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It can hardly be disputed that good governance invariably requires the making of policies and their effective implementation.
As Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley proceeds toward the still unclear date of his departure from office and the People’s National Movement (PNM) Government completes two consecutive five year terms in office under his leadership, it is sad to record its lack of policy framework in key areas.
Photo: PNM
The Rowley-PNM style of governance frequently comprises one of or a combination of making grandiose announcements lacking the underpinning of a policy basis, throwing money at problems, or blaming any and everyone else, including us, the citizens whom it is purporting to govern.
The defeatist statement of Prime Minister Rowley, reportedly made in Parliament on Monday last, that the murders will not end as a result of the recent declaration of the state of emergency, contained several blame game allegations—but not one significant word about reasonable policy aspirations to reform the distorted socio-economic structure, including the education system, which pre-disposes many youth to accept the lure of criminal activity.
It was a statement typical of our rulers whom I have characterized as “unfeeling kings”. They have no appreciation of contemporary thinking on the effective use of intervention strategies to refocus young people in disadvantaged communities before they become vulnerable to gang recruitment.
By way of another example of policy incoherence, the treatment of the potentially high value steelpan manufacturing industry by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (the MTI) typifies policy incoherence similar to that displayed in the statement intended to explain the use of the emergency powers, which the Constitution permits.
Photo: TTPS
Last year I described the dire need for pan chroming facilities to chrome the front line, mid-range and background pans, after Chrome Furnishers Limited, a reputedly reliable “chrome factory” (as it is called in the pan world), burnt down in 2021. (Click HERE to read my column on the topic.)
Chrome Furnishers has recently been re-opened for business, reportedly with the commendable support of the MTI’s Pan Manufacturing Grant Fund Facility that covered new specialized equipment.
The Minister of Trade and Industry on the occasion of the re-opening made grandiose announcements forecasting growth in the steelpan manufacturing industry and the generation of foreign exchange.
There is, however, no overall MTI policy for the pan manufacturing industry, which suffers from a fundamental shortage of materials. There is also a lack of export shipping facilitation, which particularly hurts the small enterprises.
What is to be done about the critical shortage of drums that are to be built into musical instruments, which are skillfully tuned, chromed and re-tuned?
I have described a drum shortage so acute that persons in the sector are forced to use “the poison drum”—that is a drum which has been used for shipping a poisonous or noxious substance. (Click HERE to read column on topic.)
Representations concerning the requirement for a steady source of high-quality drums were made to little avail. One veteran tuner described this situation as “trying to make bread without flour”.
Photo: OPM
The steelpan manufacturing industry is thriving in other countries. Here, at the home of the invention of pan, the industry can be deployed to make a much more significant contribution to the diversification of the economy and to the earning of foreign of exchange, as the MTI has belatedly recognised.
Such a diversification would be an immediate avenue for the employment of young persons rejected, frustrated and ultimately unfairly segregated by the bookish and outdated education system, which does not provide adequate opportunities for becoming proficient in badly needed well-paying trades.
Meanwhile there is a new and additional impediment to exports from the steelpan building and steelpan tuning trades of which the MTI is reportedly aware. Trinidad and Tobago Postal Corporation (TTPOST) has changed the shipping rates for boxes containing Tenor and Double Guitar Pans from actual weight to volumetric weight, thereby nearly tripling the shipping costs.
Photo: Office of the Parliament 2022
The Pan Tuners Guild has expressed the view that this increase “has the potential to stymie a source of foreign exchange earnings”.
Perhaps the younger administration that PM Rowley is politically bequeathing to the PNM will discover for themselves the value of governing by reference to coherent well-rounded policy prescriptions.
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Martin G Daly SC is a prominent attorney-at-law. He is a former Independent Senator and past president of the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago.
He is chairman of the Pat Bishop Foundation and a steelpan music enthusiast.
Greetings, Sucessive governments on both sides, lack clear ideological positions. Their only ideology is a hodge- poge reactive group of ideas. As K. Valley said years ago, “who cares about ideology, when u have money”.