As T&T cel­e­brates Re­pub­lic Day, the day the coun­try re­moved the Queen as head of state and the in­stal­la­tion of a pres­i­dent, Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes has found her­self in an ex­is­ten­tial cri­sis. In­ter­est­ing­ly, it seems to have stemmed from her re­cent vis­it to pay fi­nal re­spects to Queen Eliz­a­beth II last week.

In her Re­pub­lic Day state­ment yes­ter­day, Pres­i­dent Weekes said she has found her­self won­der­ing whether the tran­si­tion from mere in­de­pen­dence to a Re­pub­lic was more a change in “nomen­cla­ture and form, than one of re­al and mean­ing­ful sig­nif­i­cance.”

“What were the tan­gi­ble ben­e­fits, if any, of that change and have they had any salu­tary ef­fect on our sys­tem of gov­er­nance?” the Pres­i­dent asked.

Part of the Pres­i­dent’s quandary sur­rounds whether the pub­lic knows the pur­pose of a Pres­i­dent.

“The av­er­age cit­i­zen, even af­ter 46 years of Re­pub­li­can state­hood, still, when ref­er­ence is made to “the Pres­i­dent,” tends to think of the Guyana and US ex­ec­u­tive-type pres­i­dent, who is both head of state and head of gov­ern­ment, ex­er­cis­es con­trol over the Cab­i­net and oth­er arms of gov­ern­ment, and is in­volved in the day to day run­ning of the coun­try,” Pres­i­dent Weekes said.

She then called on the na­tion to be­come bet­ter in­formed, alert cit­i­zens.

“Cit­i­zens must be in­formed and ed­u­cat­ed—do­ing their own re­search and in­ter­ro­gat­ing their sources of in­for­ma­tion—not ac­cept­ing lock, stock and bar­rel what ap­pears in the me­dia, tra­di­tion­al or so­cial; at best that can be a jump-off point for fur­ther read­ing and in­ves­ti­ga­tion and the form­ing of their own rea­soned opin­ion,” she said.

Pres­i­dent Weekes went on to call on cit­i­zens to voice and con­vey con­cerns to elect­ed of­fi­cials by at­tend­ing pub­lic con­sul­ta­tions, cre­at­ing plat­forms where none ex­ist or are ac­ces­si­ble to ad­vo­cat­ing for is­sues, and to vote.

Weekes added, “In the process, be pre­pared to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty. Na­tion-build­ing is no task for the faint­heart­ed and full im­mer­sion by every cit­i­zen is re­quired if we are to ful­fil our po­ten­tial as a Re­pub­lic.”

PM Row­ley’s mes­sage to par­ents

Mean­while, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, in his Re­pub­lic Day mes­sage, al­so called on cit­i­zens to re­main vig­i­lant in the face of mis­in­for­ma­tion.

“A de­mo­c­ra­t­ic Re­pub­lic caters for al­ter­na­tive points of view, but not those that de­lib­er­ate­ly dis­tort and un­der­mine the le­git­i­ma­cy and ef­fec­tive­ness of its own po­lit­i­cal sys­tem,” Row­ley said.

Row­ley said the coun­try can cite in­ci­dents of tol­er­ance for dif­fer­ences and gen­er­al ac­cep­tance, rather than re­jec­tion and alien­ation of an­oth­er group.

He de­clined to touch on the state of the econ­o­my, in­stead leav­ing that for the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance dur­ing his Bud­get speech on Mon­day. How­ev­er, he said with the coun­try’s de­pen­dence on oil, gas and the en­er­gy sec­tor, he hoped cit­i­zens, when they de­mand wage and salary in­creas­es, will un­der­stand clear­ly that this coun­try is on­ly a small vul­ner­a­ble unit in a large, volatile in­ter­na­tion­al mar­ket.

Dr Row­ley gave ad­vice to par­ents, telling them to help boys and girls—from very ear­ly—to search for their call­ing in life.

“Help your chil­dren to search for a pur­pose­ful life, rather than be adrift, with­out mean­ing—than turn­ing to crime, vi­o­lence and ul­ti­mate­ly ear­ly death,” he said.