As I awoke this morning, in the middle of Independence Season 2020, I happened to scan through the pages of my book Speaking Out[1] and came across this letter I wrote to the newspapers in the same season 27 years ago.
As Rudder put it – Déjà vu, I suppose.
Just thought I would share it as we reflect on 58 years of our Independence experience.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose[2]? – You think?
                      &&&&&
Independence Season
Well, this one is a scorcher! It's hardly two hours since sunrise and already. as I sit at the keyboard, I can feel the beads of sweat running down my neck.
"No typical early morning shower this year". I can hear the television announcers voice from across the room.
Well, it's Independence morning. Everything is there. Well appointed, as they say. The President standing stiff as my grandmother's starched clothes in his jeep. The red, white and black just as stiff in the early morning breeze. The soldiers, the police, the firemen, all the uniforms stiff and starchy, too.
You just can't, say the trappings aren't intact. Even the Prime Minister is back from Uncle Sam's huddle.
"Thirty First of August, Nineteen Sixty Two
I, ah Little Dadda Head Boy
Standing on de Bypass
As Colonial Motorcade with de Queen Face Pass
On de Bypass  "
Lance Doughty's[3] old rapso poem flashes across my mind.
Thirty-one years are gone. How yuh feel?
I recall those childhood visions. We moved up to Green Street that year. TV came in that year too. TTT, the same station that I have on this morning. Bun and soft drink in school. We gather downstairs EC school. "Hail to the Day, .... This is our Land's Great Dawning" we sang with gusto.
That night we went for a drive in town[4]. Lights. Banners. Frederick Street decorated for so. Then the Fireworks.
I was only approaching seven then, but those images stuck, almost hauntingly.
Who could have escaped the euphoria of that day? It was a birth and like any other, a time for celebration that no one had to put on.
Now, everything seems stiff and starched. Like we loss de spirit or what!
Well, perhaps I can console myself. This is only the first morning of Independence Season, August 31 to September 24. Maybe like all the other seasons we celebrate, it's off to a slow start.
Scanning the newspaper headlines of Sunday's Guardian, there on the front page "Mixed Views on Manning govt" and "US$25m loan for TT - Govt borrows from Republic for debt service"
Coincidental with the eve of Republic Season, the first headline tops a story about a survey on "how well the Patrick Manning government is managing" my independent country. Who is making such a survey. Well, well .... " a survey sponsored by the United States Information Agency" the article goes on.
What an insult!!! Can you imagine an agency of the T&T embassy in Washington or New York, London, or Bridgetown commissioning a survey on how the national government of that country is managing?
What ever happened to our sovereignty? Why are we tolerating this blatant interference in our internal business?
What we think about the Trinidad & Tobago Government is Trini business. No foreign government or embassy, Sally Cowal[5] or anyone else has any right to be sticking their nose in our business like that.
What patriotism is left when a "national newspaper", our Guardian of Democracy carries this insult without a whimper of protest on its front pages, two days before our Independence Day.
Or are we supposed to accept the fact that Massah Day Eh Really Done?
Perhaps, because Republic (sic) bank lends government $25m US to pay foreign debt.
After all who pays the piper calls the tune.
What a start to my Independence Season!
Well at least it keeps you facing reality. What we thought we had thirty-one years ago still remains an aspiration. Formal independence, declarations, anthems and flags mean very little if you depend on others for your finances and livelihood, allow meddlesome foreigners to dabble in your nation's business and attempt to shape public opinion with their surveys and polls.
I, for one will make my Season's resolution - The aspirations and hopes of August 31,1962 must be made a reality.
We must all rededicate ourselves, put all our energies into the struggle to have genuine independence in this land of ours, to be a sovereign people determining our future free from outside interference, owning and controlling our resources and putting them to the best use in the interest of our people. We na' give up!
1993:August:31
 
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Speaking-Out-Collection-Letters-Writings-ebook/dp/B07KSPL17M/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=clyde+weatherhead&qid=1599308678&s=books&sr=1-6

[2] The more things change, the more it’s the same thing

[3] Lance Doughty, a poet from San Fernando

[4] Port of Spain

[5] US Ambassador to TT at the time

As we mark 58 years of our journey as an Independent nation, we have the opportunity to look back on and evaluate six decade-long journey towards the aspirations that filled the hearts of our citizens that night when the Union Jack was lowered for the last time and as a sovereign people, we took up the challenge of charting our own course.
We must examine our present with an eye on the past 58 years and assess our progress in  our nation-building project, in the important areas of the economy, politics and governance, cultural and social development, nurturing our youth and caring for our seniors, as well as caring for our physical space which sustains us.
On this occasion, amid challenges of economic depression, compounded by the effects of a global pandemic almost exactly a century since the last faced by mankind, I choose to look back at the economic sphere.
Into Independence
Between 1956 and 1973, the Trinidad and Tobago Government formulated and implemented three Five-Year Plans, regarded as Development Programmes.
In the first Development Programme, 42% of public expenditure was earmarked for infrastructure towards roads and bridges, electricity and water in descending proportion. A significant portion of the infrastructural works were to be undertaken at the Local Government level.
About equal allocations were made to agriculture, health, harbours and ports, industrial development, inter-island steamers and the smallest allocation was for “labour and social services”.
The allocation to Tobago was 7% of expenditure.
Agriculture was touted as important “for the diversification of the economy”. Industrial development “along the lines of…Jamaica and Puerto Rico”, and tourism “with particular reference to Tobago”[1]. The “building industry with particular respect to public buildings” was described as a service industry.
Allocations were made for primary and secondary education and building of a teachers’ training institution.
The “provision of welfare services and essential amenities for the workers on the job” was described a major element of the Development Programme 1958-62, leading up to Independence. The provision of housing, water and health facilities with development of recreation grounds and development of facilities for youth groups and community organisations were all identified.
The objectives of the Second Development Programme 1964-68 were “to change the structure of the economy…achieve a satisfactory rate of growth…and to provide productive employment for the increasing labour force”.
The basic assumption was “that the rate of growth of the production of crude petroleum would decline…. Subject ...to satisfactory results of the exploration efforts….on the east coast”.
The “main long-run objectives” stated in the Third Development Plan 1969-73 were:

