Spoilt electorate refuses to learn

THE EDITOR: When the Government was voted into office, my first reaction was to write to the newspaper to advise the new administration to communicate and sensitise the electorate on key realities which will face the nation over the next five years and beyond. Unfortunately, the administration failed to see what I saw.

As I saw things, we are living in the information age and, therefore, no longer have the privilege of fooling the people most of the time. Perhaps what is worse is the misinformation of social media and the actors with skewed agendas. Hence my then advice to the Government.

Now our society is in the grip of an intractable economic and financial crisis. As a result, Financial Minister Colm Imbert has bravely and with some success managed to save the nation, by taking certain measures, from toppling over the brink of calamity.

In spite of the minister’s strategy, many people have become so spoilt that they cannot understand or even recognise what we face or what the minister has prevented. Certainly, we cannot be sure that we will be able to extricate ourselves from impending doom.

Older people tell us that during the 1950s, 1960s and beyond, we knew nothing about subsidies for gasoline and diesel.

However, because of rising fuel costs internationally, the government of the day decided to share the flow of bliss with the wider society.

Now that oil prices have fallen, our spoilt electorate cannot accept that the Government is unable to continue subsidies to the nation or proceed with business as usual. As much as we like it, we cannot continue living recklessly. We have had good times but, unfortunately, times have changed but we refuse to learn from the experiences of Greece, Venezuela, Guyana, and Jamaica.

Instead, some citizens have resorted to threatening the Government with protests, riots, crime and mayhem. If what they say is true, then only God can help us to find greater resilience. Let us hope that as a Trini, God will bring these citizens to their senses.

RAYMOND S HACKETT

Curepe