My ID card matters, not a party card

THE EDITOR: As we exited 2019, we left behind a keenly contested local government election and entered into a general election year. The silly season is likely to be in full swing as the days pass by. It is my prayer that the people of TT will become partisan to country and not a party.

It is our democratic right as citizens to have a view on issues important to us. It is our democratic right to belong to a party and to align with a political ideology. No one must ever make us feel less for that. But when the dust settles on the political hustings, we must stop seeing people based on party cards and start viewing them only by their ID cards. We are citizens first and party supporters after.

If the PNM is in power and succeeds at making TT a better place, it is me the ordinary citizen who benefits. If the UNC gains power and it manages to make TT a better place, it is also I who benefit. If someone else comes and gets the job done, I stand to benefit as well.

Politicians are ordinary people like you and I. They have families, they feel pain and go through every other limitation in life. Interacting with politicians on both sides will reveal that they are very ordinary and likable people. Their choice to be part of a party is also an expression of their democratic right. Everyone wants a better TT, but we have different ideas as to how to get there.

The day TT changes is when places like Siparia or Chaguanas West has a balisier representative of merit, or Laventille West or Diego Martin Northeast has a deserving representative under the Rising Sun.

I say to the people of TT, guarantee your sacred vote to no one unless they are worthy of it. Let each politician work to earn your vote, or keep your vote. See the humanity of individuals and put party aside. The power rests in your voting finger.

VEDAVID MANICK

Sangre Grande