I have read Dr Cujoe's commentary (Rising from Rock Bottom) with deep interest and have concluded that he got it wrong. He continues to see our politics through colours and ethnicity without paying attention to the change that has truly taken place. On May 24, it was not a larger Indian population that put the People's Partnership in office. It was a mandate from the widest cross section of the country - 432,000 people who decided that Trinidad and Tobago had grown up and it was time to put ethicity behind and focus on the future of the country.
In fact if there was a vote based on race it might have very well been on the other side, which kept much of its core support. In his analysis of the PNM defeat, respected political scientist Dr Selwyn Ryan observed that "The PNM crowd was more festive and monochromatic than the coalition crowds."
There is no need to spell that out in black and brown or whatever other colours make up our rainbow nation.
Dr Cudjoe uses a lot of political statistics to make his point and goes back into the country's political history.
I agree that there had been without a doubt voting based on race in Trinidad and Tobago and that while Bhadase Sagan Maraj consolidated the Hindu vote in 1956, many Indian Muslims and Indian Christians supported the PNM.
In fact Dr Ryan, in his book "Race and Nationalism in Trinidad and Tobago" makes the point that this was a deliberate strategy by PNM founder Dr Eric Williams "to drive a wedge" and separate the different elements of the Indian population.
And both pawns in that game - Kamaluddin Mohammed and the late Dr Winston Mahabir - have admitted that publicly.
That is why, having seen the strategy in 1956, Indians of all backgrounds came together in the 1958 federal elections to beat the PNM in a fair election only to be dubbed by Williams as "a hostile and recalcitrant minority".
Following that defeat Dr Patrick Solomon made a pitch for buying voting machines to prevent Indians from ever taking power. (Whether the machines "voted" for the PNM remains highly debatable, but affidavits filed after the 1961 elections showed that at least in one case in Tobago the machines recorded more votes than the number of registered electors).
While the PNM attracted some Indian support in people like Kamal and Errol Mahabir (who were literally discarded by the Manning PNM) and later embraced Dr Lenny Saith and others, their presence was always strategic unlike what happened with the People's Partnership.
The PNM was always wary of the rise of Indians. In1976, the chairman of the state-owned Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT) made a strong recommendation to the party to keep the Indians down.
A note that Jimmy Bain wrote for the party had the hallmarks of the Solomon sentiments:
"The East Indians have increasingly acquired education and have been increasingly invading the fields of the Civil Service, the professions and the Government. As their numbers must now reach parity with people of African descent, there is a real possibility that in the not too distant future, they will get control of the Government.
"Should this time come when the East Indian section owns most of the property, business and wealth of the country as well as control of the Government...an imbalance could develop in our society that would cause undesirable stresses and strains that would not be good for the nation.
"It is an urgent necessity therefore, that all of us give serious thought to these matters, and like sensible people make a conscious effort to counter any undesirable consequence that could develop from such a possible situation." (From the book: "The Politics of labour and Development in Trinidad" by Ray Kiely, 1996)
The PNM lost in May and again in July because it was out of touch with the people, had abused its stay in office and had become too deeply involved in corruption. It had nothing to do with demographics or Kamla's ethnicity.
The people of Trinidad and Tobago felt that they had enough of the PNM and made a conscious move to a party of the people. It was not an Indian party; it was a People's party. And that is why it won.
Yes, people of Indian origin voted as did tens of thousands of people of African origin along with every other race and nationality that make up the Trinidad and Tobago society.
And yes I agree with Dr Cudjoe that the people will judge the People's Partnership on its record in office. Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has made it clear in every important speech that she is committed to serving all the people unlike her immediate predecessor, Patrick Manning, who said publicly that his mission was to "take care of my people".
For the sake of democracy I hope the PNM rises from the ashes to be a forceful and responsible opposition. However, unless it changes its philosophy and becomes a true national movement in practice and in action, it will remain down.
Dr Cudjoe's statement that Indians will "bask in the glory of their triumph" demonstrates that he has missed the point altogether.
Indeed it is the population of Trinidad and Tobago - Indians et al - from Tobago to Barrackpore - that is basking in the People's Partnership triumph over a failed administration.
Dr Cudjoe states: "Given the development of a more sophisticated electorate, which is inevitable, and a more non-ethnic approach that will emerge among more citizens, ethnic sentiments will give way to national sentiments...".
Again he has missed the point. This has already happened. The People's Partnership came together, offered itself to the people as an alternative and it is because of their sophistication and disdain for race and ethnicity that the people discarded the PNM and embraced the coalition.
The map of Trinidad and Tobago turned yellow on May 24 not because of Indians but because of a leadership that comprised the best political minds in the country, including non-Indians like Errol McLeod, Ashworth Jack, Makandal Daaga and Jack Warner.
We have grown up; we have matured. And we will not return to the politics of race.
And if the PNM wants to return to the game, it must embrace all the people in the same manner as the People's Partnership did. Kamla and her colleagues have demonstrated that Trinidad and Tobago belongs to all of us and the days of race, and rum and roti politics are gone forever.
Jai Parasram
1 comment:
An excellent artical, Jai, Thank you.
As one that came to Trinidad first, as a business visitor, in the late 1990's and has worked and done business in the country for much of the time since, I see irrefutable accuracy and logic in your commentary.
It was from my first visit a country where one was constantly made aware of the fact that there were to a large extent the two key ethnicities, African and Indian.
And to an extent that was always present and noticeable, there were constantly derogatory attitudes and comments being expressed by each, about the other.
I would not say that this reflected a majority opinion on either side, but a sufficiently vocal minority that the undercurrent was ever present.
It was unreasonable to expect that a supposed democratic system of government could ever reach it's needed potential, in terms of the advancement of the country and all its population, when at elections each of these two sides voted along "tribal" lines.
And it occured to me several times, as one that has through the yeasr travelled and done business in numerous countries and cultures, that it is always potentially a very short step to where countries like many of the continental african countries have gone in the last 100 years. Think Uganda, think Rwanda.
It is to me a hugely positive step forwards, that T&T has voted now twice in as many months, substantially along "non ethnic" lines.
Credit needs to be given in very large measure to those at the respective helms of the various components of the PP. And of course to the key few that first identified the real need for that kind of combined team.
A team with the sole focus of tangibly developing the country and moving forwards as one nation.
However, let us not overlook or fail to acknowledge the vitally important contribution of the last PNM leadership.
If it had not been for their collective arrogance, the vast groundswell of corruption and cronyism, and their near complete indifference to anything that they felt did not benefit themselves first and foremost, then frankly, I doubt the transition to a government OF ALL the people BY the people would have been possible.
The recent PNM has so much to be thanked for in this context.
We just know, don't we, that whether it was people turning out to vote that ordinarily do not vote, just because they'd had enough, or the fervent "PNM til ah dead" loyalists that came to realise just how completely unimportant they each were to the party that they were loyal to, and had faith in, this change would likely not have happened without PNM.
In the was that I felt Panday was essentially Mannings best friend and ally, without whom the PNM would not have been in power, similarly now Manning has, by default, contributed a great deal to the PP's success.
Post a Comment