The fast ap­proach­ing elec­tion year in 2025 is al­ready a top agen­da item for the two main po­lit­i­cal par­ties, as well as small­er ones as­pir­ing to be a sig­nif­i­cant third force at the polls.

But mo­bil­is­ing for a date more than a year in the fu­ture should not su­per­sede more im­me­di­ate and ur­gent na­tion­al pri­or­i­ties. There is a gold­en op­por­tu­ni­ty now for par­lia­men­tar­i­ans to demon­strate po­lit­i­cal ma­tu­ri­ty in their han­dling of key items on the leg­isla­tive agen­da.

So, while the pre­sen­ta­tion and de­bate of the 2024 Bud­get will be the fo­cus for the next few weeks, once that fis­cal pack­age is dealt with, the oth­er pri­or­i­ty items should be is­sues re­cent­ly high­light­ed by Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo—in­clud­ing stronger an­ti-crime laws and the long-promised To­ba­go au­ton­o­my.

As re­cent po­lit­i­cal his­to­ry has shown, the fact that the PNM and the UNC agree these are is­sues of na­tion­al im­por­tance is no guar­an­tee of ex­pe­di­tious pas­sage of rel­e­vant laws. Of­ten, the op­po­site is true.

But in these strange and dif­fi­cult times, stick­ing to the usu­al po­lit­i­cal strate­gies just won’t do.

All po­lit­i­cal par­ties, in­clud­ing those now vy­ing for ac­cess to the cor­ri­dors of pow­er, must de­vel­op the abil­i­ty to de­tect and re­spond to the mood in the coun­try.

The ab­sence of this skill among cur­rent and as­pir­ing of­fice hold­ers is clear in their un­will­ing­ness to ac­cept re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the high lev­els of vot­er ap­a­thy in this coun­try. The one thing they all have in com­mon is pay­ing lip ser­vice to this prob­lem, be­cause to do more would re­quire them to ac­knowl­edge the large num­ber of cit­i­zens who refuse to vote for any of them.

How­ev­er, al­though most of the cur­rent elect­ed of­fi­cials do not have strong en­dorse­ments from large seg­ments of the pop­u­la­tion, there is im­por­tant work for them to do now.

The top leg­isla­tive pri­or­i­ty must be draft­ing and pass­ing stronger an­ti-crime laws — an ef­fort that re­quires com­mit­ment on all sides and to re­sist the temp­ta­tion to use this is­sue to score po­lit­i­cal points.

If past atroc­i­ties failed to sway them, par­lia­men­tar­i­ans should have been touched by the hor­ren­dous events of yes­ter­day, when the coun­try woke up to the news of the bar­barous ex­e­cu­tion of yet an­oth­er teenag­er on the same day an Ari­ma fam­i­ly laid to rest four young sib­lings slaugh­tered in an ear­li­er at­tack.

If these events don’t re­in­force the ur­gent need for prop­er gun laws, pas­sage of the Bail Bill and in­tro­duc­tion of oth­er ef­fec­tive crime laws, noth­ing will.

The oth­er leg­isla­tive pri­or­i­ty for this term should be pas­sage of the To­ba­go Is­land Gov­ern­ment Bill, 2021 and The Con­sti­tu­tion (Amend­ment) To­ba­go Self-Gov­ern­ment Bill which have been stuck at com­mit­tee stage for far too long.

The lat­est in the many stalled ef­forts at grant­i­ng To­ba­go au­ton­o­my kicked off in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives on March 9, 2018, when Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley tabled the Con­sti­tu­tion (Amend­ment) (To­ba­go Self-Gov­ern­ment) Bill, 2018.

It is time to get these laws over the fin­ish line and to stop play­ing po­lit­i­cal foot­ball with this long over­due is­sue. Both sides must work to­geth­er to fix any de­fi­cien­cies in these bills and get them passed.

The spe­cial ma­jori­ties need­ed for pas­sage—three-fourths in the House and two-thirds in the Sen­ate—should not be treat­ed as op­por­tu­ni­ties for de­lay­ing tac­tics and par­ti­san ma­noeu­vring.

On these ur­gent mat­ters, par­lia­men­tar­i­ans must put T&T’s needs first.