Demming Chronicles chats Tracy Hackshaw who has been involved in the ICT sphere for more than 20 years. He works towards driving transformation to help our country become more competetive in the digital economy. This wide ranging discussion included governance, service delivery, oversight and accountability. He commented about our insecurity with regard to a single approach to internet connectivity and the risk that poses. The conversation continued with Mark White whose experience as an owner of an Advertising Agency informed his conclusion that Advertising Agencies are significantly at risk for their survival. He also noted that over the past 10 years, the industry has experienced rapid transformation and that Covid 19 was in fact an accelerant rather than a game changer. To quote him: “people are looking for depth in a phrase”.

Former Minister Tesheira commends citizens of Trinidad and Tobago for their continued commitment to maintaining peace despite difficult economic circumstances. She also commented that the irony of Covid 19 is that it saved the current government from what was predicted to be an electoral defeat based on their poor handling of the economy. The conversation with Lara Quentrall-Thomas focused on good governance, transparency, accountability and value for money for the citizens. She commented that good governance applies at all levels of the society and that citizens too have a responsibility to hold themselves to the highest ethical standards.

I grew up hearing an anecdote that the late former member of parliament for Diego Martin West, Johnny O’Halloran, and a contingent went to Venezuela to negotiate the purchase of a boat, and the only member of the contingent who could translate Spanish into English was the cook. 

So, the entire contingent relied on the cook to translate the details of this high-powered negotiation. It is a story about how ministers and high-powered officials operate outside of their areas of competence and squander our patrimony.

This memory was triggered by recent reports about the three moored coast guard vessels and why they have not been repaired. The minister of national security used Covid-19 as his get-out-of-jail card, suggesting travel restrictions were to blame. Meanwhile, the Dutch ambassador immediately advised that repair engineers have been in the country on rotation.

If the current administration has not ensured the operationalisation of a maintenance and repair programme for the coast guard since winning the general elections in 2015, what can be done now to solve the problem?

It is reasonable to expect that given our historically porous borders, ensuring our coast guard had the marine assets to operate would have been a high priority issue, resulting in an assessment of our naval assets and a plan put in place to keep them in good repair. 

For three vessels to be down at the same time is an example of malfeasance. It is understandable that these vessels may require specialist services for their repair, but over five years, we should have been able to train technicians on the ground to keep at least one vessel in operation.  

I wonder about the post-purchase arrangements that were made with regard to these vessels. Had this sale been conducted under proper procurement arrangements, citizens could have accessed the contract and understood where the breakdown in arrangements occurred.

Recently in parliament, Hon. Minister Stuart Young reminded the population that the United National Congress (UNC) acquired “six Damen vessels and the procurement of those vessels is now under international criminal investigation by the government of the Netherlands”.

While the government is right to pursue this investigation, our borders continue to be open to drugs, guns and all kinds of illegal trafficking because we cannot repair three coast guard vessels. What is the status of the other three Damen vessels?

What is the status of the highly sophisticated 360-degree radar system, which is touted to be able to scan the Gulf of Paria and identify the minutest of movements? I am told that our country is one of 10 with such a sophisticated system, but it was never made operational. I wonder why?

Administration after administration, the same mistakes are repeated. We find ways to sidestep proper procurement and believe that ministers and other high-powered officials can operate outside of their areas of competence in whatever domain their leaders see fit.

We continue to operate without appropriate strategic plans, so we end up with graveyards of abandoned police vehicles, buses, fire trucks and marine vessels. How well some of us remember the MV Tobago was sold for scrap and is now providing excellent service in the Mediterranean.

It is easy to blame previous administrations for negotiating bad contracts or other unacceptable arrangements, but after five years in office, those arguments ring hollow in my head. The time has come for us to have a strategic plan that pays attention to maintenance, repair and continuity. The less money we waste, the more will be available to invest in the development of our people and, therefore, secure our future.

The more often our politicians are caught telling shades of untruths, the greater the level of mistrust amongst the population. One day, the population will rise up and say enough is enough. Be warned!

