By Raffique Shah
May 10, 2025

I do not know if the UNC-led coalition that came to power two weeks ago by spectacularly defeating the PNM government in the general election believes it has the luxury of time and incumbency on its side, and the victory assures it of ten years in government. I focus on this continuous campaign mode that has taken hold of, it seems, the majority of the electorate. Having changed governments, disposing of the PNM from power in seven elections since 1956, it could be that the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, those who are actively involved in elections, believe that’s the way to go.

I do not think they are correct in this regard. Every time the PNM has been removed from office, it had been by alliances and coalitions, and the party that Dr Eric Williams founded has lived to fight another year, returning to power with seeming ease. Mrs Kamla Persad-Bissessar has added to her “belts” a second round as Prime Minister. The feat of putting together two coalitions that won and restored her as PM, she may see herself as being invincible. That might well turn out to be her Achilles heel.

Having secured her victory with over 300,000 electors seeing her as the “Mother” of the nation, that opium of power might numb her vulnerabilities. Look, I should not even be thinking elections and battle and power this early in the UNC’s second bite of the apple under KPB. But her two weeks in office, the controversies she has ignited and the utterings of her disciples place the issue of power, hence elections, squarely on the table.

Her first blunder was “announcing” the possibility of natural gas finds in the waters off Grenada. I imagine that my colleagues in the media and friends who are knowledgeable on the energy sector of T&T would also have been surprised. Because I write on it from time to time, I stay abreast of what’s happening here, especially now that we face additional problems such as the shortage of gas.

If any new “find” in the Caribbean is to impact positively on our gas production and our consumption, it must be recoverable and substantial. T&T’s current capacity is around three billion cubic feet per day and our production is below that.

Additionally, we have the Donald Trump factor. The US President has arrogated onto himself the power to prevent us from exploiting any of our offshore gas or oil finds that are located in waters owned jointly by Venezuela and T&T.

Within hours of her first making reference to gas in Grenada, the matter was cleared up: gas was indeed found off Grenada but not in commercially viable quantities. Also, while we do not have any specific arrangement with Guyana and Suriname, the Keith Rowley government had already put in place memorandums of understanding with the two new oil giants in South America.

While she has her pool of advisers and ministers who may be better equipped to speak out on them, she should tread carefully on such issues. Based on what she has so far said on the state of the country’s finances, she will likely address the national debt which is somewhere in the region of 70% of GDP. She will speak, too, about our Balance of Payments which shows that our revenue is behind our expenditure by several billion dollars.

The PM should seek to mobilise the nation to deal with these fundamental issues. She must not only focus on her supporters and on “bussing mark” while the economy is under severe stress. Most people will recognise that not only is the Trinidad and Tobago economy in dire straits, but we do not have many options in closing the gap between revenue and expenditure any time soon. Worse for us, the global economy is sinking into what might well be a depression that if we do not handle our affairs carefully we can run into a collapse of the economy.

For far too long citizens and governments as well have been spending more than we earn. The national debt, the revenue-expenditure gap, will get worse, not better, unless we can rally the masses to understanding that sacrifices must be made by all and getting everybody to do it.

A few years ago when the foreign exchange availability had reached crisis proportions with importers of food and pharmaceuticals among others howling for foreign currency, it was revealed that importers of vehicles, new and foreign used, were having it easy. I suggested then that we stop importing vehicles for about two years. They nearly kill mih!

This is where the new Prime Minister must take us into battle, where we import only our needs and not our wants. It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

Come forth, Madam PM.