If we are interested in an equitable and just society, we have to be interested in governance which begins with having a shared vision of the future based on common values and aspirations. 

Ideally, when citizens are engaged in developing that vision, they feel committed to its realisation. The last time we had a vision which I understood was under the late Patrick Manning who had led the development of ‘Vision 2020’ on the basis of wide consultation amongst citizens. Since then there has been some reference to a revised Vision 2030 but it remains an unclear aspiration.

Trinidad and Tobago, like many developing countries, is a work in progress, so we must have some tolerance for our stage of development. If I use the analogy of a human being, the country has reached middle age while not exhibiting the maturity that accompanies that stage. 

By middle age, most of us recognise that playing by the rules is the right thing to do and is in our collective best interest—that the rules are not there to ‘keep us down’. 

Many of us talk about obeying the rules but easily look for the workaround when faced with a challenging situation. We forget that every bypass of rules and regulations slowly chips away at our institutions and contributes to wider systemic failure. 

Worse yet, our systems allow the workaround because there may be a deficiency in the system due to the absence of accountability and the slackness of persons charged with the responsibility of monitoring. It may also be because correcting the system requires an onerous procedure which in itself leads to the need for workarounds.

The old saying children learn what they live is applicable here. We see unaccountability in every aspect of life from parliamentarians to policemen; there is no systemic framework for accountability, so citizens are left to believe that accountability is not important. 

We learn the path of unaccountability because that’s what we live. We were recently regaled by a three-hour budget presentation which provided very few instances of accountability in comparison to the previous budget.

By way of example, I reviewed the PNM Manifesto 2015 which reported that the Integrity Commission had: ‘no less than six commissions in the last 10 years and in reality, the Commission has had a minimal impact on reducing corruption since its formation. Our ranking in the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index has continued to slide, especially since May 2010’.   

A review of the 2020 Manifesto showed that it included neither a reference to the Integrity Commission nor any reform of the institution. Further, a look at the annual reports of the Integrity Commission reveals that there is an allocation of TT$200k to be spent on reform of the Integrity Commission in 2020.

Surely if there was a serious concern about the Integrity Commission in 2015, there would have been some accountability or continuation in 2020.

We must do something different if we are to change the way we do business. It is clear to me that citizen involvement and active participation is the only way to impact our systems and force our politicians to act in the interest of the greater good of our society. 

We all need to invest the time to understand what is needed to make our society operate in a manner that is just and equitable. Justice and equity must have no correlation to race, political party or position of power. It must have no correlation to economic status. 

Justice and equity must be seen as fundamental pillars of our society. It is time for us to engage in civil conversations about our under-performance and how it will impact our future. 

The devastation caused by Covid-19 is an opportunity to begin anew and to really adopt the view that we are each other’s keepers. It is no cliché that we have inherited a beautiful country and we have a responsibility to preserve and improve it for future generations. 

Our current politicians have demonstrated that they do not have the desire or capacity to act beyond their own self-interest. It is time for each of us to play our part in realising our collective potential, and it can begin by holding the government and each other accountable.

In this week’s edition, I interview Reynold Cooper, former Head of the Public Service of Trinidad and Tobago and Lorraine O’Conner, Producer, Talent Manager and facilitator for the filming of Episode 32 of the CBS Show Amazing Race.

Legally our country prescribes that only vehicles with an ‘H’ as the first letter of the registration plate can be used as taxis, and the drivers must have a special licence which designates them as being allowed to operate such vehicles.

People operating their personal vehicles as PH-taxis have neither the correct drivers’ licence, nor the correct registration for their vehicles.  The recent brutal rape of an 18-year-old Venezuelan reminded me that successive governments continue to preside over this travesty. 

Over many years I have read and heard comments by transportation specialists, Dr Trevor Townsend and Dr Rae Furlonge, about modernising our transportation system. One of the basic fixes they advocate is the establishment of a transit authority to manage the nation’s transportation system.

How difficult can that be? The issue has come before the Parliament in different iterations but with few outcomes. 

A quick search of the edited records of parliamentary debates reveals several discussions and commentaries about transportation but very little is accomplished.

In the absence of regulation, the illegal PH-Taxi system thrives. One former Minister of Works and Transportation even advocated for its legalisation. 

Undeniably the PH-taxi industry provides a service but the cost of providing that service is tremendous. The public has no way of knowing if the PH-taxi is road worthy, if it is properly licensed, if the driver has a criminal record or is a sex offender, or even if the person is medically fit and emotionally stable. 

On the other hand, boarding an ‘H-car’ provides some assurance that the driver has gone through a process and is legally authorised to operate a taxi—but there just aren’t enough of them to match the needs of the travelling public. 

The fixes to this historical problem are actually easier than we believe, but because of the societal and political entanglements regarding transport that have developed over the last 60+ years, the will to resolve the problem has been very weak. 

We know that the creation of a transportation authority will begin to order the current chaos. A major responsibility of such an authority would be to develop a comprehensive transit system. 

Most developed countries around the world all have some form of transportation authority; why not us? The reliance on spontaneous growth as a strategy has not worked, so our next option is to formalise the systems, structures and processes around transportation.

If this all sounds bureaucratic and time consuming, it need not be in this age of technology and digitisation. All that is needed is the willingness to re-imagine and redesign our transportation system to serve the needs of our citizens. 

A soft entry point could be to refurbish our bus shelters, create specific taxi stops, and insist that only they be used as the drop off and pick up points for the travelling public. In Grenada, this is already in practice. 