• To reduce considerably the extent of structural unemployment
• To diversify the economy by strengthening other sectors other than petroleum
• To bring the economic activities under greater measure of local control to reduce the dominance “by external decision making”.

Assessing the Planning Experience
Returning to this initial period of Five-Year Plans permits assessment of that experience in our development thrust.
Firstly, it is noteworthy that after 1973, the end of the third such plan, the concept and practice of long-term planning was largely abandoned with the emergence of the first oil boom in the year 1973. The next attempt at long-term planning by Government was in the development of Vision 2020 in the first decade of the 21st century.
Secondly, several of the objectives stated in those early Five-Year Plans remain largely the unfulfilled promises of Independence that fuelled the discontent that led to the 1970 Revolution and which remain what appear to be illusive goals up to the present.
The illusive diversification of the economy away from hydrocarbon dependency, the unchanged structure of the GDP contributions of the various economic sectors, the unfulfilled dreams of a striving tourism sector, strong agriculture and elimination of ‘external decision-making’ and insulation against external shocks – all of these continue to evade the success columns of our Independence experience.
Thirdly, the First and Third Plans were authored by the solo effort of the Premier and Prime Minister. While the Second did include a process of consultation, “the overall direction of policy remained with the Prime Minister”.
Similarly, in the much later Vision 2020 plan, there was widespread involvement in the initial analysis and planning phases, but implementation remained the province of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet.
Unfortunately, these planning efforts, led by the occupants of high offices, have failed to include the broadest participation in the preparation of such plans or in the execution and evaluation where some consultation was permitted.
Given the current state of our economic landscape, are we satisfied?
After 58 years, in the true ‘spirit of Independence’, given the current exhortations to unity and working together to solve our problems, can we do things differently to ensure that we do not have to return to the same considerations that have occupied our concerns for development at the end of the 6th decade and beyond?
New initiatives from the citizens and their organisations are called for.
 
Clyde Weatherhead
A Citizen calling for the
Reinfusion of the Spirit of
Independence.
29 August 2020
 


[1] Quotations from the pages of Forged from the Love of Liberty (1981)

The results of the GE2020 are on hold possibly for a couple of days.
The PNM has claimed victory with a reduced majority from 23-18 to 22-19 in the Parliament. Significantly, they have not been given a Special Majority in Parliament by the electorate so they can exercise power with impunity.
Neither side has gotten the outcome they wanted from these elections.  
The UNC is asking for recounts in 3 constituencies hoping to snatch some more seats and Government from the PNM. The PNM has repeated its intention to file an Election Petition to try and snatch 1 seat from the UNC.
They cannot do otherwise. These gatekeepers of the status quo exist for the purpose of trying to gain political office or hold on to it.
However, those episodes turn out, the result will be that either side of the PNM-UNC political monopoly will occupy the positions of power with a narrow majority to the Government side.
Our society is in a dire situation of crisis in its economy and fiscal matters. There is a deep crisis of the politics in which the power to deprive is used to keep the body politic out of political affairs and decision-making. We are in a serious social crisis which includes the unrelenting scourge of violent crime continues to threaten the safety and security, and lives of all citizens.
We have to cope with the presence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The education system is in need of urgent overhaul to be able to produce the kind of citizens our situation requires.
The outcome of these elections regardless of  which of these two parties forms the Government will bring NO solution to the chronic and ever-deepening all-round crisis in which our society is submerged. Neither of these gods of plague can cure the ills of this society.
The Crisis of Governance and Politics will only get worse.
This electoral process has revealed once more that it offers no real choice to the Electors and only decides which of the monopoly parties becomes the Government.
To those 70 candidates who attempted to offer us a choice in these elections and different voices in the Parliament, our thanks.
You must now thoroughly analyse this experience and examine the entire electoral and political processes of this society and draw appropriate conclusions. You must understand correct the errors and shortcomings of this effort.
You must continue to fight for the Democratic Renewal of the electoral and political processes for the sake of the People and the future of the Society. Opting out or giving up in the fight to provide effective Parliamentary representation and other voices there and make Government accounting to Parliament Real is not an option.
We, the People, Must Now become the Governance Observer Mission and Hold All those elected or appointed to positions of Power to Account.
As citizens, we must act by being constantly vigilant, defending our Rights against incursions of any kind, safeguarding and strengthening our unity and understanding and getting involved in the political affairs of the society.
We must build a citizens’ non-partisan political organization to achieve having a real say in governance and all matters affecting the nation and the People.
In this period of unprecedented crisis, what is needed is a governance of national unity and participation, not the unbridled rule of a privileged sectional interest.
 
Clyde Weatherhead
A Citizen Fighting for
Democratic Renewal
11 August 2020