Let wisdom and maturity prevail

THE EDITOR: While TT is a young nation in terms of its independence and self-governance, in many ways it is as mature as any other nation, and perhaps more than some.

We saw a further display of this maturity as the Electoral College (members of the House of Representatives and the Senate) voted together to elect Paula-Mae Weekes as the nation’s first female President, a move which was proposed by the Prime Minister and the Government and endorsed by the Leader of the Opposition.

In a bipartisan fashion, all political forces have converged to endorse the appointment of the nation’s first female President and commander-in-chief. In further convergence, to date I have heard no sector of society pose any challenge to this decision; neither has anyone posed an objection to a woman being appointed to this position.

We must all see this as a significant step in our nation’s history, especially as we have seen very few points of such convergence in our modern society.

I wish to see more opportunities for this sort of agreement, especially in our Parliament, so that we can all, as a society, grow together.

In particular, I want to declare my personal wish for similar bipartisan support for the debate of the national development strategy, amicably named Vision 2030.

After having read the document, I am convinced that, similar to the election of a female president, it will be the mature thing to have the nation’s highest place of debate review the document and decide on a nonpartisan approach to our nation’s development.

As our female President-elect is briefed prior to formally taking up office, and the various sectors of society begin to prepare themselves to welcome a new President, I hope that we can also be prepared to discuss, in a level-headed fashion, the other aspects of developing a resilient society.

While we face several challenges due to things I choose not to mention here, with a female President-elect I see blessings as a result of our ability to make mature decisions. I believe many more will come if we follow her into office with a united force, agreeing on our developmental path.

I close with the words of the epistle of James, in the King James Version of the Bible, which says:

“…count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”

Every challenge we have ever faced as individuals and as a nation has brought us to this point. I pray that we use the wisdom we have gained to chart the right path from this point. Let this wisdom and maturity prevail.

MAURICE BURKE, San Juan