Our best years are ahead

THE EDITOR: Life is about the choices we make. No matter how good or bad things are, we have some say in how things turn out. Many other things are totally out of our hands. For those things I trust God to protect my family, our nation and myself from sudden misfortunes.

My pledge to myself in 2020 is to make the next 20 years my best ever. Today I am encouraging you to join with me in making 2020 the start of the best 20 years of your life. Eat healthy, think positive things, rid yourself of hatred, ignore the petty misunderstandings that threaten beautiful relationships, be at peace with God, whatever you conceive him or her to be, cherish your moments with family, and love unconditionally.

I am challenging the people of TT to lay down the burden of political affiliation and love for party and take up the challenge of uniting in love for each other and our nation. By coming together, we can rebuild our land, get rid of the plague of criminality that is threatening our way of life and be on the road to prosperity and peace.

The Democratic Party of TT’s political message and main objective is to end the era of the powerful single leader and replace that with a structure where our people through community management can once again manage our affairs.

To understand exactly what we are proposing we would have to look at what takes place in many of the more developed countries of the world.

In the US, Canada, the UK, and most of the progressive developed world their leaders are tasked with the challenges that affect a nation, like national security, the economy and food security. Critical issues that affect the ordinary man on a daily basis, like getting a driver’s permit, road repairs, water distribution, policing, local dispute resolution, local taxes and maintenance of property are all managed by the people in the communities.

In TT it is different. If a water pipe bursts in Marac, Moruga, someone far from the village has to be notified before it can be repaired. Simple things like road repairs, paying for government services and maintenance of the community infrastructure are controlled by central government.

This was not always the case. Before independence and for a long while afterwards, in almost every village there was a home where one would register the birth or death of a loved one, our water distribution and repairs were managed in the communities and we paid our taxes at the nearest warden’s office.

Over the years we have broken down the management of our nation and transferred the responsibilities to the few for political manipulation rather than public convenience.

It is the aim of the DPTT to change that and return the management of TT to the people through modern management practices that see the communities manage themselves in a structure similar to that of the modern developed world.

We would concentrate on making our nation safe, improving our economic position and improving food production. Through constitutional reform we would see fixed dates for elections, term limits for prime ministers, an executive including the president elected by the people, referendum and local government structures that ensure that the people determine the quality of life in our communities and by extension our nation.

This is not new as such a structure existed in TT before independence and it is the structure that exists in many of the countries that we admire.

I look forward to rebuilding our nation together as we aspire to make 2020 the beginning of our best 20 years going forward.

STEVE ALVAREZ

political leader, DPTT