Caribbean Net News: Trinidad and Tobago president warns against country falling into failed state

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad: President of Trinidad and Tobago, Professor George Maxwell Richards has warned against the country descending into a failed state.

The President sounded the warning as he addressed nationals on Monday during a public presidential inauguration ceremony in Port of Spain, where he was sworn in for a second term as the country's fourth head of state.

Trinidad and Tobago's President George Maxwell Richards

"States are regarded as successful on the basis of economics. But that is not enough. The world calls a failed state one in which there is war, where there is famine and where there is social disaster. We do not fit that profile. However, there is evidence when we consider crime, education, lose alienation inter-alia to lead us to recognize that the underpinnings of strong statehood are not as sound as they should be and that concerns lie not with the old and the generations that have had their opportunity to speak and to do, but with the generations that are yet to have such opportunity. It is for this reason that this inauguration focuses on the generations that have to solve the problems that have been created," Richards said in a ten-minute speech.

Richards went on the say that the core problem was the failure of social cohesion in a country, which however small it might be, has had the opportunity to create an environment in which the widest variety of cultures have been able to speak to one another to acknowledge their independence and their uniqueness and to live together in peace in spite of their differences.

The president also spoke about what he saw as the importance of having a public event on his swearing in.

"Let me say this. The decision to open this event to the general public was not taken lightly. I am firmly of the view that the nation as a whole, must be more aware of the ceremonials and their meaning that are part of the official activities of our country. They are not as some might suppose, useless pump,", Richards told a large crowd, as he responded to some comments made earlier that said to have such a public event was a waste of time and money.

The act was also a move away from tradition. The general public had never before been invited to witness the oath of office being taken by a head of state in the country.

Meanwhile, among the guests invited were Professor Sir Kenneth Hall, Governor General of Jamaica and Lady Hall were among specially invited guests. Two former presidents to Trinidad and Tobago, Sir Ellis Clarke and Arthur N.R. Robinson, Chief Justice Ivor Archie, Prime Minister Patrick Manning, other government officials, representatives of religious organizations along with thousands of the nation's school children.

On another issue, the country's first Prime Minister, Dr Eric Williams was also remembered for a statement he made saying that the future of the nation was in the school bags of the children. Richards said it was his duty to reach out the children in a similar context. "Those school bags must contain the institutional basis of statehood. And without these we can only become failed states," the president added.

He went on to say that in our situation hydrocarbon money is supposed to be enough to save us from starvation and consequent social malaise but that is no so. Economic deprivation is a powerful provocation to the failure of states. He said, unless the institutions of the people are sound, coherent and, if you will, reading from the same page we are not going to succeed.