The menace of hope

Hope is the air to our aspirations. It’s also a sentiment that, if dishonoured, can become toxic. That’s the duality buried in the seeming euphoria behind the UNC’s return from exile.

The dust has settled. Ministers, ministers in ministries and parliamentary secretaries have been sworn in and sent out. The urgency of their task can’t be understated.

Folks, I wasn’t exactly blown away by this cabinet. That will make me deeply unpopular, but that’s not much of a downgrade from pariah anyway. My expectation was for an A team that could drag us out of this bog of murderous crime and economic hypoxia. Some faces I immediately got, others not so much.

Jearlean John is considered a results-oriented taskmaster who doesn’t suffer fools. In a nation with fools aplenty, these are admirable qualities. It’s a work ethic and mindset John cultivated in the private sector, where she was respected for her caustic contempt for poor productivity. While the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure is important, I’d have preferred it if she were given a portfolio more directly linked to the critical transformation TT desperately needs.

Then there’s the pick of Kama Maharaj as Minister of Trade, Investment and Tourism. It was funny to read someone online saying, "He deserves it." It’s the other way around. The country is lucky to have him. What he has achieved with his cosmetics brand in the international market is astounding. Additionally, his grasp of the digital economy is precisely the sort of expertise we need to infuse the ministry with progressive thinking. Except for a few others, however, the rest of the cabinet appointments just don’t inspire the same level of confidence.

I’m going to reserve judgment until the new ministers work out the lay of the land. It’s useful for the Prime Minister and her charges, though, to appreciate the environment in which they’re operating.

This country needs to throw our shoulders into a turnaround faster than most people understand. Forex shortages will only worsen; their effects becoming more acutely felt. This administration must go after low-hanging fruit that can, in part, shore up forex inflows while tackling longer-term objectives.

To my mind, the priority ministries are Defence, Homeland Security, Energy, Finance, Trade, Investment and Tourism and Agriculture. That ranking in no way diminishes the importance of others. The ones I’ve identified as priorities are going to be crucial if we’re going to stabilize the economy, stimulate growth and, most importantly, bring violent crime under control.

A UNC government should know that this victory doesn’t mean voters resoundingly voted for the party. Elector apathy was a factor, judging by the low turnout. Also, the PNM’s two consecutive terms of consistent non-performance that levied suffering on the population, coupled with Stuart Young’s questionable attractiveness as a leader, also lubricated the outcome at the polls.

Hope is a perishable sentiment. When the NAR, Panday’s UNC and the PP government were voted in, there was a groundswell of optimism; a palpable sense that the country could be transformed. Voters, though, expected infallibility. So, when those governments stumbled (as they inevitably do), mistrust and contempt sprouted on the grave of promise.

The PNM never seems to attract the level of hope with which other governments are yoked. The citizenry doesn’t expect anything grand from the balisier brigade, so when the party performs to specifications, which is failure, voters are more forgiving. That’s not the case with other parties. Already, the government is facing an effluvium of rancour from the PNM horde for what’s been done and all they have yet to do.

Interestingly, much of the race and class-tinged enmity that pollutes the election season was reserved for after the polls. We must be careful not to allow diehard PNM and UNC elements to foment division. Powered by nothing but hate, they have all the time in the world to wage campaigns of bigotry to serve narrow ends. Though their voices are loud and their poisonous words go viral, they don’t represent all of TT.

Even though I am impatient for change, I recognise all governments need time and room to manoeuvre, but… I have this watch I’m tremendously fond of. Whenever it’s quiet, I can hear it ticking furiously, reminding me that time is fleeting; windows are closing. The PM can borrow it if she likes. It will be a useful reminder of hope sliding away and the great responsibility of preserving it.