By Raffique Shah
June 28, 2025
Many years ago, when I was in my 20s, issues like the state of our national economy didn’t just stimulate my curiosity, but provoked my interest in my country’s future. Then, “UWI Men” such as Lloyd Best, Dr James Millette, and a fella who went by the fancy name “John La Guerre” were interviewed at budget time and invariably pronounced ominously on our future. Anytime those fellas intervened in anything to do with the national economy, they would find doom and gloom.
The population had learnt that these university professors were bitter foes of the then-prime minister Dr Eric Williams, so anything they said or wrote that was critical of Eric, which was everything, they had only to affix their names and stamp Prophets of Doom and Gloom. We were always an oil economy. Our revenues, 80% of which came from oil and gas, kept us afloat, sometimes even prospered based on global prices for those commodities.
Somehow the PNM survived. They remained in office for 25 consecutive years defying the odds. In other words, the economy kept the PNM in power. Dr Williams held on to the Finance Ministry and personally delivered most of the budget speeches.
These rambling speeches on millions of barrels of oil and natural gas rose to prominence post-1973 where he clinically doctored his numbers in such a way that they always ended with, “Mr Speaker, Sah, total revenue equals total expenditure, no surplus or deficit is anticipated.”
Depending on what year it was, election or non-election, the then-PM would offer goodies to tax-and-rate payers who eagerly looked forward to Santa Williams. So we make these circles every year, total revenue always matching total expenditure. Nothing the naysayers could say would change their allegiance to the man who was dubbed “The Father of the Nation”.
When he passed on in office in 1981, his demise surprised most of his foes and the party now under the leadership of George Chambers attracted a sympathy vote that swept the PNM back into power in 1981. Thus the saga, the dance to the death of those whom oil and gas meant life remained in office for another five years.
The prophets warned again about energy prices going to dangerously low levels. They warned the population about oil and gas prices undoing the best laid plans of prime ministers and their finance ministers, but no one would listen.
Young, intelligent and well-schooled graduates in all aspects of oil and gas offered the country new perspectives, exciting changes in diversifying the economy using oil and gas, not throwing them aside. It was men such as Dr Ken Julian, Gregory McGuire, Coombs, Malcolm Jones and a few more, who spread the word on petrochemicals and valuable revenue that could be made from their downstream products.
Then came several methanol plants which put Trinidad as the leading world producer of methanol. This was followed by Atlantic LNG and fertiliser plants.
In the global gayelle, Israel, a war-monger nation that thinks nothing about starting wars anywhere on earth, has been bombing Palestine for decades and Iran for the last few weeks. Every bullet and bomb that pummels these poor people in a genocidal wave shakes the world economy.
Commodities such as grain, edible oils and other foods that have become staples across the world have become unstable. Oil and gas prices are highly unstable and Trinidad and Tobago is very vulnerable because of our heavy reliance on the revenue from these products.
Our economy has already felt the shockwaves that come from these wars and with two homicidal leaders at their helms, we can suffer fatal blows that could destroy our economy. It is high time our Caricom brethren recognise this existential threat to all Caribbean countries. They need to have serious talks at the highest levels at not just Caricom but in the Caribbean. It’s not just a case of looking out for our countries; Iran is known to have ties with certain fundamentalist Islamic groups that will think nothing of destabilising the region.
The Caribbean is ours. It is our home and our lifeline, we must be prepared to stand up in its defence. When it comes to our homeland and our region, as patriots we must be prepared to fight, defend, and even die for it. Equally we must also face the other harsh reality, we must be prepared to kill for it.
Of course I do not mean this literally, but I do feel strongly that we should plant the seed of patriotism which many of us believe we already have. We do not. Patriotism is not a song or a mood or a feeling. It is a permanent state of mind which should be imbued in every citizen, every Trinidadian and Tobagonian whether he or she resides here or abroad.
Nuff said.