The UNC should hold public consultations as it takes up office as the new government.
That's the view from the Movement of Social Justice, which says expectation on the ground is high and it would take a lot of strategising in order to deliver to the people.
00:00Movement for Social Justice leader David Abdullah believes the United National Congress ran an effective election campaign.
00:07According to him, the sweeping result the party attained had a lot to do with citizens being disenchanted by the People's National Movement in a country, he says, that was clamoring for change.
00:18Abdullah adds that managing expectations is important based on the promises made.
00:24Some of those things can be delivered. The easier ones, OK, you want to deliver laptops.
00:30Yes, if you want to give grants to mothers who are having babies, those things are relatively easy, not hugely expensive.
00:38Other things become more problematic.
00:40If you want to reduce corporation tax, you want to cut out property tax, you want to cut out taxes on senior citizens' pensions and so on.
00:49Those things then have significant impacts on your fiscal deficit, your budget deficit.
00:56For that, he says it is important to create new streams of revenue.
01:00The MSJ is putting forward one idea on how the new government should go about knowing what to prioritize.
01:06There needs to be, or I would suggest that there is a more participatory process so that you have consultations with the public on the issues that matter to them.
01:17As for what some young people are expecting to see?
01:22They're expecting, you know, for the problems that we've been having as youths to be addressed.
01:27So they're expecting women on jobs, they're expecting all the promises that she made in terms of funding for further education and for textbooks and for all the other things that she said.
01:40They have the expectation that it will be promised because across the street they were saying that the code is yellow.
01:45With the 26 seats the UNC now holds and the two TPP Tobago seats falling outside of the PNM opposition, which has 13 seats,
01:56the MSJ indicates that it creates an atmosphere for meaningful and fundamental legislative changes to be made.
02:03Criminal justice reform is one area, while campaign finance reform can be another.
02:09The latter, Abdullah says the country might have to demand.
02:11Some of those things, that could be done quickly, if they have the political will.
02:17But I don't know if they do because the UNC had a huge amount of money in this election, right?
02:22And I don't know that they want all of their sources of funds to be disclosed in the future.
02:27Not can't go backwards, but disclose going forward.
02:30According to Abdullah, Tobago is also better positioned to push for its autonomy.
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