Taking me for a ride
January 19, 2003
by Dr Winford James
Not for the first time, the PNM have offended me in its exercise of executive power. In last year's general election, they promised me a $100 reduction in the fare on the domestic airbridge, but they proceeded this month to arrange things in such a way as to keep the $300 fare in place while telling me that I could now pay $200. They could now say, as they did in the budget in respect of other promises, 'Promised, Delivered!' Delivered, when I am still paying $300. If this is not offensive mamaguy, what is?
One of their most egregious offences was the dismantling of the Ministry of Tobago Affairs in 1978 in the long aftermath of their loss to Robinson's DAC in the general elections of 1976. They lost Tobago then and, in an ignominious act of calculated petty vengeance and in clear contradiction of the PNM's claim of being a champion of free conscience, Williams decided to punish the island, me included. The punishment was grievous and ubiquitous, and, among other ways, it hurt me in postponing payment of my salary as a secondary school teacher for at least three months. I had started a family then and had a young homemaking wife and a brand-new baby girl not yet toddling, and so I was forced into the indignity (at that stage of our social evolution) and illegality of pulling bull or running PH, that is, using my private car as an H-car or taxi.
I have a good laugh now at the memory of myself, a respected teacher at Signal Hill Senior Comprehensive, driving slowly along the roadway and soliciting commuters with a finger gesture, and being confronted by some of them with the innocent question, 'You taking anything, teach?'.
The virtual non-reduction of the airfare is not financially embarrassing to me now, but it is nonetheless an act of deception and mamaguy. When the PNM made their promise on the campaign trail, they attached no strings to it. It was a plain, straightforward undertaking in a context that included a poor ferry service, falling levels of tourist arrivals, and long-suffering commuters, especially those resident in Tobago. It was no doubt included in the parade of promises in order to make sure that the party retained its hold of the two Tobago seats and thereby give us respite from the vile corruption of the UNC administration. But having won power, they have reverted to the reflex of unsubtle deception when faced with the less emotional realities of financial management at the level of the cabinet.
And so, not unexpectedly but disappointingly nonetheless, they began breaksing in the implementation of the promise. They would subsidise the fare by $100 and give us a fare of $200, but we would have to book our tickets seven days in advance. If we failed to travel on the booked date (and at the booked time?) and wanted to travel on a later date, we would have to either book again and travel seven days later or, if we wanted to travel within the seven-day period, forfeit the subsidy and pay an additional $100. The only way we could enjoy the promised fare was to travel on the date we booked seven days in advance.
So having promised us a fare of $200 without any strings attached, the PNM were now attaching the serpentine string of a seven-day booking. In other words, they were predicating their fulfilment of the promise on a grievous constraint on our freedom of movement.
Now, the PNM know, like everybody else, that, largely because of the socio-economic imbalance between the two islands, the airbridge is a thouroughfare where obtaining a seat is routinely a matter of either booking so that you will have a guarantee or simply turning up at the airport and getting one on as a stand-by commuter. It is almost like taking a taxi into Port of Spain from some distant district like Toco or Penal. Almost. The routineness of travel has meant that there is no real need, apart from the need for a guarantee of travel, for booking in advance, much less seven days in advance. So if we are now required to book seven days in advance to enjoy the subsidy, it must be that the PNM are deliberately going against their knowledge of the state of affairs and imposing an unreasonable constraint on our lives.
I am sure they have their reasons, but in a not unsurprising display of secrecy and lack of transparency, they have not published them. But from a conversation with one of their ministers, I have been able to glean the following, which may or may not be their official position. There is a lot of inefficient travel on the airbridge, especially by the representatives of companies and other organisations, and government cannot be expected to, and will not, subsidise inefficiency of this kind. Further, government is investing a great deal of money on Tobago, in particular on the tourism industry. It has taken three initiatives in particular which must be associated to the seven-day constraint on the $200 fare: extensions to the Crown Point airport at a cost of $TT75M; construction of the Parlatuvier-Charlotteville link road at a cost of $TT40M; and expenditure of $TT304M on tourism-related projects, whose precise nature escapes me at the time of writing.
These initiatives are additional post-election strings to the promise. The message they are supposed to contain is that we shouldn't make a fuss over any difficulty we may be put to in accessing the $200 fare. It is as if they were not also promises made on the hustings.
I am willing to bet good money on the assessment that so far very few commuters have benefited from the new fare scheme and that things continue as they were before its introduction. I am also persuaded that the vast majority of commuters, especially Tobagonians, are very displeased at the mamaguy they have been subjected to. A deal is a deal.
PM Manning has said in response to reactions like mine that the fare scheme will be reviewed. He is being politically correct after the unforced blunder. To make things right, he must remove the punitive, onerous seven-day constraint. After all, the fare is in respect of necessary and frequent travel by commuters with small incomes on a very small airbridge in a very small twin-island state.
He must deliver on this one as well.
Part II
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