Another soft solution might be an app to track the PTSC buses, so a citizen can plan to use the facility knowing for certain that the bus will arrive. 

I am confident that eventually our country will implement solutions, but until then my heart will continue to race and my level of anxiety will increase every time I am forced to use a PH-taxi in the absence of safe and reliable public transportation.  

Maybe all the victims of rape or robbery via PH-taxis should consider suing the state.

As our country recognizes our 58^th year of Independence, the conversation about re-framing the relationship between state and citizens is a necessary one. It should really have been an ongoing one which encouraged all of us to dream big and dream about a brighter day. One commentator has cleverly described our country as being “in dependence” while the Prime Minister almost simultaneously advised us to “wean ourselves” from the state. They are both partly right. The time has come for us to relearn self-reliance, as well as how and where to apply it.

From the business leader to the beggar, we have had more than 48 years of conditioning with the message “vote for me and I will set you free”. This reliance on the state will not change overnight nor without upheaval. Focusing on education and Laventille is necessary but not sufficient, because the conditions which spawned the reality of the Laventillian ecosystem, exist like a poisonous mist across both islands, and those conditions have become deeply ingrained.

The system must be re-designed to reduce inequity and improve our quality of life. When citizens are advised to stay in their room if they exhibit signs of ill health, we seem to have forgotten that for the 20% who live on or below the poverty line there is no room in which they can self-isolate because of their shared accommodation. When we talk about blended learning and students using a device to communicate with their teachers, we must consider that there are both students and teachers who do not have access to a device. When we talk about logging on to the internet, we need to consider that there are homes in which internet access is not available.

The conversation is not simply about Laventille, education and teachers, it ought to be about the systemic changes that are necessary in order to remove the deep inequities which exist in our society. IndexMundi reports that 20% of our population lives under the poverty line and have done so since 2014. This is up 3 percentage points from 2007 when it was measured at 17% of the population living under the poverty line. The story this tells is that if you meet 10 people on your daily encounter, 2 of them do not have enough money for food, shelter and clothing.

The conversation has to be about including the beggar and the business person in a conversation about collaborating to make import substitution a reality; moving our manufacturing and production up the value chain and our individual diversification strategies including diversifying away from state dependence. We can no longer maintain the fantasy that 1-2% of the population is the cause of all ills. A capable government knows how to distribute resources with equity while not taking away incentive to do better. The beggar must be able to access food and shelter; the business person should be able to access good infrastructure to do viable trade, in or out of the country, yet beggar and business person alike must be incentivized to contribute tangibly to society.

There is a popularly held view that there is inequality in accessing state services and opportunities. As long as these views persist then the feeling of inequity will also persist. So, along with the necessary system changes, we must ensure that there is accountability, collaboration and transparency as we chart the next 5 years of our independence. 

The success of this reframed conversation requires a deep conversation with our citizens under the guidance of a transformational leader.

Can we survive another restart to education in the Hospitality Industry? This question has been on my mind since the recent announcement of the voluntary winding up of the Trinidad and Tobago Hospitality and Tourism Institute (TTHTI).

It weighed heavily on my mind because I sat as chair for a period during 2016-18. Our country has a history of re-starts and breaking apart of institutions. Amongst the many institutions we have dismantled are Caroni 1977 Ltd, TIDCO, BWIA, Petrotrin TDC and now TTHTI.

In the case of the hospitality industry, we seem to be wilfully and systematically destroying each pillar on which it stands. There was a time when this wasteful approach to re-starting could have been tolerated because the country was awash with oil and gas money but those days are over.

We have to find ways to re-design, repair and continue building on our past successes. Successful governance is deliberate and premeditated. It requires vision, planning, and significant amounts of hard work. We must design for that success.

For TTHTI, this is the third iteration of a training institution for the hospitality sector. Maybe the sector will get lucky and the notion that ‘the third time is the charm’ will apply—but I don’t believe in luck.

Forty-eight years ago, the Trinidad and Tobago Hotel School was established in partnership with the Canadian government and the Ryerson Technical Institute. That trial led to the Government of Trinidad and Tobago taking over the school in 1975.

The school navigated rough waters and managed to stay afloat. In 1996, the late William Aguiton, as President of the Hotel Association, led negotiations with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for US$2 million to help reform the Hotel School into TTHTI.

Now in 2020, there is news of the winding down of TTHTI and chatter about poor performance, funding deficits and political interference.

TTHTI has an excellent track record of providing opportunities for students who did not choose traditional professions as their path. Over the years, hundreds have excelled and become successful entrepreneurs based on the foundation provided by the school.

The region has benefited both as an option for young persons to learn the art of hospitality and from reciprocal arrangements for the placement of interns. While TTHTI has high global brand recognition, it has underperformed in transforming the quality of the hospitality sector and customer service in the country.

This might be an unfair criticism and one can easily argue that customer service transformation was not its mandate, and what is needed is a focussed effort to improve customer service.

Hospitality and Tourism are inextricably linked and successive leaders have paid lip service to the potential of the sectors while bemoaning its underperformance. If the government is serious about the Hospitality and Tourism sector, it will have to re-constitute the school under new arrangements and leadership—but the nexus with the hotel and restaurants will continue to exist.

This is just a most unfortunate development which has been exacerbated by Covid-19.

Maybe this is an opportunity to deliver on a PNM 2015 manifesto promise which refers to ‘converting the Tobago Hospitality and Tourism Institute (THTI) into a full-fledged university’. (page 74, PNM Manifesto 2015).