Gov­er­nance in any de­vel­op­ing na­tion, es­pe­cial­ly one with the com­plex­i­ties, pas­sions, and re­silience of Trinidad and To­ba­go, re­quires more than rou­tine ad­min­is­tra­tion. It de­mands ac­tion-dri­ven gov­er­nance, lead­er­ship that doesn’t just sit in the cock­pit, but one that flies the plane while fix­ing its bro­ken sys­tems mid-air. This metaphor en­cap­su­lates the re­al­i­ty of our gov­er­nance space, where in­her­it­ed chal­lenges, pub­lic dis­con­tent, and fis­cal con­straints must be nav­i­gat­ed si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly with bold­ness, pur­pose, and un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to the peo­ple.

As the 2025–2026 Na­tion­al Bud­get has been laid be­fore the Par­lia­ment, the na­tion’s ex­pec­ta­tions are high. Cit­i­zens are not mere­ly lis­ten­ing for fig­ures, they are lis­ten­ing for faith, trust, and hope.

Af­ter years of eco­nom­ic tur­bu­lence, ris­ing costs of liv­ing, and weak­ened pub­lic con­fi­dence, the peo­ple are yearn­ing for ev­i­dence that this Gov­ern­ment not on­ly hears them but feels their strug­gle. This is where the true test of lead­er­ship lies, not in de­liv­er­ing well-script­ed speech­es, but in ex­e­cut­ing well-de­fined goals that trans­form lives.

For too long, gov­er­nance has been eval­u­at­ed by the num­ber of projects ini­ti­at­ed or the size of cap­i­tal ex­pen­di­ture al­lo­cat­ed to in­fra­struc­ture. While roads, bridges, and build­ings are nec­es­sary, they are not the ul­ti­mate mea­sure of progress. Peo­ple are.

The moth­ers in Laven­tille who strug­gle to feed their chil­dren, the youth in Moru­ga search­ing for op­por­tu­ni­ty, the pen­sion­er in Ari­ma fac­ing ris­ing costs of med­i­cine, they are the true in­di­ca­tors of na­tion­al well-be­ing.

Ac­tion dri­ven gov­er­nance must there­fore tran­si­tion from be­ing project-cen­tred to peo­ple-cen­tred. It re­quires un­der­stand­ing that the suc­cess of every ini­tia­tive must be mea­sured not by com­ple­tion cer­tifi­cates, but by im­pact. Did this project im­prove liveli­hoods? Did it gen­er­ate em­ploy­ment? Did it re­store dig­ni­ty and faith in the sys­tem? If not, then the mis­sion has failed, no mat­ter how pol­ished the re­port.

Gov­er­nance with­out clear, mea­sur­able goals is like fly­ing with­out in­stru­ments. Min­is­ters and min­istries must adopt an ex­e­cu­tion mind­set where every de­ci­sion aligns with a na­tion­al ob­jec­tive and every pol­i­cy out­come can be tracked, au­dit­ed, and pub­licly com­mu­ni­cat­ed.

The time has come to set na­tion­al per­for­mance goals for crime re­duc­tion, ed­u­ca­tion trans­for­ma­tion, health­care de­liv­ery, so­cial in­ter­ven­tion, and dig­i­tal mod­erni­sa­tion and pur­sue them re­lent­less­ly. This is not about po­lit­i­cal show­man­ship; it’s about strate­gic gov­er­nance. The mod­ern cit­i­zen is in­formed, ob­ser­vant, and con­nect­ed. They no longer want promis­es, they want progress.

The Prime Min­is­ter and Cab­i­net must there­fore lead a cul­ture of ex­e­cu­tion­al ex­cel­lence. Min­istries should func­tion as mis­sion com­mand cen­tres, fo­cused, co­or­di­nat­ed, and mea­sur­able. Per­ma­nent Sec­re­taries must en­sure ac­count­abil­i­ty and con­ti­nu­ity of op­er­a­tions. Pub­lic ser­vants must be em­pow­ered to in­no­vate and de­liv­er. The pub­lic must see Gov­ern­ment in mo­tion, not just in dis­cus­sion.

Every ad­min­is­tra­tion in­her­its the cry of those ne­glect­ed by pre­vi­ous regimes. These are the voic­es of cit­i­zens who have be­come dis­il­lu­sioned with pol­i­tics, dis­trust­ful of promis­es, and dis­tant from the in­sti­tu­tions meant to serve them. Ac­tion-dri­ven gov­er­nance be­gins with the hu­mil­i­ty to lis­ten, to tru­ly hear the pain, frus­tra­tion, and fa­tigue of the peo­ple.

Lead­ers must walk among the peo­ple, not mere­ly for pho­to op­por­tu­ni­ties, but to un­der­stand. Lis­ten­ing ses­sions, con­stituen­cy vis­its, and com­mu­ni­ty fo­rums must be­come the norm. Min­istries must adopt a “voice-to-pol­i­cy” frame­work, where feed­back di­rect­ly in­forms de­ci­sion-mak­ing. If the peo­ple’s cry is for wa­ter, em­ploy­ment, and safe­ty, then the gov­ern­ment’s agen­da must re­flect that ur­gency, not ab­stract macro­eco­nom­ic pro­jec­tions.

