PP’s cohesion has been monitored by the PNM and correctly so, as without accountability a government becomes a runaway train.
It was said of the former ONR (and to an extent the former NAR) that if the PNM could not beat them on “the issues”, then the PNM would try to turn their political opponents into an issue, as done in George Chambers’ dubbing the ONR to be “a wicked and nefarious group of men”. This may be why Mrs Persad-Bissessar has spent so much time on crafting the image of the PP Government and herself.
While some may say a woman is weak and docile, and while others may subscribe to a gender neutrality view of the workplace and political arena, we think much of Persad-Bissessar’s success is actually due to her having brought her attributes of womanhood to bear to her job.
When dealing with people as Prime Minister, she shows a remarkable degree of compassion, immediacy and adaptability to the other person’s plight. We expect that Persad-Bissessar will live long in the minds of those who have met her as being a role model — both for those persons aspiring to leadership roles, and for young women and girls in TT and the world.
She is a woman who has become a leader without losing her femininity — as wife, mother and grandmother — but on the contrary has unabashedly allowed herself to be guided in her job by her very “womanness”.
We think that behind all the razzmatazz of her hectic schedule, she genuinely has a heart for the disadvantaged.
We think that behind all the razzmatazz of her hectic schedule, she genuinely has a heart for the disadvantaged.
We recall that she left her own inauguration ceremony to don boots to visit flood-hit communities and to pledge relief. She showed how easy and relatively cheap it was to set up a “Life Fund” to help sick children and relieve the minds of their parents facing million-dollar medical bills.
Her provision of laptops for SEA pupils is to be highly lauded as a measure of her enlightenment. Persad-Bissessar has personified kindness and gentleness towards individuals while a respected leader, and has certainly stopped the slide of TT into areas of abuse of constitutional rights under the former regime.
But the story of Kamla Persad-Bissessar continues and we have to wait to see how it will end. Will she be able to withstand the non-stop onslaught from Opposition in and out of her Government?
But the story of Kamla Persad-Bissessar continues and we have to wait to see how it will end. Will she be able to withstand the non-stop onslaught from Opposition in and out of her Government?
Only time will tell, but so far she has shown strength in the face of vicious attacks that we predict will only gain momentum in the days and months ahead.
(REPRODUCED from NEWSDAY)
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