THAT the political parties in Parliament have reached the precipice of a ‘no confidence’ vote is not the triumph or bragging rights of any one party but rather it is the failure of all of them to move this country forward.

The new dispensation after 2011 where none of the parties has a majority in Parliament makes it incumbent on them to find some means of working together to further the development of this country. From my early days I have always been hearing of our vast potential but it still remains a stored energy yet to flower.
The irony of all of this is that we made one of the most progressive changes to our constitution when we limited each President to two terms. This gives each of our elected leaders a unique chance to influence the course of our history. Our system which is now comparable to United States on this score has seen some heavily underrated past Presidents of that country leaving an indelible mark on world events. Take for example President Harry Truman that became president on the death of Franklyn Roosevelt. On his election campaign in 1948, everyone thought that he would have been defeated which led to one of the biggest gaffe in newspaper history when the Chicago Tribune prematurely printed the headline “Dewey defeats Truman”. Truman went on to rebuild Europe after WW2 through the Marshall Plan, create the United Nations and NATO, gave aid to Turkey and Greece that gave birth to the Truman Doctrine , recommended Medicare and faced the momentous decision whether to use the atomic bomb. All of his actions have helped shaped the world we live in today whether positively or negatively.
In the same way I think our President is faced with the chance to bring us back from the abyss of this ‘No Confidence’ vote and display the imaginative skills to bring all and sundry to the table and work out a solution to move the country forward based on equality, inclusiveness and fair play. Over to you now Mr. President.

REGGIE BHAGWANDIN