We toting, we not voting

THE EDITOR: If ever there was a time for a no-vote campaign it is now. Voting in the local government elections on August 14 is simply to endorse the people who seek your vote and nothing else. Local government after the elections will remain a child of the central government, begging for resources, while the parties boast of their political prowess.

The call by the Opposition Leader to “Don’t tote, just vote” is perhaps one of the most difficult campaign slogans for a population to swallow. It speaks to a total disregard for the feelings of the electorate. Although the PNM has not publicly said don’t tote, just vote, the message is the same. Almost every political party contesting the elections is asking the population to just vote.

Politicians whose character is being questioned by the population and the courts are to be seen as OK. One must not tote feelings or questions about whether they have changed from the ways of their past. As a matter of fact, none of them has come to the population expressing regret or seeking forgiveness.

There has been no explanation for the charges and/or allegations of impropriety that hang over their heads. Yesterday they were ill-speaking each other in the vilest of ways. Today, without any explanation about whether they have seen a new light, there is no attempt to explain their newly found sanctimonious character. The population is simply told don’t tote, just vote.

When I think of my own life, I recall a life of struggle, where no one ever came to my rescue. When I had no books for school, no meal for lunch, no place to call home, no one offered me a helping hand. I faced the world with two O’Level subjects and a desire for a better life.

Throughout my life I struggled, educating myself and the children and giving my family a place to call home. My struggle is not solitary. I recall a lecturer showing the class a picture of his childhood class. We were shocked to see that every student in the class from south Trinidad were barefoot.

We are a people who know about struggle, from picking up “gobar” to pave our kitchen floor and “chula,” to walking the hills of Laventille as we rush to some service job in the city. We have struggled. We have done what we felt we must do for our survival and that of our family.

Few of us can point to any improvement in our lives that was the result of some politician showing compassion. We have always been relied on to support and vote despite our circumstances.

Now that call is as blatant and bold as ever: forget the nonsense we have done, forget the pain we have caused, don’t tote. Perhaps now is the time to respond with "we are toting, we are not voting." It is a time to hope for honest government.

STEVE ALVAREZ

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