After 58 years of leadership in both parliamentary and mayoral elections, and 16 or 17 development plans, it has been decreed that the city of Port of Spain will finally be transformed into a shiny new metropolis in north Trinidad. It is a welcomed announcement, but like other similar declarations, some of us will adopt a wait-and-see attitude as the plans unfold.

Indeed, my heart sank when in quick succession it was announced that the government had big plans for the rejuvenation of Port of Spain while simultaneously declaring Queen Janelle Commissiong Street as ‘the toilet of the capital’.

This juxtaposition encapsulated the core of the problem, which is that you can have whatever plans, but the reality is that our people defecate on the streets and force us all to wallow in the stench. We are yet to explore the root causes of homelessness, crime and underperformance especially amongst the urban youth of African descent, many of whom roam the streets of our capital.

Have we invested in understanding what accounts for the proximity of squalor to the city centre? Alongside the plans for the new glistening buildings must be the programmes for the social transformation of our people. New buildings and structures alone will not solve the defecation problem.

Many years have elapsed since the days when I walked safely to the taxi stand at the corner of Nelson and Prince Streets or when I walked up to Jackson Place to Laventille Road and felt confident that no harm would visit me. Between those years of the early 70s and now, our people have lost our way, presided over by post-independence governments that believe concrete and steel will solve our problems and transform our people.

Transforming Port of Spain and indeed Trinidad and Tobago is not simply a matter of the nightly washing of streets—even though public health is important—nor the forced acquisition of properties to make space for the monied class. Gaining the trust of the two-thirds of the citizens who did not vote for the current PNM government will take inspired leadership, negotiation and diplomacy.

In the Port of Spain South constituency, there is only so much bulldozing that you can do before the wall of 16,000 persons who either voted against the PNM or did not vote unite around a common cause and stick a pin in the plans. The biggest challenge this dream faces is how to move from a plan to an implementation strategy which engages the imagination of our people.

If the senatorial rantings that the contract has been signed and awarded since 2017 are true, then the government has once again sidestepped the Office of Procurement Regulation. With the low level of electoral support, there is a greater need for transparency to allow the population to understand the who, what and how of this mega transaction.

The two pillars for the success of a re-imagined Port of Spain are transparency and accountability that the investment is fair and equitable, and the engagement of those long-standing property owners and occupiers who have neither the resources nor the know-how to navigate this ever-changing landscape.

The following column is based on my participation in the online forum by the Trade and Economic Division of the Department of Economics, the University of the West Indies, St Augustine on the topic The Funding of Tertiary Level Education in Trinidad and Tobago:

My favourite quote about education is from the late Malcolm X who said: “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare today.”  Our preparation for tomorrow requires that we spend some time collectively crafting our vision of tomorrow and garnering citizen buy-in to that shared vision.

As a country, we have done well to provide free education at the primary and secondary levels. We have tripped up at the level of tertiary education because our politics requires that incoming regimes destroy the work of their predecessors even at great cost to taxpayers. So out went ‘Dollar for Dollar’ and in came ‘GATE’ (Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses Programme).

Twelve years and $6.46bn later, we are at a crossroad, asking the question should the government continue funding tertiary level education?

My position is clear: taxpayer investment in human development is more important than ferries, ports, buildings and any other vanity projects that distribute our wealth to a selected few. Education should continue to be free at the primary and secondary level because that is where we build citizens. At the tertiary level, there should be a means test with some arrangement for repayment at a future date.

Consideration of funding tertiary level education includes what has traditionally been described as the technical/vocational area. As we continue to figure out the post-Covid world and our shrinking economy, we will be forced to focus on repair and restoration.  This means a deeper focus on the range of skills needed and the organising and managing of how these skills are presented in the market.

The time has come for us as a society to recognise and appreciate the value and operations of electricians, mechanics, plumbers and other tradespeople so that we all can thrive.

Whether or not we continue funding tertiary level education cannot be viewed as a standalone concept. It must be viewed under the umbrella question of what is likely to be the future needs of the country. In other words, where do we see ourselves and how will we get there as a people? In the absence of such a vision, decisions will continue to be made based on whims and fancies.

