Better days are coming as election day approaches...

Professor VALERIE STOUTE, Finance Minister COLM IMBERT, WILFRED ESPINET, opposition Leader KAMLA PERSAD BISSESSAR, Former Minister SURUJ RAMBACHAN

After the election, it’s back to square one.

For the past few weeks and definitely for the weeks and months to come the citizens of this country can expect to receive a lot of goodies from an unpopular government and a lot of promises from an equally unpopular Opposition.

Expect to see election jobs created; roads, drains and bridges which have been neglected for the last four years now be repaired, the sea bridge to have a new ferry with no procurement policy in place, outstanding payments to contractors will now be honored, gratuity that has not been paid to contract workers will now be paid, state lands will be distributed ad nauseam, sporting facilities will be opened, the work on government delayed projects will now be expedited and opened, sod will be turned hither, thither and yon for government projects here there and everywhere.

Carnival 2020 will be the biggest and best ever with money flowing like water. In fact money will not be a problem for anything in 2020. Parliamentarians will then visit their constituencies with much ado and will be seen kissing babies and hugging constituents. At the end of all of these initiatives and more, the date for the General Election will then be announced and the masses will head to the Eddie Hart ground for the PNM Rally or to the Aranguez Savannah for the UNC Rally and from there one of the parties will head to Whitehall.

Things have changed drastically

Both the PNM and the UNC have failed to understand that things have changed drastically today and that social media will be their nemesis. Young people are angry today as never before and neither the young people nor their parents will be fooled by these political cosmetics. They will remember how they have suffered these past years by an uncaring government. They will recall the closure of Petrotrin and the retrenchment of over 5000 workers. They will remember the mass lay-offs at other State companies, the lack of employment generally, the wanton waste and corruption that seem to be all-pervasive. They will remember UTT retrenchment and especially the treatment of Professor Valerie Stoute at the hands of some Middle East personnel. They will recall the curtailment of the GATE programme and the adverse effects, which followed. They will recall the cronyism and favouritism meted out to the one percenters and political financiers while the rest of the country languished. They shall remember these and many more and they will put their mouths where their fingers are. Colm Imbert’s smug, callous retort that nobody “ain’t riot yet” in response to his high-taxand - spend policies, will be repaid in votes - either against the PNM or in abstentions from the polls. Golden boy Faris Al-Rawi has lost his lustre as citizens feel the knot in their stomachs growing while they digest the news of his family’s $23 million property rental contract with the State.

A thousand images of Keith Rowley in tall-top boots shoveling sheep manure in Tobago will not erase the betrayal that was exposed when the Wilfred Espinet led board of Paria Petroleum was caught quietly trying to sell off the People’s fuel import State enterprise, insisting that the oil refining business is unprofitable while 75 private bidders are climbing over each other to get their hands on the refinery.

The stench of betrayal by the UNC

On the opposite side of the road, Kamla Persad-Bissessar and the United National Congress (UNC) believe hatred of the PNM alone will propel them into the government. A week after week maxi loads of people from Penal are bused to Monday Night Forums in marginal constituencies to fill venues and create the illusion of growing support. But the fact is that the length and breadth of the East-West Corridor still reek of the stench of betrayal by the UNC. Afro-Trinis have not forgotten how Kamla’s Hindu-dominated People’s Partnership (PP) that discarded them with scorn once they grabbed the reins of power exploited their suffering, hopes and dreams. They are well aware that while the likes of Suruj Rambachan are being deliberately kept out of sight, Kamla will resurrect them the moment she is sworn in as Prime Minister.

Afro-Trini’s, by the way, was not the only citizens to be offended and repulsed by her Cabal. That is not all that the electorate will not forget. They will not forget $400 million dollars syphoned to gangsters in the LifeSport Programme; funding the miscreants who are destroying communities with drugs and turning our youths into career criminals. They will not forget the married, drunk Room 201 minister rolling weed and charging up for a night of action with a harem prostitutes. They will not forget - and must not forget - the billions of dollars in contracts to favoured contractors like Chris-tian and Danny Gokool and Krishna Lalla’s SIS, while small and medium entrepreneurs sucked salt. They also will not forget the millions of tax dollars spent on jetting Wattie Newton - Kamla’s sister - around the world just to wine, dine and frolic.

Both the PNM and the UNC are the very same

While the population has not yet found a suitable replacement for the present government, they are opening their eyes and accepting the reality that both the PNM and UNC are the very same. They are realizing that for the most part, it is the same people who are being enriched regardless of whether it is Kamla or Rowley who is running the show. And on the flip side, it is the same persons who are being neglected and sunk deeper into poverty regardless of which of the two is Prime Minister. Do not doubt that the majority of the population is shopping around for new political options. The PNM and the UNC are fully aware of how bad their political stocks have become, it is this desperation that will fuel the giveaways, freeness, and wild promises that will dominate the landscape well up to, and after the next General Election, which is expected in 2020. But the public has been warned: beware of the goodies for what sweet in goat mouth does be sour in the ‘bam bam’.