In this re­gard, em­pa­thy be­comes a tool of state­craft. Lead­er­ship with­out em­pa­thy breeds dis­con­nec­tion. Gov­er­nance with­out em­pa­thy be­comes tyran­ny masked as ef­fi­cien­cy. The peo­ple want to know that their gov­ern­ment not on­ly gov­erns over them but with them. The call for trans­paren­cy is no longer a po­lit­i­cal slo­gan it’s a moral im­per­a­tive.

Cit­i­zens de­mand to know where funds are al­lo­cat­ed, how con­tracts are award­ed, and when promis­es will be ful­filled. Min­is­ters must be pre­pared to de­fend, jus­ti­fy, and ac­count for every dol­lar of the 2025–2026 Bud­get, not de­fen­sive­ly, but con­fi­dent­ly. Trans­paren­cy builds trust, and trust builds le­git­i­ma­cy.

Avail­abil­i­ty is an­oth­er cor­ner­stone. The era of dis­tant min­is­ters must end. A peo­ple-cen­tred gov­ern­ment must be ac­ces­si­ble, both phys­i­cal­ly and dig­i­tal­ly. Pub­lic in­for­ma­tion should be eas­i­ly ob­tain­able, gov­ern­ment ser­vices must be re­spon­sive and ef­fi­cient. The min­is­ter’s of­fice must be a hub of lis­ten­ing and ac­tion, not iso­la­tion and bu­reau­cra­cy.

Above all, em­pa­thy must guide the tone of lead­er­ship. It is em­pa­thy that al­lows a min­is­ter to un­der­stand why a de­layed grant mat­ters to a strug­gling moth­er, or why a mal­func­tion­ing health clin­ic rep­re­sents more than in­ef­fi­cien­cy, it rep­re­sents loss of faith in gov­er­nance. Em­pa­thy trans­lates lead­er­ship in­to hu­man­i­ty.

The chal­lenges fac­ing our na­tion are not imag­i­nary, they are im­me­di­ate and in­tense. Eco­nom­ic pres­sure, crim­i­nal net­works, cy­berthreats, youth dis­en­chant­ment, and so­cial in­equal­i­ty test the en­durance of any ad­min­is­tra­tion. But these chal­lenges al­so present an op­por­tu­ni­ty to strength­en the na­tion’s pos­ture and re­silience.

Pos­ture speaks to at­ti­tude and fo­cus. Re­silience speaks to the abil­i­ty to adapt and sus­tain progress de­spite tur­bu­lence. To “fix the plane while air­borne” is to ac­knowl­edge that per­fec­tion is un­at­tain­able but progress is non-ne­go­tiable. It means con­fronting sys­temic weak­ness­es with­out ground­ing the na­tion’s de­vel­op­ment. Every min­istry must there­fore em­body re­silience, quick to learn, flex­i­ble in re­sponse, and stead­fast in pur­pose. Mis­takes will oc­cur, but lessons must be im­me­di­ate. Ac­tion-dri­ven gov­er­nance is not about per­fec­tion; it’s about con­sis­tent, adap­tive im­prove­ment.

As min­is­ters pre­pare to ar­tic­u­late and de­fend their bud­get al­lo­ca­tions, they must do so with clar­i­ty of pur­pose and sin­cer­i­ty of heart. Every fig­ure, every project, every ini­tia­tive must con­nect to a hu­man out­come. The peo­ple are watch­ing, not just to crit­i­cise, but to be­lieve again. To see that gov­ern­ment can work for them and not against them.

Each min­istry must be­come a bea­con of ac­count­abil­i­ty. Per­ma­nent sec­re­taries and tech­nocrats must em­brace a re­sults-ori­ent­ed man­age­ment sys­tem. Re­ports should not just jus­ti­fy ex­pen­di­ture but demon­strate mea­sur­able so­cial im­pact. This is how gov­er­nance evolves, from ad­min­is­tra­tion to trans­for­ma­tion.

Fix­ing the plane while air­borne is not about chaos, it’s about courage. It’s about know­ing that even as we soar through storms of eco­nom­ic un­cer­tain­ty and po­lit­i­cal scep­ti­cism, we can still re­cal­i­brate our in­stru­ments, re­in­force our wings, and reach our des­ti­na­tion. It’s about trust­ing the process of trans­for­ma­tion while nev­er los­ing sight of the pas­sen­gers, the peo­ple.

In this new bud­getary cy­cle, let our gov­er­nance be dri­ven not by in­er­tia but by in­ten­tion. Let our lead­ers em­body trans­paren­cy, avail­abil­i­ty, and em­pa­thy. Let every dol­lar spent trans­late in­to dig­ni­ty re­stored.

Let the na­tion see, not just words, but work. Be­cause in the end, ac­tion-dri­ven gov­er­nance is not about fix­ing every­thing at once. It’s about tak­ing flight, even when the odds seem heavy, and prov­ing that lead­er­ship, re­al lead­er­ship, can fix the plane while it’s air­borne.