A totally failed state

NEIL GOSINE

THE COUNTRY was totally shut down for almost 12 hours on February 16. There was no electricity, no phones, no internet, no information from the media and no water.

I felt that all citizens were abandoned and left to fend for ourselves.

There was no government support or information, nothing from the Prime Minister or Minister of National Security. Nothing from any state agencies to inform citizens how long the electricity would be out so people could put things in place to protect perishable goods, not even guidance or updates. If we were being attacked by a foreign entity none of us would have known.

Thank God citizens are still law-abiding for the most part as there wasn’t any mass looting or robberies or anything. This shows that we are still God-fearing people and respect the rule of law. However, the traffic situation and the chaos that resulted from this...well that is another story.

We expect that many citizens would have lost perishable items and the losses may total hundreds of millions of dollars and this is something businesses and citizens cannot afford coming out of those lockdowns from the pandemic. Not now!

The Government continues to put pressure on every citizen and every business that is trying desperately to survive. After February 16 I wonder if we really have seen a failed government at its best. All of us suffered through this ordeal, almost 12 hours without leadership guidance or proper information.

For all the times we ever thought enough is enough, that day was really the straw that broke the camel's back. The most unacceptable incompetence we have ever seen by T&TEC and the minister in charge, as the head of these state agencies.

What would happen if a real natural disaster ever hits TT? If we can’t handle a simple outage and get back power in two to three hours, how can we expect to be up and running effectively after a real disaster? We will be in total chaos for months.

The next morning we saw nothing from the Minister of National Security, nothing from the Minister of Communications, no briefing, no explanation, not anything at all. Both should be fired for their incompetence immediately.

We keep hearing that TT is not a real place and we have detractors saying that's not true. However, on February 16 we saw the meaning of this in its true sense. We spend millions on many unessential things. We can put aside $15 million for a Taste of Carnival but cannot put aside money to upgrade our infrastructure to ensure we have constant power for the country. How ironic is this?

How much longer can we accept this type of performance by a government? This travesty should no longer be accepted. No longer should we accept the incompetence of people in power and the channelling of monies to their projects and away from the real infrastructure like sustainable water and electricity for all in our country.

Citizens need to demand better and get accountability as any true democratic state can expect from its government and its resources or we might as well migrate. We elected a government to fix all these issues, not to give us excuses and continue giving a small percentage of our elite citizens all the contracts and all the lucrative business. Not to continue to feed the friends, family and financiers. Not to keep a stranglehold over us.

If we do not demand change now we are really doomed as we already have a galloping dictatorship before us. Expect more of the same – a totally failed state.

Neil Gosine is a former chairman of NP