Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s se­quined evening dress, seen in her New Year’s Eve post, fit the bill for ush­er­ing in 2026.

Ahead, the Gov­ern­ment faces shirt-sleeve rolling-up time with her en­cour­age­ment to the pub­lic, fol­low­ing a roller coast­er 2025: “T&T’s bright­est days are still ahead-the best is yet to come.”

It’s a vi­able mes­sage for her eight-month-old Gov­ern­ment af­ter a de­c­la­ra­tion that 2026 will be a de­ci­sive year for T&T and the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC), with much work to ful­fil elec­tion man­dates.

But it’s ahead if the Chi­nese Year of the Horse brings enough for­ward mo­men­tum and ac­tion for the de­liv­ery that’s need­ed to set­tle Gov­ern­ment’s im­age af­ter its whirl­wind changes, the neg­a­tive im­pact of which was ac­knowl­edged in the PM’s as­sur­ances.

Amid the 2025 States of Emer­gency by the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) gov­ern­ment and the UNC, which each aid­ed last year’s crime re­duc­tion, pub­lic re­ac­tion to Gov­ern­ment’s changes has been con­fined be­tween le­gal chal­lenges and pass­ing costs to the pub­lic.

How­ev­er, neg­a­tive com­ments in­di­cat­ed the ex­treme change wasn’t ex­pect­ed so soon af­ter UNC’s elec­tion vic­to­ry.

Com­plaints, par­tic­u­lar­ly by UNC mem­bers who’ve lost con­tract jobs and seen di­min­ished al­co­hol sales and oth­er busi­ness af­ter Gov­ern­ment’s re­tool­ing, tele­graph that Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s as­sur­ances are in­suf­fi­cient.

While moves sig­nal Gov­ern­ment’s strength, her pro­file’s been neg­a­tive­ly af­fect­ed; han­dling all of the talk­ing, and the lack of a ded­i­cat­ed com­mu­ni­ca­tion spokesman, is an in­creas­ing con­cern.

Out­reach is vi­tal. Un­der pres­sure re­gard­ing fi­nances, Gov­ern­ment’s re­or­gan­i­sa­tion of T&T’s op­er­a­tions to meet chal­lenges has ef­fec­tive­ly put the pop­u­la­tion “to work” re­ori­ent­ing fo­cus on dis­ci­plines in ar­eas, in­clud­ing via dis­cre­tionary tax­es.

UNC’s ver­sion of struc­tur­al ad­just­ment, fol­low­ing Dr Kei­th Row­ley PNM’s im­ple­men­ta­tion of its meth­ods rather than the IMF’s.

Re­cent mo­tor ve­hi­cle fine in­creas­es—an un­wel­come sur­prise Christ­mas “gift”—is among the lat­est ex­am­ples, spark­ing Pri­or­i­ty Bus Route fare hike threats and cor­rup­tion lurk­ing among ex­pe­dit­ing of ve­hi­cle com­pli­ance.

Sever­i­ty of as­sort­ed mea­sures, plus poor com­mu­ni­ca­tion, has taxed pub­lic good­will on which the UNC sailed in­to Gov­ern­ment, fu­elling dis­trust of fu­ture moves.

While Gov­ern­ment co-opt­ed good­will to but­tress tough, con­tro­ver­sial mea­sures, pub­lic sen­ti­ment has brought re­minders of ex-PNM Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert’s quip about gas price hikes and “they ent ri­ot yet”.

The PNM, while gaug­ing the “ground” to im­ple­ment mea­sures, had, in some cas­es, post­poned much for too long.

The UNC im­ple­ment­ing every­thing im­me­di­ate­ly to keep fi­nances go­ing—bump­ing elec­tion con­ces­sions to sec­ond place—risks con­trac­tion.

Not just of good­will.

UNC’s crit­i­cism of PNM meth­ods would hard­ly soft­en roughshod rid­ing now to im­ple­ment cor­rec­tive ac­tion-in­clud­ing since some crit­i­cism tar­gets are now be­ing used.

Gov­ern­ment’s US sup­port and fall­out from the To­ba­go radar in­stal­la­tion will be test­ed on its proxy, part­ner, the To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP), in the up­com­ing To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly elec­tion, where To­ba­go’s econ­o­my is a key is­sue.

Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots leader Wat­son Duke’s com­ment, sup­port­ing TPP leader Far­ley Au­gus­tine for an­oth­er term “in an­tic­i­pa­tion Au­gus­tine will im­prove his THA man­age­ment”, is telling of TPP’s per­for­mance.

With Amer­i­ca’s shift from mil­i­tary ac­tion on Venezuela to in­creased eco­nom­ic pres­sure- tar­get­ing sanc­tioned oil tankers-the strike on a Venezue­lan coastal dock by the CIA rather than the US mil­i­tary has raised spec­u­la­tion on whether ac­tion will arise if the eco­nom­ic squeeze weak­ens Venezuela by mon­thend as pro­ject­ed. Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Nico­las Maduro’s 2026 ad­dress in­di­cat­ed a “grow­ing econ­o­my” and open­ness to oil talks.

A se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cial didn’t ex­pect T&T’s SoE would be ex­tend­ed be­yond the Jan­u­ary 31 dead­line, with Car­ni­val im­mi­nent. They ac­knowl­edged the toll both the SoE and the “war” spot­light have had on T&T.

The im­pact of re­duced oil prices-US$50s from the 2026 bud­get and US$70s pro­jec­tion-on ex­pen­di­ture will be known be­fore the mid-year re­view.

Be­yond the pub­lic ser­vants’ pay­out, which the PSA has mon­i­tored, oth­er coali­tion part­ners’ ex­pec­ta­tions linger. The Oil­fields Work­ers’ Trade Union awaits word on the Petrotrin re­fin­ery. The Con­gress of the Peo­ple’s chair­man’s 2026 mes­sage held con­cern on the coali­tion arrange­ment, sig­nalling moves to strength­en COP and urg­ing more COP in­put in Gov­ern­ment.

With a gal­lop­ing pace set for Gov­ern­ment by the year’s de­mands, its learn­ing curve– in­clud­ing the pub­lic’s ”lessons”-has aid­ed the Op­po­si­tion’s foot­ing.

It’s ahead if the PNM lead­er­ship’s re­cent en­er­gy rush in­tro­duced its new 2026 lev­el, how the team is re­in­forced with MP Camille Robin­son-Reg­is’ Par­lia­ment re­turn-and what al­ter­na­tives PNM gives Gov­ern­ment af­ter MP Fos­ter Cum­mings’ re­cent call for more co­op­er­a­tion.