Time to end Westminster

THE EDITOR: In a country and society that is rapidly going south, I say it is time to end our current system of Westminster style democracy. You see, to continue with one major party ruling while the other obstructs will only propel us on our current turbo rocket ride into failed state status.

I have been thinking about this for a long time while working on various neighbourhood association committees, which generally function quite effectively, as every member on the committee subscribes to one major objective, and that is the overall improvement of the community in which they reside. Conversely, members of political parties elected to office have the following loyalties in descending order: self and family, extended family, political leader, political party, party constituency and, country.

Now, I am probably being generous in putting country at number six, because there are other priorities that could come before that in many a politician’s bag of tricks.

So, I say it is time to dismantle our constitution and re-write the document allowing for the existence of only one political party called “Team Trinidad & Tobago.” Of course, we will still hold constituency elections and those elected will form a governing council, who will then hire the best available talent to run the ministries, all of which will become lean, mean, efficient machines. Every constituency will be made to earn its own income. Everyone will have to work their butts off to make a living, especially our citizens in the sister isle. No more “Watson Joke” promising you everything for nothing. You will now have to work hard and work smart.

The essence of this proposal, is that instead of having a parliament that spends most of its time crying down each other and making suspect deals, we will now have a parliament that functions 100 per cent of the time in the interest of TT.

I feel certain that were we to adopt an effective one-party system of Government, that we have the available local talent here to join the ranks of Singapore by 2030.

Gregory Wight, Maraval