The caller was understandably irate! He couldn’t fathom the thought of Yours Truly, a black West Indian, working for what he termed “the Indian party” in Trinidad and Tobago. Indeed, he went as far as to suggest that I was “selling out the race”.
On the surface and from his vantage point, I guess he could and should be forgiven for such simplicity. But what I encountered in Trinidad over the past six weeks was not a case of black, Indian or Chinese in need of assistance or opportunity; it was a people feeling in bondage and yearning for liberation.
I wrote six weeks ago that it has not been my practice to comment on election campaigns in which I am professionally involved. The simple reason is that I would, quite naturally, be subjective in my thinking and as a rule, I prefer to stay below the radar. However, in this particular instance, I had warned three days prior to the dissolution of Parliament that had Prime Minister Patrick Manning followed through with his threat to ‘ring the bell” he would have been annihilated at the polls.
I made that calculated judgment from a safe distance of several hundred thousand miles and also against the backdrop of not having been seized of all the issues that lay at the feet of the Trinidadian voter. However, the minute the parliament was dissolved and my services were engaged, I knew, beyond a shadow of doubt, that Patrick Manning’s goose was cooked. Indeed, I expected mutiny in the camp, but the ostracisation of Keith Rowley and the silence of party elders made matters worse.
How did I know that Manning was going to lose? I reflected on Kenny Anthony’s lost in St. Lucia, Keith Mitchell’s defeat in Grenada and Owen Arthur’s drubbing in Barbados. Patrick Manning, I knew way back then, was on that said slippery, sliding slope and was heading for the same outcome, particularly as his charge sheet was much longer.
An intellectual discourse on this subject would be welcomed at some point in the coming months, but for the purpose of simplicity and easy understanding by ‘the average man’, I would say that Patrick Manning and the three aforementioned leaders woke up one morning and found themselves booted out of office, because they had long lost contact with and relevance to the voter.
No matter how good a driver you are, if you do not keep the passenger informed and mindful of the destination, he or she will soon lose interest and begin to question your agenda and indeed your competence to navigate the path forward. When arrogance and dictatorial practices are thrown into the pot, it makes for almost certain political death. Patrick Manning, in Trinidad and Tobago, could be likened to the pilot in the cockpit of a plane flying at maximum speed, at the highest of altitudes, with no passenger on the plane having knowledge of or appreciation for his intended destination. All they knew was that the weather was declining, turbulence was beginning to impact and the journey was no longer pleasurable. In such circumstances, it would not have taken a rocket scientist to know and foretell that at the earliest opportunity they would have removed and replaced that captain.
Battle wounds are still fresh, so I will not use such words as arrogant, conceited, self opinionated, autocratic or dictatorial. While being apt, they would be viewed by some as uncharitable under the circumstances.
What I would say is that any electorate in the Caribbean faced with the scenario that Trinidadians were faced with in Monday’s elections, would have thrown the incumbent government and its leader overboard, just as the Trinis did.
There were issues of squander mania, mystifying priorities in terms of capital projects and downright corruption that proved impossible to gloss over. But, what brought the Manning regime down were its growing irrelevance, annoyance and embarrassment to an increasing number of Trinidadians. The government, or should I say, the governance of the country, was simply not making sense. Manning had lost his way and he was becoming a frightening proposition to many. His contempt for opposition forces and their ability to unite was ill-advised and eventually proved suicidal.
Men like Makandal Dagga, Errol McCleod, Ashworth Jack and particularly Winston Dookeran were at the stage in their political and professional lives where all they really wanted was the best for Trinidad and Tobago. That is why they readily yielded personal ambition and self interest to the magnetic, unifying personality of Kamla Persad-Bissessar. Their goal was simply to remove Manning and give Trinidad new hope!
When political leaders reach the stage where there is less of self and more of patriotism, it is time for opponents to beware. Winston Dookeran threw his all in that campaign because he knew that this was the moment in time when true greatness would be determined. You do not always have to win to prove your worth. Sometimes, in horse racing for example, the horse bearing the jockey that displayed the greatest skill and judgment, places last, but still, that particular genius is talked about long after the trophy has been presented and the victor leaves the winner’s enclosure.
Patrick Manning was too blind to see he was fighting a group of patriots who had nothing to lose and all to gain by contributing to his demise. By calling that election when he did, he constructed a gallows, created a noose and stupidly hung himself.
This writer will not venture to anticipate what will become of Trinidad and Tobago as a result of this change of government, but what is clear is that the people of that country now have a leader they love and they believe they can trust. She is competent. She is aware of and sensitive to their needs. She has the required human and financial resources at her disposal to get the job done. All that is left now is for her to deliver!
As for the question of ethnicity, I frankly do not believe it mattered to many on this occasion. A people that is ostracized and removed from national decision making is a people that will put country above all else, and that is precisely what the voters of Trinidad and Tobago did in last Monday’s general election.
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