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FROM all appearances, Trinidad and Tobago enjoyed a bumper holiday season. Shopping centres throughout the country, the stores, the malls, the supermarkets were crowded with people and business appeared to be humming along nicely. All this commercial activity, of course, provided testimony both to the bouyancy of TT's economy and to the determination of Trinis to indulge in the traditional festivities of the yuletide, inspite of the multitude of problems that beset our country. Indeed, a perceptive visitor to TT, finding himself in the midst of all this, may well be struck, if not totally befuddled, by the enigma our society presents - a small country, blessed with abundant natural resources, a prosperous economy, a friendly, fun-loving, easy-going people, yet a country besieged by frightful and intractable problems of crime, violence, indiscipline, political stupidity and impotence. In certain quarters, TT has already become something of a laughing stock, a rich yet foolishly divided country.
How did we acquire such a dismal status and, looking into the stretch of a new year, how do we view the prospects for an improvement in our situation? We sincerely wish that we can say we are optimistic. But nothing in the year just ended inspires us with such a hope. The fact is that 2003 saw an escalation both in the number of persons murdered, 223 as compared with 172 in 2002, and those slaughtered on our roads, 197 as against 163 the year before. The rate of kidnappings too has increased with 49 persons held for ransom, 20 more than in 2002. The dismal truth about these dreadful statistics is that the best efforts of the relevant authorities have failed to turn them around, inspite of mounting public alarm. The fight against crime has produced volumes of earnest rhetoric, the formation of special police squads and units plus a series of operations, initiatives and crackdowns with little or no significant result. Gangland assassinations and the murderous struggle among criminals for control of the drug trade and social relief programmes of the state continue unabated. The reckless speeding and dangerous driving on our roads continue to reap their grizzly toll in death and mutilation, again exposing the impotence of the authorities to deal with such a menace.
If all these are symptoms of the moral decline of our country, then they are also the result of a progressive failure of leadership in critical areas of our social and national life, a failure for which there also seems no workable or practical solution. Our society suffers from a dearth of genuine exemplars while the failure of parents, teachers, social and religious leaders to fulfil their vital role in shaping, moulding and uplifting the minds and character of the young is having its inevitable result in the indiscipline and lack of respect that grow more rampant every day. This failure, however, is most tragically seen in the antics of our political leaders who seem to be fiddling with the critical affairs of the country while the situation deteriorates into crisis. The current UNC parliamentary deadlock on crucial pieces of legislation aimed at solving a number of urgent problems is an example of this kind of delinquency. On the other hand, the failure of the government to take some positive action to begin the process of constitution reform, as promised in its elections manifesto, seems just as insensitive. The country is facing dire problems, but our political leaders prefer to play their silly games instead of dealing with the crisis. Mr Manning is determined to have the Red House for himself, even if parliament is transferred to the zoo site. Where are the committed leaders that TT needs?
