Faced by opposition criticisms of the 2025/2026 budget, a tight balancing revenue-expenditure challenge, persistent public safety concerns, the controversial Caricom disconnect and realignment, and perhaps most rattling of all, squeezed in the precarious middle of “war-like tensions” between the US and close neighbour Venezuela, this government faces pressure from inside out.
Facing “rumours of war,” both PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Foreign Affairs Minister Sean Sobers told the nation last week, “Keep calm, nothing to fear,” this country not going to war.
The government will have to continue bolstering its battery of political skills, public policies and communication strategies to stand its ground and overcome the pressures, especially in an atmosphere of rumours and misinformation.
First, a word about the budget, which promised “economic fairness, through accountable fiscal policies.” Given the financial and broken economic infrastructure he inherited, the 60-year-old lawyer-economist Davendranath Tancoo emerged with quite a reasonable first national budget.
In fact, when the figures are examined, it seems that while the Opposition could criticise government’s policies, it may wish to explain why, for example, real GDP went from 3.7 per cent growth in 2014 to 2.5 per cent in 2024. (GDP went from $187 billion in 2014 to $154.9 billion in 2024.)
Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles really has an uphill task.
Was it only because of the downstream effects of diminished oil and gas supply? The budget also revealed that the debt owed to foreign and local creditors increased by “over 100 per cent” from 2014 to 2024 ($69.7 billion to $140.7 billion), contributing to a debt service charge of ten per cent of the country’s revenue.
Were this and more due to the “PNM’s mismanagement and waste,” as Mr Tancoo alleged?
These are some of the public-interest issues which should be debated in Parliament.
Why again, did employment go down from 636,00 in 2014 to 566,200 in 2024 (a 70,000 job loss)?
One “people-happy” budget item is the $1-per-litre reduction in super gas.
The UNC government closed down the CEPEP and URP programmes because of their harbouring criminal gangs, political corruption and an inefficient, disreputable labour force. Mr Tancoo explained that his government plans to provide “full-time, better-paid jobs” supported by $475 million from the Employment Fund and a further $310 million for job creation.
Surprisingly, Tobago kept the two programmes. The Opposition will naturally keep an eye on this.
The CEPEP and URP “surplus” labour cannot really have this as permanent work. Secondly, it was designed around 1960 as temporary “crash programme” work, but became a political pawn, manipulated by the ruling party, and tolerated for its corruption.
For this and other reasons, these workers, usually finishing work before lunchtime, lost dignity and public respect. It is time to remove them, free them, from such political captivity. They will be better off with “full-time, better-paid jobs.”
Now, the budget, like the economy itself, is connected to crime. When an economy slows down significantly, with a widened rich-poor gap, the consequent stress in the society leads to divided blaming, protest and group conflict, especially in multiracial societies. Losing what you already have is worse than if you have nothing at all. Civic bonds break.
The recent significant increase in the PM’s and other politicians’ salaries, while giving labour unions much, much less, triggered memorable political resentment. This, too, is where the economics of crime become troubling. Feelings of relative deprivation and unfairness have dangerous civic consequences. PNM MP Colm Imbert was right when he said on September 10 the PNM government “made too many stupid mistakes.”
Now for the Caricom and Venezuela issues. Was our PM’s remark that Caricom is an “unreliable partner” misinterpreted, as she now claims? I see this for now as a family quarrel, especially with the government’s rush to assist Jamaica with hurricane damage.
PM Persad-Bissessar finds herself between a rock and a hard place. She supports the US’s deadly crackdown on alleged illegal drugs trafficking. It was the US that requested, according to Minister of Defence Wayne Sturge, to dock its warship in Port of Spain, amid the fears of our nearest neighbour, Venezuela.
President Nicolás Maduro’s parliament branded the PM persona non grata, that is, not allowed into Venezuela. The US ship has now left. Since then Maduro has reportedly requested this country to “unite” with Venezuela in preventing any attack from the US.
From drawn swords, olive branches are now out. Since this geopolitical situation is fluid, warlike speculation may well be off the mark.
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