Dear Sir
On August 10, citizens go to the polls in an election that will provide the country with a choice between two leaders, Dr Keith Rowley and Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar continues to be the more trusted leader and her actions and decisions demonstrate strong leadership. Under her stewardship, there is no compromise on integrity, no allowance for arrogance, no room for violation of mutual respect and no sacrifice of our values on the altar of political expediency. As prime minister, Persad-Bissessar was a recognized leader not only in the Caribbean but also on the international scene.
Dr Rowley, on the other hand, comes with the Peoples National Movement (PNM) machismo, arrogance, vindictiveness and intolerance. He remains the most polarizing and divisive figure and has never hidden his political prejudices and biases. He has never respected his office and continues to demean and degrade the women of the country.
There is no political leader or prime minister who has generated and profited more from ‘fake news’ than Dr Rowley. He has lost his moral compass and has been paralysed and impotent and simply put, does not have what it takes to provide good, responsible and visionary governance to Trinidad and Tobago.
More importantly, citizens will have the opportunity to evaluate the current administration’s last five years in office and their most important questions should be:
- Is our standard of life better than it was back in September 2015?
- Does our family feel safer in your community?
- Are we reassured that our government is seeking out the best interest for the country? Are we satisfied that the Dr Rowley-led Administration is providing us with good governance and is genuinely sincere about our well-being?
The last five years have been a time when the country has seen an explosion of crisis after crisis as the Dr Rowley-led PNM administration has failed in every area of governance; the country continues to experience the greatest upsurge in crime; citizens are crying out for leadership of good governance in the most important areas of economic management (regarding reduced revenues) social issues, health care services and delivery, education and infrastructure development. It has been and continues to be failure after failure, scandal after scandal, misstep and mistake.
And what is the comparison of the former Kamla Persad Bissessar-led People’s Partnership Administration (2010-2015)?
It is Persad Bissessar who has presided over a record of performance:
- First-class major road networks, construction of hospitals and over 106 schools and early childhood centers;
- Unprecedented increases in foreign direct investments and legislation to change the landscape of our country forever and for the better.
Under Persad Bissessar our economy was improving, investments in our energy sector were promising, unemployment was low, workers operated under negotiated terms and the ministry of tertiary education was in overdrive trying to create a 21st-century knowledge Trinidad and Tobago.
All that came to a most painful and screeching halt in September 2015. So, here we are, on the verge of another general election. I know the choice is clear. Voters now have two leaders and their administrations to compare and contrast.
Persad-Bissessar and the United National Congress (UNC) have an excellent track record and have published their manifesto, defining their plan for the transformation of Trinidad and Tobago. They have articulated a comprehensive plan for, among other things, getting people back to work, for allowing the private sector to drive growth and development, for deepening the economic reforms but with a human face and for sustainability by promoting environmental stewardship.
Dr Rowley and the PNM, on the other hand, are now asking the country to forget 4½ years of the worst governance in the country’s history but rather to re-elect them based on their repellent and chaotic lies of their (mis)management of the COVID crisis.
I have said it before, I will say it again that the greatest disaster to befall Trinidad and Tobago is the fact that the PNM has governed this country for most of 58 years since independence.
The choice is clear … Trinidad and Tobago need to have a UNC government that deserves to continue from where it left off in 2015 … to continue its unprecedented development of the country, to return sound fiscal management in the face of declining energy revenues, a people-centred vision and to put an end to Dr Rowley and the PNM’s five years of hell.