We have stumbled as a country in that we have not educated our people for citizenship. As island people, our disregard for the environment and for sustainable living is based mainly on our lack of understanding of our interdependence, and the fact that systems learning was not baked into the school curricula at any level.

If our education systems were successful, our citizens would not have to be told about protecting the environment. They would have understood it because the education system would have built-in concepts around sustainability and conservation.

When people are educated for citizenship, they understand how they are part of the whole of society and that they need to contribute economically and socially. Education leads to the overall improvement in decision-making and ultimately impacts the collective. The real work lies in redesigning our systems and processes to ensure not just the appearance of equality but the reality of equity and fairness.

What we need now is social cohesion and a national commitment to improving the lives of all. Continued investment in education, which is planned, organised, implemented and monitored, will lead to the overall improvement of our country. We should be investing our scarce resources in improving the quality of our education product at all levels, thus ensuring that the product offering in ‘affluent’ schools is the same as in schools in struggling areas. Internet access should be equally available in Biche as in Belmont.

Perhaps internet providers can produce ‘student-only’ internet accounts that are heavily firewalled from adult content and tied to the student’s school ID. If we intend to enrich our human capital, our only option is to increase our investment in all our people at all levels of our society.

I can blame Covid-19 for feeling stuck, but that would not be entirely honest. That feeling of ‘stuck-ness’ has been happening for a while and Covid-19 has only made it more intense. 

My observation of Parliament, via the Parliament Channel, often evokes the thought that I have heard this before; particularly the comments that this-or-that critical piece of legislation cannot be passed because it needs a three-fifths majority and the opposition is not cooperating. 

Assuming that the Opposition will spend the next 58 months taking that same non-cooperative approach, the government ought to change its strategy and charge ahead on issues which do not need their support.

Since 2001, constitutional amendment has been discussed with varying levels of intensity. During the 2010 general election, there was rigorous discussion on the campaign trail and the People’s Partnership promised to: ‘…establish a Constitution Commission to engage in the widest possible consultation as a prerequisite to constitutional reform’. 

This promise materialised with the establishment of the Constitutional Reform Commission and the subsequent release of their report in December 2013, but there has been no real change and we remain stuck as a country.

Further evidence of this ‘stuck-ness’ can be gleaned from the continued low voter turnout that we have been experiencing. From highs of 69.4% in the 2010 general elections and 67.27% in 2015, the turnout in 2020 fell to 58.4%.   

The current PNM administration has been endorsed by only 23% of the population. Mind you, it is the same percentage which the Congress of the People (COP) and the Organisation for National Reconstruction (ONR) received previously without gaining any seats in Parliament. 

From a government perspective, it should be worrying to consider that three-quarters of the population either voted against you or were so uninspired that they did not even register a vote.

Our constitution is clear on our rights and freedoms as individuals but does not describe what our duties and responsibilities are as citizens. Maybe a soft approach to engaging the 75% of the population who are either indifferent or against you is to begin a discussion about our duties and responsibilities. 

This discussion would provide an opportunity to raise a national discussion about the extent to which we are interdependent and what our expectations of each other are. It may even result in citizens taking a moment to reflect on the role we play in each other’s lives and how we can participate in moving our country forward. 

To introduce a listing of the roles and responsibilities of citizens requires an amendment to the constitution which can be had by a simple majority. Think of the profound impact this discussion can have on the thinking of the average person who isn’t interested or doesn’t understand politics and its effect on them. 

If we accept the notion that awareness often precedes behaviour change, it could be the catalyst for the behaviour change which we often say is necessary. Imagine the profound impact such a discussion could have on our children, teenagers and ordinary citizens.

I reflect warmly on the discussions I heard as a child in the lead up to Independence and it makes me feel proud that the elders in East Dry River were engaged in these discussions. 

After 58 years of independence, negative discussions about race, corruption and crime dominate the media and discussion platforms. 

Maybe a national discussion about our duties and responsibilities as citizens could serve as the lever to propel us in a more positive direction.