Column: The future is ours to control

On an overcast Winter morning in Toronto one might argue that I am too far away to feel the warmth of the (rising) sun in Trinidad and Tobago or to understand the critical issues that face our nation.

I say "our" because although I live and work in Canada and am a Canadian citizen, I am and will always be a Trini. Trinidad and Tobago never stopped being my home and it will always be home.

That's why I created this blog as a non-profit effort to try to make sense out of what's happening at home so that others like me would read and understand the critical issues taking place back home.

And who can say that what's happening in Trinidad and Tobago's politics is not important? That's why this blog devotes so much space to politics and politicians.

And the story with which I am preoccupied these days is the state of the United National Congress (UNC) and its convulsions as it tries to redefine itself and reposition itself as a government in waiting.

In 2007, the party rose from its near death experience, proved all the political pundits wrong and won 15 of the 41 seats in the House of Representatives; the infant Congress of the People (COP) won none.

That should have been a signal to move on quickly, to seize the opportunity to
re-brand itself as the people's party and work towards challenging the government every step of the way to do its job.

Instead, the party engaged in its usual narcissism and set itself on a path of self- destruction. Ego and self-interest became the order of the day, while Patrick Manning went on an orgy of maladministration, plundering the treasury, and showing absolute disdain for the citizens and their legitimate concerns.

In short, like Nero, the UNC fiddled while Rome burned. The central issue has been whether the party would be doomed to exist in opposition in perpetuity or whether it could return to Whitehall.

The consensus was that it had to change, but the man who pushed that idea soon became demonized and a pariah for daring to challenge the UNC status quo. While some of his parliamentary colleagues silently agreed with Jack Warner, only two dared stand with him.

Today, that so-called Ramjack group has been disbanded, having achieved its principal aim of getting the party to hold long-overdue internal elections. And one Ramjack member and other MP have not only agreed that change is vital, they is doing the unthinkable; Ramesh L. Maharaj and Kamla Persad-Bissessar are challenging Basdeo Panday for the leadership of the UNC.

Warner is seeking the chairmanship, hoping that in that role he could use his local, regional and international expertise to reorganize and create a highly effective and professional organization and move on to plan a strategy to win an election, not get a few seats and remain in opposition. So far nobody else, as far as I know, is running for that post.

In past party elections the common strategy has been to have parties within the party with the campaigns becoming so caustic and divisive that cliques developed that hurt the organization later.

Just look at the Team Unity slate that Maharaj mounted in the 2000 election that saw him being elected as Deputy Leader. I was in Trinidad during that campaign and on reflection cannot believe that the people who opposed one another were of the same party with the same mission and vision. It was just a race for who could win.

Today the party is engaged once more in an exercise to elect members of a new executive and a political leader. Panday has said he wants to run with a slate of people with whom he could work comfortably.

That's his right, as it is the right of the two other leadership contenders, Persad-Bissessar and Maharaj. But will such a strategy build a better UNC?

A leader or a chairman of the UNC must immediately get to work to heal wounds and rebuild the party. And no matter who wins, the task will be an extremely demanding one. But a series of competing slates will be unproductive if those who seek office insist of each getting "a pick-up side" for the election.

The best strategy for the party today would be individuals who feel they are competent to hold office and have the capacity to make a difference to put their names on the ballot. Each person running for office would in effect be an independent.

It does not mean one person cannot endorse another. For example, Warner has endorsed Persad-Bissessar but both she and the Chaguanas MP have stated publicly that their campaigns are independent.

That makes sense, because when the campaigns are over there will only be one leader, one chairman and one person holding each of the other posts.

All of these men and women will have to work together to heal wounds, unify the party and develop strategies to make a new UNC that would be strong and capable of undertaking its responsibilities of making the government accountable to the citizens and eventually taking charge of the government in a general election, which could come long before it is due in 2012.

The UNC cannot pretend that if there are two or three "slates" running in this campaign there won't be the usual nastiness that we have seen before; we are already hearing it.

The party must avoid at all costs the risk of the election creating pockets of interest groups that would become cancerous and threaten the very existence of the UNC.

That is why Panday, Warner, Persad-Bissessar, Maharaj and all those who want to lead the party must stand up for the people, the party and its vision for Trinidad and Tobago.

They must do all they can to avoid the kind of campaign that we have seen in the past, with the resulting bitterness and divisiveness that have caused the party to reach the point of implosion more than once.

The UNC must be bigger than the individual and must stand up for justice, fairness, equality and accountability. It must do it in its own house before trying to fix the nation's problems.

The past is gone forever, and it is the duty and responsibility for UNC politicians running for office to understand that it cannot be business as usual.

Now is time to look to the future and to focus on the task at hand, which is to build a national party, unite the opposition forces and take on Patrick Manning and the People's National Movement (PNM) and win.

Now is the time to renew and rebuild. The challenges are enormous, but so are the possibilities. The past is gone forever but the future is ours to control.

Jai Parasram | Toronto, Dec. 26, 2009