Don't stop beneficial state projects

THE EDITOR: In the aftermath of the April 28 general election, there may be close to equal numbers of smiles as there would be gnashing of teeth, due to keen competition between the two major political opponents – PNM and UNC. It is now obvious that any newly elected government will be duty bound to restore our nation to some semblance of happiness.

That herculean task will involve improving the economy and controlling the crime scourge from the outset. Fully addressing many other public urgencies and promises will likely warrant upwards of five years, resulting in several major initiatives being unfinished at the end of the election term.

Traditionally, when a government changes, the new regime stops and discards significant ongoing projects that were initiated by the previous government, even if they were beneficial to the public.

An example is the hospital in Couva that was built by the UNC government and laid waste when the PNM government was returned to office in 2015. Arguably, the hospital’s worth only became obvious to the Health Ministry during the covid19 pandemic when it was afforded an iota of functionality specific to covid patients.

That juvenile penchant of rubbishing the good initiatives because they were contrived by the opposing team must stop if we are to succeed as a nation. If the UNC is returned to governance, the continuance of beneficial and practical ongoing projects must be guaranteed. Going forward all political parties should have an agreement on this issue.

But before this concept is made mandatory, the challenge will be to identify what constitutes as a priority to the populace. In that regard, MPs may derive a method to solicit feedback from their respective constituents to help inform priorities for ongoing projects upon the change of the government. This is aligned to what the UNC had been engaged in months prior to the election to help procure a people-oriented manifesto.

The hope is for this dream of citizen involvement in government decision-making to become a reality for big projects over $100 million. As a result, wouldn’t a degree of public trust and confidence be restored in the ones we elect to govern?

DEXTER RIGSBY
Mt Lambert