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Amanda Gorman, aged 27, is a poet, writer and activist. She was the first US national youth poet laureate. She frequently urges that society turn away from divisiveness.
I heard Amanda Gorman speak at the widely televised US Democratic Party National Convention last year.
Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/ AFP.
She said this: “Empathy emancipates, making us greater than hate or vanity.”
This struck me as core guidance. As our persons in public life regularly abandon empathy, is it that they enjoy being no greater than hate or vanity?
Mrs Kamla Persad-Bissessar (Kamla), upon her recent return to the office of prime minister (PM) after 15 years in Opposition, promised in her first remarks to govern with empathy.
Copyright: Office of the Parliament 2025.
Like so many citizens offended by the scornful approach of the People’s National Movement (PNM) government that she replaced—whether one voted or not for the United National Congress (the UNC), which she leads—I briefly hoped that we might see a more collaborative approach to governance whereby citizens’ ideas might not be discarded simply because of profiling or whispered dislike.
In my column last week, on the need for fundamental reform as opposed to tinkering and playing the continually recurring blame game, I concluded by raising the question whether the UNC government could find the necessary self-restraint so that rationality and not bitter partisanship would guide reform.
Copyright: Office of the Parliament 2025.
At the time of writing that, I sensed that self-restraint would not be forthcoming because Minister of Public Utilities and Minister in the Office of the PM, Barry Padarath MP, had already had a rant about managerial arrangements, which the defeated PNM administration sought to put in place at the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA).
And the PM symbolically tore up the PNM’s WASA transformation plan.
Mere days later, rainfall deluged the country and there was severe flooding. In response, despite commendable mobilisation to deal with the flooding, there were also rants about: “what the hell was the PNM doing?”
Photo: Office of the Parliament 2024.
Each year of the 22 plus years that I have been writing this weekly column, annual flooding has badly dislocated lives and damaged property. Similarly, WASA has not been able to satisfactorily deliver pipe-borne water to the population.
The irony of too much water on the ground and insufficient water in our pipes has been unrelieved by electoral change.
There is a larger issue encompassing not only our painful floods and water woes. Many other aspects of life are blighted by the lack of political will of all our governments, regardless of electoral change, to plan and implement measures to change the deficient delivery of goods and services for which they have undertaken responsibility.
Our governments cling to control of everything but, when not blaming their political opponents, pass the buck to the judiciary, statutory authorities, service commissions and so-called state enterprises, regardless of the suffering of the population.
A discerning reader told me recently that in these weekly columns I have described “the weakened pillars across all institutions”. For me it is getting to the time when, having called out the persons and institutions who regularly fail us, as well as proposed some solutions, I ask myself why bother?
The question is pressing particularly because many others in a position to insist on accountability and consequence management and to demand that our governance also includes the other essentials of democratic life are indifferent.
Copyright: Office of the Parliament 2024.
They have remained content to suck the juice that flowed from the misuse and waste of the energy sector revenues when we had them in abundance.
What now that we are in an energy sector drought? Where are concrete proposals from the domes and chambers of commerce about what the government might do next?
Their public expressions are largely limited to photo-op meetings with ministers and wishes “to partner with the government”. To partner doing what, I ask?
Copyright: Office of the Parliament 2025.
Meanwhile, the credibility compromised Police Service Commission (remember the incident of the letter withdrawn in mysterious circumstances involving President’s House during the tenure of President Paula-Mae Weekes) is lurking in the dark of unbecoming silence.
What is the explanation for the discrepancy between what the Commission’s Counsel told the Court about the Commission lifting the suspension of the Commissioner of Police, Erla Harewood-Christopher, and the Commission failing to issue written confirmation of that?
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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.
This column presents a sobering reflection on the persistent political dysfunction and institutional decay in Trinidad and Tobago, where electoral change has rarely translated into meaningful governance reform. By invoking Amanda Gorman’s call to “empathy” and highlighting Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s pledge to govern with that principle, the writer draws a poignant contrast between what is promised and what is practiced. It’s not just about changing political parties; it’s about changing how power is exercised.
In Trinidad and Tobago’s parliamentary democracy, the ruling party holds executive power, while the opposition is expected to scrutinize and challenge government decisions in the interest of accountability. In theory, both roles are essential to good governance. But in practice, both the People’s National Movement (PNM) and the United National Congress (UNC) have often reduced their roles to partisan warfare. The result? A cycle of tearing down the other’s plans, knee-jerk policy reversals, and governance driven more by political rivalry than by a commitment to the public good.
The writer’s frustration is deeply understandable. The symbolic act of tearing up the PNM’s WASA transformation plan, followed by recriminatory rhetoric amid a flooding crisis, signals not just a rejection of a policy—but a rejection of continuity, compromise, and collaboration. It’s a performance of power, not a practice of governance.
If Trinidad and Tobago is to move beyond the “gain and get into power” mentality, several shifts are needed:
1. Institutional Independence and Integrity: Entities like the Police Service Commission must act transparently and independently, free from political manipulation. The credibility crisis mentioned here erodes public trust and undermines accountability.
2. Political Maturity: Both the ruling party and the opposition must grow beyond the politics of revenge. The opposition should not merely oppose; it should propose. Similarly, the government must be willing to build on good ideas, regardless of their source.
3. Civic Engagement and Pressure: Citizens and civil society must demand more than slogans and symbolic gestures. Apathy is complicity. When leaders know the public is watching and insisting on follow-through, they are more likely to act with integrity.
4. Shared National Vision: A long-term, bipartisan development plan—crafted through inclusive dialogue and bound by legal or constitutional mechanisms—could outlast election cycles and foster consistency in critical areas like water management, education, and public infrastructure.
The call to empathy is not sentimental; it is strategic. It invites leaders to recognize the humanity and expertise across the aisle and among the population. Until that spirit replaces the scorched-earth mentality of our politics, the nation will remain stuck in cycles of disappointment, no matter who is in power.
This column serves as a challenge—to the leaders, to the institutions, and to the people—to stop settling for survival and instead start demanding transformation.