Opinion
- Editorial- Commentary
The
Guardian :
PM
sets stage for
next 5 years
Prime Minister Patrick Manning had a wide smile
on his face yesterday as he moved to the fence
at Woodford Square to greet the people who had
travelled from all over the country to participate
in his history-making, public swearing-in ceremony
at Woodford Square in the heart of Port-of-Spain.
In
retrospect, the decision to hold the ceremony
in Woodford Square, with all of its historic significance
going back more than a century, appears to have
been well received and well executed—especially
given the short period of planning involved.
Here
was the Prime Minister in a square that has come
to be known as the People’s Parliament
coming down from the raised platform to meet the
people who had worked hard to secure victory.
It
was public acknowledgement of the victory effort
that simply would not have been possible at President’s
House or at the new Diplomatic Centre at the official
residence of the Prime Minister.
Mr
Manning had signalled two Friday’s ago
that he wanted to spend more time during his fourth
term as Prime Minister concentrating on solving
problems that affect people’s lives. As a
result, at the launch of the PNM’s manifesto,
he announced that it was his intention to drop
the Minister of Finance portfolio from his list
of duties if the PNM won a fourth term.
By
organising to be sworn-in in such a public setting
and by deciding to press the flesh after
the completion of the ceremony, Mr Manning could
well be setting the stage for a five-year term
in which people are at the centre of the Government’s
plans.
If
this is indeed the Prime Minister’s intention,
it is certainly a noble idea whose application
to the 2007-2012 Parliament should be carefully
thought out so that its execution can have a long-lasting
impact on improving people’s lives.
By coming up with the idea of taking the oath
of office at Woodford Square, Mr Manning is demonstrating,
once again, that he is thinking outside of the
proverbial box and willing to take risky political
decisions.
The
decision to drop several of his stalwarts—including
Ken Valley, Fitzgerald Hinds and Eddie Hart—seems
to have paid off with the largest victory margin
since the 1986 election when the PNM received three
seats compared with the 33 for the NAR.
In
particular, the dropping of the experienced Mr
Valley in favour of political neophyte Dr Amery
Browne had the potential to cause serious damage
to the party’s chances at the beginning of
the campaign.
The potential hurt to the party would have been
exacerbated when Mr Valley went public, in an exclusive
report in this newspaper, with allegations that
the Prime Minister was demonstrating dictatorial
tendencies.
Along
with Mr Valley’s charges, opposition
elements capitalised on reports that the Prime
Minister was intent on changing the Constitution
to facilitate himself becoming T&T’s
executive president.
The
opposition parties also sought to demonise the
Prime Minister as an emperor who had built
a lordly castle in St Ann’s for his own accommodation.
The results of the election indicate that the population
declined to buy the line that was being sold.
The
Prime Minister also insisted that the party,
at 51 the country’s oldest existing political
institution, reach out to young candidates and
fresh faces, as well as women, in the party’s
slate for the 2007 general election.
At every turn during the 2007 election, the results
seem to have vindicated positions taken by Mr Manning,
thereby bucking a recent trend in the Caribbean
that saw incumbent parties being dumped by electorates
disgusted by rising crime and slowing economic
growth.
The
Guardian is
one of the leading news daily of Trinidad
& Tobago. Petroleumworld not necessarily
share these
views.
Editor's
Note: This article was first publish in Trinidad
Guardian, Thursday, November 8th 2007. Petroleumworld
reprint this article in the interest
of our readers.
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Petroleumworld
11/ 11/07
Copyright ©2006
Gwynne
Dyer.
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