At a very el­e­men­tal lev­el, East­er is about change. The East­er week starts with Palm Sun­day. This was a day of cel­e­bra­tion, chang­ing as the week goes by in­to death and fol­lowed by the res­ur­rec­tion and a new life. As with na­ture, so al­so in the af­fairs of men. Every­thing changes with time. The mes­sage is al­so of the sac­ri­fice of one for the good of many, and the hope and faith that a new be­gin­ning will lead to a good fu­ture. To­day, East­er Sun­day is the be­gin­ning of a new phase.

As in re­li­gion, so al­so in life. In­deed, re­li­gious life trans­lates mes­sages from the spir­i­tu­al to every­day life. There are al­ways chal­lenges and the most suc­cess­ful are those who best adapt to change. To ad­dress those chal­leng­ing times, all re­li­gions ad­vo­cate a pe­ri­od of rest, peace, ma­ture re­flec­tion and med­i­ta­tion to pre­pare one­self to meet the known and un­known fu­ture.

East­er fol­lowed a 40-day prepa­ra­tion that in­clude fast­ing and re­flec­tion, a pe­ri­od of trans­for­ma­tion which re­quired self-dis­ci­ple and an at­ti­tude that ad­dressed a new way of think­ing to make way for a new be­lief sys­tem.

This week­end, many will take the op­por­tu­ni­ty to rest, re­lax and recharge their bat­ter­ies and spend time with chil­dren in the post-SEA lull. The more for­tu­nate will be able to change their en­vi­ron­ment, some to the beach or green open spaces. But on Tues­day we go back to work.

This month, we tran­si­tioned to a new Pres­i­dent and a new po­lit­i­cal par­ty in To­ba­go. These are pos­i­tive signs, but not much else has changed. The Fire Ser­vice has joined the ranks of dis­af­fect­ed pub­lic ser­vants. The on­go­ing saga of miss­ing files and de­fault judg­ment con­tin­ues. The DPP mat­ter re­mains un­set­tled. The in­abil­i­ty of the pro­tec­tive ser­vices to ad­dress the on­go­ing gun vi­o­lence is caus­ing a grow­ing dis­qui­et af­fect­ing the na­tion’s con­fi­dence and self-be­lief.

The ob­jec­tions to the in­creased elec­tric­i­ty rates will con­tin­ue as will the is­sues with wa­ter. Whilst the rate of in­fla­tion has de­clined, prices (ex­cept for lo­cal­ly grown agri­cul­tur­al pro­duce) have not de­clined. Nat­ur­al gas pro­duc­tion may have sta­bilised at 30 per cent be­low peak pro­duc­tion, but petro­chem­i­cal prices have de­clined and will ul­ti­mate­ly lead to low­er gov­ern­ment rev­enues and a re­turn to deficit fi­nanc­ing. It should now be clear that 2022 was but a brief respite from the six years of de­pres­sion.  

This is a chal­leng­ing pol­i­cy ma­trix and the op­tions to deal with these is­sues are com­pli­cat­ed. The re­al­i­ty is that the fi­nance min­is­ter had one good year in this, his sec­ond term of of­fice. The Gov­ern­ment can­not wish away these chal­lenges, nor make emp­ty promis­es. Lead­ing in these cir­cum­stances re­quires more than plat­i­tudes and mixed mes­sages. Cit­i­zens face re­al chal­lenges and want to know that their con­cerns are be­ing ad­dressed.

Now that the Gov­ern­ment is be­lat­ed­ly recog­nis­ing that the wind­fall gains of the last 18 months are com­ing to an end how will it lead the coun­try? What ad­just­ments will be adopt­ed, and how will the com­mu­ni­ca­tion process be di­rect­ed to ad­dress those con­cerns? The midyear re­view will soon be up­on us as will a new bud­get. The time to be­gin a mean­ing­ful en­gage­ment with the pub­lic must start soon if the Gov­ern­ment is to stay ahead of the com­mu­ni­ca­tion process.

We hope and trust that the lead­er­ship used this East­er time to rest, re­flect and repo­si­tion to face these chal­lenges.