Trinidad & Tobago politics: Jack Warner's shrinking duties
Twenty months after vaulting Kamla Persad-Bissessar into the Prime
Minister's seat, Jack Warner has been stripped of responsibility for the
billion-dollar highway to Point Fortin. Until further notice Warner is
"Minister of a piece of Works". Having had transport excised from his
portfolio and the multi-million dollar PURE project shut down, Warner,
once queen-maker and de-facto PM, is neither.
A post-Carnival showdown between Warner and his political leader could be another distraction from the major issues requiring full political attention. It is all driven by a temporariness which has marked the PM's 20 months and counting.
Apart from still-steady crime and social decline, the PM has an economy that has failed to grow since 2008. In his January 16 update on the economy the Governor of the Central Bank pointed to economic contraction in 2011, output declines in energy and non-energy and rising food prices which could quickly fuel inflation. Beyond the high level data businessmen are complaining about the lethargy of the economy and the failure of the Government to provoke and provide the circumstances for growth.
This is not accidental but indicative of the fact that the PM has not set her thoughts on the tone of her leadership and the engagement which would stir the society. Instead her Government has riled opinion and eroded goodwill. The task of the PM should have been threefold: stabilising, changing and sustaining. Where she has placed her Government is in a constant state of defence and uncertainty. It is not insignificant that her frequent travel, her failure to occupy the PM's residence and the constant presence of handlers around her is increasingly suggestive of her own temporariness, discomfort and lack of confidence outside her happy zone.
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| Trinidad and Tobago's PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Minister Jack Warner |
A post-Carnival showdown between Warner and his political leader could be another distraction from the major issues requiring full political attention. It is all driven by a temporariness which has marked the PM's 20 months and counting.
Apart from still-steady crime and social decline, the PM has an economy that has failed to grow since 2008. In his January 16 update on the economy the Governor of the Central Bank pointed to economic contraction in 2011, output declines in energy and non-energy and rising food prices which could quickly fuel inflation. Beyond the high level data businessmen are complaining about the lethargy of the economy and the failure of the Government to provoke and provide the circumstances for growth.
This is not accidental but indicative of the fact that the PM has not set her thoughts on the tone of her leadership and the engagement which would stir the society. Instead her Government has riled opinion and eroded goodwill. The task of the PM should have been threefold: stabilising, changing and sustaining. Where she has placed her Government is in a constant state of defence and uncertainty. It is not insignificant that her frequent travel, her failure to occupy the PM's residence and the constant presence of handlers around her is increasingly suggestive of her own temporariness, discomfort and lack of confidence outside her happy zone.
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