While this country's democracy lazily remains a work in progress, the warning must go out: there are increasing cracks being shown, alongside rising public resentment against political insensitivity.
Therefore, the role of the relevant authorities is to heal the breaches, attract public confidence in the political system by good example, sacrifice and performance. Transparency and accountability are seriously required.
But before applying 'solutions,' it will be useful to have a clearer understanding of what the country's challenges are beyond economics alone. Since 1956, political management has been a key driver, up or down, of this country's development.
The political leadership in the 70s lost a golden opportunity by derailing the report of the 1974 Wooding Constitution Reform Commission. That report had enough political and intellectual content to stimulate a sustained public discussion on making this multicultural society a better, decolonised place.
Under Express manager Ken Gordon's encouragement, I recall writing an extended series in the Sunday Express on the Wooding Report to help attract public discussion. Lloyd Best tried too, by his lecture at the Port of Spain library. But, like the coal pot and bicycle, those ole-time days seem 'gone and past.' We need a revival of intellectual discourse for the way forward.
In this nation-building regard, I refer to two volatile political episodes - the US Senate hearings on the January 2021 insurrection against the US Congress, the departures of two senior UK ministers and the enforced resignation of new conservative PM Liz Truss.
The boisterous 'fight-back' by former US president Donald Trump against US Senate Committee allegations of 'instigating riots' on January 6, 2021 demonstrates how politics could be the 'art of civilised warfare.'
Indeed, that unprecedented insurrection looked ugly and even treasonable. Members had to scamper for their lives. From inside and outside America, there was big noise claiming that 'America's democracy is dying,' that 'America's political system is archaic,' etc. Russian and Chinese leaders quickly chose the January 2021 episode to claim to have a 'superior system.'
Of course, this depends on how you look at it. Whatever faults the US system has, it cannot be beaten on political accountability and transparency. And that is exactly what is now robustly undertaken by the US Senate Committee inquiring into the January 6, 2021 riot and Mr Trump's narcissistic role in it.
The system has recovered. The majority Democratic Committee provides televised transparency, fearless questions, substantial documentation and high-level appearances backed by subpoena powers. Many boats will be rocked.
All this is said as a lesson for us in democratic transparency and with specific reference to our July 27, 1990 insurrection, the meandering ways of our Parliament and courts and how the delayed commission of inquiry dealt with it. Many citizens still ask: What reall
