THE EDITOR: Perhaps I may have missed some of the performances of our seventh prime minister, Dr Keith Rowley. So, I am deeply disappointed with most of what has been available in the media.

My disappointment stems from an expectation that our political analysts would present assessments based on three principal expectations:

▪︎ His contribution to educating and enhancing a general understanding of the principles of governance in the democratic process.

▪︎ The extent to which the country has progressed/regressed economically.

▪︎ Changes in the quality of life enjoyed by the citizenry during his tenure.

Unfortunately, the marked absence of meaningful assessments reflects negatively not only on the esteemed analysts, but also points to an urgent need for education in governance, as well as in the meaning of the democratic process to us as citizens.

Qualitatively, would analysts agree that over the last ten years the average citizen has experienced an improved quality of life measured by access to food, housing, health, education, and security?

Has the economy been transformed to a stronger position measured by trade export (physical and virtual)? Additionally, has there greater security in terms of our ability to feed ourselves from our domestic production or, alternatively, in sourced food chains?

Have we experienced an improved quality in the availability of education and health services to a larger percentage of our population?

Finally, has there been a positive trend towards an integrated Caribbean for delivery of goods and services to all in that community?

These expectations are premised on the simple need to disabuse our minds of the commonly held view that we are "children who need to be taken care of" by either a benevolent dictator or an avuncular and indulgent benefactor.

The most urgent and significant need remains in education. Citizens must understand that adults must assume individual responsibilities for their own destiny. The political process merely seeks to task an identified group with the onerous responsibility of democratically creating conditions to allow that process to take place.

That process can best be accomplished only when there is majority respect for an agreed set of laws and order, commonly referred to as the Constitution.

SAMUEL B HOWARD

St Joseph

The post Disappointing assessments of Dr Rowley appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.